Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Christopher Tolkien: 11/21/1924 – 1/15/2020
Christopher Tolkien has died at the age of 95 after dedicating the latter part of his life to protecting and advancing his famous father’s, J.R.R. Tolkien’s, literary legacy. He’s recognized as the “editor” of The Silmarillion but, in the opinion of people much more expert than I on the subject of Middle Earth mythology, he was much more than that. He’s more akin to a co-creator to the most popular work of English fiction in the 20th century. He began his collaboration with his father in his teens, helping to point out inconsistencies in the narrative and even drew the maps which would adorn the publication of the Lord of the Rings trilogy originally published in 1954. He gave up his career as an Oxford professor at age 50 to study and organize the copious notes his father left, illuminating the fascinating 60-year creative process in a four-part series on The History of The Lord of the Rings. There’s something very Samwise Gamgee about such filial love and dedication.
My own history with the Tolkiens is much more recent. I didn’t become interested in Tolkien’s work until the Peter Jackson movies were released. I’m not much of a fiction reader anyway, but when my parish offered a class on the trilogy, I jumped in.
“The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like ‘religion’, to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism.” — J.R.R. Tolkien
I finished reading The Lord of the Rings in the summer of 2018. It was timely because, as luck would have it, our trip to the UK that fall included a stop in Oxford to visit the famed Bodleian Library (used as inspiration for the set in the Harry Potter movies, of which my girls are tremendous fans). However, we arrived just a few minutes too late to gain entrance and so ended up visiting the Weston Library across the street, which happened to have an exhibit of Tolkien’s original writings, response letters to fans, and artwork, including copies of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in translations of languages from every corner of the world. It was there I learned Tolkien wrote an epilogue to LotR, but it was displayed only in his handwriting in the elvish language and in English in elvish characters, neither of which I could read! That set me on a quest that landed on Christopher Tolkien’s History of the LotR, Part 4, The End of the Third Age. The epilogue, which is Sam’s story after the epic events with Frodo and his return to the Shire and family life, is published at the end of that volume.
The Silmarillion became my project for the summer of 2019. I admit to struggling with it. Tolkien seemed to have five names for every character and locale in the book and, well, my senior middle-aged brain had trouble keeping it all straight.
My favorite relationship, and, really, the most important aspect of any fiction (and life) is the relationships between characters, is still Samwise and Frodo’s friendship. In my parish’s class, we learned that three of the characters compose the Christ figure: Frodo as the priest (offering the sacrifice), Gandalf as the prophet, and Aragorn as the king. But, Sam is the one who touches me most deeply. His unfailing love and humble service to his friend has something to teach us all. Christopher Tolkien seemed to have learned the lesson well. RIP.
Published in General
I have never been a huge Tolkien fan although my son has read LoTR, Silmarillion, Hobbit. I had tried the Hobbit 50 years ago and just could not read it. I was thinking it would be like the Narnia books and, not being much of a fantasy fan to begin with, never tried it again. Having converted to Catholicism and seen the movies (and being shamed by said son), I decided I really needed to try again. I have now read the Hobbit (and wonder why I didn’t like it the first time) and part 1 of LoTR. Part 2 will be part of my Lenten reading this year. I appreciate all that Christopher Tolkien did to further his father’s writings. I so agree with @bartholomewxerxesogilviejr that this was at least the work of two lifetimes.
So would, in the late 1960s, having had the hots for a buxom girl who called herself “Arwen” and had taught herself Quenya.
Great points. Don’t get me started.
I suppose that one could argue that both Aragorn and Faramir were just too good in the books. They really didn’t have any weaknesses or indecision, to the best of my recollection.
I read LOTR for the first time in high school in the late 60’s, and have probably reread it a dozen times. I have to admit that, in the later readings, I skipped Frodo and Sam’s journey to Mordor. Most of the rest of the books were so exciting, and that journey was so slow.
Christopher Tolkien was a strict curator of his father’s work. I remember hearing a story where an artist was depicting a scene from The Silmarillion and Christopher told him to redo it as he put the stairs on the wrong side. Some would see this as nitpicky, but it keep depictions true to the source for some time. He set that curation aside a few years back and I doubt anyone is concerned for the details as he was.
I liked Frodo and Sam’s journey…. especially when they got separated. But my favorite scene since I first read it as a girl of 12 or so has always remained Eowyn killing the Witch King. My copy of the book just falls open to that chapter because I’ve read it so many times. I don’t know why. I just love it.
Nonsense, The Hobbit was far and away the best film adaptation of Tolkien’s work!
I missed the notice of his passing on the fifteenth–this article is the first word I’ve seen. As fate would have it, I recently finished re-reading the trilogy–on the fifteenth. /:
I was saddened when he stepped down, as it seemed to be the passing of an age. As such things go, I’m more inclined to celebrate his life than mourn its not-untimely end.
And proceed to re-read the Silmarillion.
One of my favorite stories.
Coincidentally, the woman who facilitated our class (a great, dedicated instructor and student of all things Catholic, including Tolkien) lost her husband in his sleep, suddenly and unexpectedly — on the 15th.
I read the first half of most of them. I never could get thru more than a few dozen pages in each book of Christopher notes (about half of each book were JR writings, the later half were Christopher’s notes on the stories or comments on JR’s notes). To boring. However, if I wanted to be a writer of Fantasy. I would say his notes in the 12 Volume series, are a must read on how to construct a fantasy world. No better work on the process than his writings (the little of them I have read).
I own but haven’t read The Children of Hurin. Did any of you read it and enjoy it?
I’m sorry to say that it sits unread on my shelf. But I found it really cheap at a used bookstore, and couldn’t pass it up.
If you’ve read The Silmarillion, then you’ve pretty much read it. The Children of Hurin is a slightly different version of part of that book.
Wasn’t it a rabbit drawn sled?
Both.
I’ve read it. I think it is a good adaptation of the tale, which comes in several forms through out Tolkiens works. The Silmarilion gives us the synopsis version as edited by Christopher, and in the Lays of Belleriand we get a version of the story written by Tolkien in alliterative verse. This version is by far the most accessible and detailed version of the story. Drawing from all the various parts of the lore that Christopher Tolkien had to create an actual novelization. It isn’t terribly long, and does not read like LOTR but it is a good story. I would say it has the feel of a modern translation of an Arthurian tale. I happen to personally like that sort of thing. If you are looking for a real heavy piece of fantasy writing this isn’t really it. In many ways none of it can be without taking on the task of greatly expanding and even altering the original work, which clearly isn’t Christophers intention in any of this. I think my favorite version though is the verse form. It certainly is the most creative.
you know it isn’t very long. Basically a good afternoons worth. If even that depending on how fast you read. I happen to be kind of a slow reader when it comes to books I read for pleasure. I also know that Christopher also published the Tale of Beren and Luthien in a similar format.
Again I would say the most fun versions are found in Lays of Beleriand where both stories are available in verse form. With the Tale of Beren and Luthien being in a more traditional (for us that is) sonnate form, while the Tale of the Children of Hurin is in alliterative verse (like Beowulf). OF these my favorite in the Tale of Beren and Luthien because one of these chapters is the duel between Fingolfin and Morgoth put down in verse form, and that is the kind of stuff really gets my nerd heart pumping.
There will never be a better opportunity for me to share this bit of silliness…
Sometime back in the 1990s, I was sitting in the cafeteria at work, reading The Lays of Beleriand. I had been working on it for a while, so my brain was thoroughly steeped in that verse style.
As I sat there reading, someone near me spilled a drink. And that made me remember a recent occasion when I had spilled my drink in the same cafeteria. And instead of thinking “Oh, yeah, that happened to me once,” this is what ran through my head:
It is nice to imagine one’s own life as an epic poem. I am glad that my story has, on balance, been happier than most of the ones Tolkien recounts from the First Age.
There’s an Audible version read by Christopher Lee.