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Christopher Tolkien, Keeper of His Father’s Legacy, Dies at 95 Christopher Tolkien, Keeper of His Father’s Legacy, Dies at 95
(32 minutes later)
Christopher Tolkien, the son of the writer J.R.R. Tolkien who guarded his legacy and brought forth monumental posthumous works like “The Silmarillion,” a collection of his father’s writings, died on Wednesday in France. He was 95. Christopher Tolkien, the son of the writer J.R.R. Tolkien, who guarded his legacy and brought forth monumental posthumous works, like “The Silmarillion,” based on his father’s writings, died on Wednesday in Provence, France. He was 95.
His death was confirmed by Daniel Klass, Mr. Tolkien’s brother-in-law. His death was confirmed by Daniel Klass, his brother-in-law.
Long after his father died in 1973, Mr. Tolkien worked to keep alive the stories and characters that he created in “The Hobbit” (1937) and “The Lord of the Rings” (1949). For nearly 50 years after his father died in 1973, Mr. Tolkien worked to keep alive the world he created in “The Hobbit” (1937) and “The Lord of the Rings” (1949) — the spiders of Mirkwood, the Eye of Mordor, the elves of Rivendell and thousands of pages worth of other characters, places and plot twists. In all, he edited or oversaw the publication of two dozen editions of his father’s works, many of which became international best sellers.
He was his father’s literary executor but played a far more expansive role than that title usually implies. While Tolkien was writing “Lord of the Rings,” he was also creating a vast world of legends and mythologies that he meant to accompany the book. But Tolkien was a notorious perfectionist and never able to put this world in publishable form before he died. He was his father’s literary executor but played a far more expansive role than that title usually implies. While the elder Tolkien was writing “The Lord of the Rings,” he was also creating a vast world of legends and mythologies that he had hoped would accompany the book. But he was a notorious perfectionist and was never able to put this work in publishable form before he died.
His son spent four years organizing and compiling the myths and legends that his father had created and produced them in 1977 as “The Silmarillion.” His son spent four years organizing and compiling those myths and legends and produced them in 1977 as “The Silmarillion.”
“This opened up a wealth and depth of Tolkien’s imaginative world that was breathtaking,” Corey Olsen, a Tolkien expert, said in an interview.“This opened up a wealth and depth of Tolkien’s imaginative world that was breathtaking,” Corey Olsen, a Tolkien expert, said in an interview.
But Tolkien fans and scholars wondered how much of “The Silmarillion” had been the work of the father and the work of the son, said Mr. Olsen, who is president of the online university Signum, which specializes in Tolkien studies. But Tolkien fans and scholars wondered how much of “The Silmarillion” was the work of the father and how much was the work of the son, said Mr. Olsen, the president of the American online university Signum, which specializes in Tolkien studies.
In response, Christopher produced the 12-volume “History of Middle-earth” (1996), a compilation of drafts, fragments, rewrites, notes in margins and other unpublished material his father had written. In response, Christopher produced the 12-volume “The History of Middle-earth” (1996), a compilation of drafts, fragments, rewrites, marginal notes and other writings culled from 70 boxes of unpublished material, to demonstrate that virtually everything he had published had come from his father’s hand.
“Christopher showed how his father’s ideas grew and developed over time,” Mr. Olsen said. The volumes reveal not just Tolkien’s mind at work, he said, but provide a case study of the creative process. “Christopher showed how his father’s ideas grew and developed over time,” Mr. Olsen said. The volumes did not just reveal J.R.R. Tolkien’s mind at work, he said; they also provided a case study in the creative process.
Christopher is also credited with creating the widely acclaimed 1954 map of Middle-earth, the land in which the sprawling stories were set, that is now held by the British Library. Christopher Tolkien is also credited with creating the widely acclaimed 1954 map of Middle-earth, the land in which the sprawling stories were set; a copy is now held by the British Library.
Like his father, an Oxford linguist, Mr. Tolkien spent much of his life devoted to, and surrounded by, books. Both men were scholars of Old and Middle English and both lectured at Oxford. But while the elder Tolkien was a specialist in Chaucer and Anglo-Saxon sagas, the younger editor was an authority, above all, on the reams of writing that his father produced. “Without Christopher,” Thomas Shippey, a British professor who has been writing and lecturing on Tolkien for 50 years, said in an interview, “we would have very little knowledge of how Tolkien created his mythology and his own legendarium.”
“He has been treating this extraordinary archive as if it had been discovered in a sealed tomb,” the Houghton Mifflin editor Austin Olney said after meeting Mr. Tolkien at his home in England around 1980. By then, Mr. Tolkien had published almost a million hardcover copies of “The Silmarillion” and several more books were about to emerge from the vaults. Like his father, an Oxford linguist, Mr. Tolkien spent much of his life devoted to books, and surrounded by them. Both men were scholars of Old and Middle English, and both lectured at Oxford. But while the elder Tolkien was a specialist in Chaucer and Anglo-Saxon sagas, the younger was an authority, above all, on the reams of writing that his father produced.
For decades, Mr. Tolkien continued finding new work to exhume — and annotate — most recently a romance written as epic poems in 2017 and “The Fall of Gondolin” in 2018. “He has been treating this extraordinary archive as if it had been discovered in a sealed tomb,” the Houghton Mifflin editor Austin Olney said after meeting Mr. Tolkien at his home in England. By then, almost a million hardcover copies of “The Silmarillion” had been published, and several more books were about to emerge from the vault.
Tolkien fans responded on social media to the news of Mr. Tolkien’s death with an outpouring of emotion and gratitude for his devotion to completing the picture of the world that his father set out to create. His brother-in-law, Mr. Klass, described Mr. Tolkien as extraordinarily disciplined. He said he would lock himself in his office early in the morning and not emerge until lunchtime.
“Takes a humble man to dedicate his life to someone else’s work,” wrote one person on Twitter. “I think of all the books that might never have been published without Christopher’s input. Some of those books define how we now view the professor’s legacy.” “His life’s work was to convert this huge mass of material written on envelopes and napkins in his father’s unreadable handwriting,” Mr. Klass said.
Though the tales of Middle-earth waxed and waned in popularity, they were all but cemented in popular culture in the 2000s, with film adaptations that garnered Academy Awards and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues. The movies were not the first adaptations, but they helped bring the stories to a new audience. And their success has in part inspired a forthcoming series on Amazon — the rights to which reportedly cost $200 million. Tolkien fans responded on social media to the news of Mr. Tolkien’s death with an outpouring of emotion.
But even as Mr. Tolkien burnished his father’s legacy and brought it into the 21st century, he could be intensely protective of it. In 2012, the Tolkien estate filed an $80 million lawsuit against Warner Bros. over the digital merchandising of products from “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit.” The suit accused the company of causing harm to Tolkien’s legacy, and was eventually settled on undisclosed terms. “Takes a humble man to dedicate his life to someone else’s work,” one person wrote on Twitter. “I think of all the books that might never have been published without Christopher’s input. Some of those books define how we now view the professor’s legacy.”
Last year, the Tolkien estate disavowed a film based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s life and experience in World War I, saying the family did “not approve of, authorize or participate” in the project. (The younger Mr. Tolkien served with the Royal Air Force in World War II and was stationed in South Africa, according to the Tolkien Society.) Christopher Tolkien was born in Leeds, England, on Nov. 21, 1924, the third and youngest son of J.R.R. and Edith Mary (Bratt) Tolkien.
Christopher Tolkien was born in Leeds, England, on Nov. 21, 1924. For a time he was a sickly child and often stayed at home, giving him and his father a chance to develop a close working relationship. The writer often read to his son, and the son offered encouragement and soon became his father’s assistant and one of his earliest readers.
Later in life, Mr. Tolkien became a French citizen and lived a private life with his second wife, Baillie Tolkien, at the foothills of the Alps in southeastern France. Christopher Tolkien once said he grew up in the world his father created. “For me,” he said, “the cities of ‘The Silmarillion’ are more real than Babylon.”
In addition to Ms. Tolkien, he is survived by his sister Priscilla and three children, Simon, Adam and Rachel. During World War II, when Christopher was serving with the Royal Air Force in South Africa, his father mailed him parts of “The Lord of the Rings” for comment and editing.
Speaking by phone on Thursday, Mr. Klass said he always admired his brother-in-law’s work ethic and devotion to completing his father’s work.“A person of his substance and his character will leave a huge hole in a lot of people’s lives,” he said. Though the tales of Middle-earth waxed and waned in popularity, they were all but cemented in popular culture in the 2000s, with film adaptations that garnered Academy Awards and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues. Those movies were not the first adaptations, but they helped bring the stories to a new audience. And their success has in part inspired a forthcoming series on Amazon — the rights to which reportedly cost $200 million.
Even as Mr. Tolkien burnished his father’s legacy and brought it into the 21st century, he could be intensely protective of it. In 2012, the Tolkien estate filed an $80 million lawsuit against Warner Bros. over the digital merchandising of characters from “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit.” The suit accused the company of causing harm to the Tolkien legacy. It was eventually settled on undisclosed terms.
Last year, the Tolkien estate disavowed a film based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s life and experience in World War I, saying the family did “not approve of, authorize or participate” in the project.
Later in life, Mr. Tolkien became a French citizen and lived a private life with his second wife, Baillie Tolkien, in the foothills of the Alps in southeastern France.
In addition to Ms. Tolkien, survivors include his sister Priscilla and three children, Simon, Adam and Rachel.
For decades, Mr. Tolkien continued finding new work to exhume, and annotate — most recently a romance written as a series of epic poems in 2017 and “The Fall of Gondolin” in 2018.
Despite the voluminous amount of unpublished work that Mr. Tolkien brought to light, some Tolkien enthusiasts hoped there might still be more.
“While Tolkien was very poor at finishing things, he also never threw anything away, so we don’t know what’s still unpublished,” Mr. Shippey, the British scholar, said. “There may be some surprises yet.”
Emily S. Rueb contributed reporting, and Alain Delaquérière contributed research.Emily S. Rueb contributed reporting, and Alain Delaquérière contributed research.