The son of J.R.R. Tolkien did far more than just compile and edit his father’s unfinished stories. He helped create the world of Middle Earth.
He had a difficult job to do; he admitted there were various inconsistencies in the works, as his father’s vision morphed over the decades. I appreciate that he shared those works with us regardless; he did his father proud!
Read “Lord of the Rings” trilogy for the first time when I was 15 years old, then “The Hobbit” afterwards. Re-read both of those books many times since. Still have my old dog-eared Ballantine paperback versions. Read “The Silmarillion” later on as well.
One of the greatest tales ever told, IMHO, created by a true genius.
Enjoyed Peter Jackson’s film rendering as well, though Same and Frodo were always whining and crying a bit too much. :^)
Jackson got the Orcs and Uruk-Hai down perfectly, though...
“It’s a remarkable thing for a son to realize the unique genius of his father and, instead of trading on that genius to advance his own career and fortune, choose to dedicate his life to the stewardship and advancement of his father’s work. It is hard to imagine the son of a famous man doing that today, which makes the humility and filial devotion of Christopher Tolkien all the more remarkable.”
Thank God for Christopher Tolkien. RIP
As far back as I can remember my mother read this series every year. She passed away in 1999. I’ve been continuing that tradition. I’m now finishing up The King Returns. .Ive probably read it 8 times. Our son first read it when he was 12.
Cool!
What a perfect, beautiful eulogy.
J.R.R. Tolkien essentially invented "worldbuilding" in its modern sense, and no one has ever done it better. For one thing, elaborate worldbuilding requires great length. Unless one has commercial success in the early stages, sustaining such a work of fiction over multiple volumes and decades is a work that very few would attempt. And then it takes a rare combination of talents to pull it off: the imagination to conjure a plausible, very different but internally consistent world; the writing ability to bring it to life; and the discipline to adhere to the internal logic and avoid going "superhero" with the leading characters. Even Tolkien wasn't perfect on that score; one is entitled to wince every time he writes his heroes into a doomed situation and the eagles show up out of nowhere to bail them out.
A few of the science fiction greats also pulled this off, and the great contemporary example is G.R.R. Martin. The Game of Thrones devolution in the last seasons of the tv show is a perfect example of what happens when the tight discipline of the books was lost and the showrunners collapsed into comic book superhero shortcuts. Peter Jackson's mishandling of the LOTR and The Hobbit are another example.
[Internal discipline is especially tricky in managing magical worlds. The magic needs a coherent internal structure, so it requires a backstory. It must remain predictable on its own terms, so game-changing surprises aren't being pulled out of the hat in an arbitrary way; the key elements need to be established early. And it must be constrained enough to give the human characters real agency. It's a difficult balance to maintain.]
Christopher added immeasurably to the depth of the worldbuilding by brining the Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and History of Middle Earth to publication. We may never see the like again, as technology has moved on and modern audiences lack patience and are too attuned to visual presentations.
A mutual labor of love, shared between father and son.
Each, an homage to the other.
How beautiful.
Marker