I just saw the news that Christopher Tolkien passed away today at the age of 95. The gratitude that I feel towards him for the tireless work that he did bringing as much of his father's work to light as possible cannot be stated, and I will not try.

Rest in peace, and thank you.

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In gratitude forever … .

Oh!

Rest In Peace, Christopher Tolkien.

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*title copyright: Teremia

'You just said "your getting shorter": you've obviously been drinking too much ent-draught and not enough Prim's.' - Jude

I just saw this, too, and came here to make sure people had been informed.

Rest in peace, Christopher. And thank you for everything you did to celebrate your father's work!

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When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.

Taken the ships to meet his father. All speed, Christopher.

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The dumbest thing I've ever bought
was a 2020 planner.

"Does anyone ever think about Denethor, the guy driven to madness by staying up late into the night alone in the dark staring at a flickering device he believed revealed unvarnished truth about the outside word, but which in fact showed mostly manipulated media created by a hostile power committed to portraying nothing but bad news framed in the worst possible way in order to sap hope, courage, and the will to go on? Seems like he's someone we should think about." - Dave_LF

We all owe a great deal to this man. A passing of an era.

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Dark have been my dreams of late.

Considering that The Hobbit was originally written in part for him...truly the end of a fellowship.

RIP. Gratitude for all of Christopher's work and I'll echo a beautiful sentiment; truly the end of a fellowship. Namárië

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My heart is forever in the Shire.

Rest in peace and thank you.

My obsession with J.r.r would not be what it is without Christopher. I always said one of the first people I want to talk with in heaven is J.R.R Tolkien and C.S lewis. I think Christopher might not be to far down the list. Was this the last living Inkling?

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“I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size). I like gardens, trees and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food (unrefrigerated), but detest French cooking; I like, and even dare to wear in these dull days, ornamental waistcoats. I am fond of mushrooms (out of a field); have a very simple sense of humour (which even my appreciative critics find tiresome); I go to bed late and get up late.”
-J.R.R Tolkien

Yes, he was the last living Inkling (all of the other Inklings were roughly in his father's generation).

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In gratitude forever … .

Not only was he the last living Inkling, he was also (as John Rateliff points out in his blog post) one of the last living combat veterans of World War II.

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In gratitude forever … .

Wow. Quite an accomplished life. In many ways.

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My heart is forever in the Shire.

A very nice obituary from the great John Garth.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/ ... xVIdXvo7WY

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In gratitude forever … .

Just saw the Guardian obituary today. Easy to forget that Christopher was an accomplished scholar in his own right even outside anything to do with Middle Earth, e.g. his translations from Icelandic. I admit my view on him has evolved over the years. When the LotR films came out I thought his reaction extreme; by the time I had seen the second Hobbit film I was entirely sympathetic to his position. For anyone who can read French or is willing to use Google translate, there's a lengthy interview within him published in Le Monde here.

What now for the Tolkien estate?

When we look at Dune and how Frank Herbert's son Brian has handled the legacy, we can see how differently it could have gone and should be very grateful we got Christopher.

In partnership with Kevin J. Anderson, Brian Herbert has written thirteen prequels, sequels, and interquels so far (there are only six original Dune novels by Frank! With a likely seventh planned). All this is allegedly "based on his father's notes", which no one has seen and might never be released - whatever is in them, we can be sure he's added quite a lot of his own ideas.

The contrast with Christopher's very restrained and conservative approach is stark. The 1977 Silmarillion is the most "creative" he ever got.

Túrin, Christopher has already resigned as a Director of the Tolkien Estate several years ago, just as the Amazon series was announced.

k_z, I'm a huge fan of Frank Herbert's Dune books, including the later three that many people seem not to like. It took me less than five minutes to put down one of the "prequels" in disgust.

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In gratitude forever … .

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The Vinyamars on Stage! This time at Bag End

True, but I couldn't imagine that he didn't have influence over major decisions in retirement.

Great point k_z.

Just stopping by to add my 2c. What a debt we owe this man and what a mare's nest of knitting he had to unpick.

Back in the days of full on Tolkien nerdery on TORC I posted a detailed description of how JRRT created no less than four versions of what Eluréd and Elurín (the twin sons of Dior) were (twins, not twins, back to twins again, different histories etc. etc.). No real indication of what his final thoughts were.

Poor old CJRT had to pick one of the four. I suppose no worse a dilemma than many of the other Silmarillion editorial decisions he had to make. But at least he had the guts to do it.

I know we don't all approve or agree with all his editiorial decisions but give him credit, he got JRRT's "the work of his heart" out there as probably no-one else could have done.

Truth.

And so very good to see you Scirocco.

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

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Mornings wouldn't suck so badly if they came later in the day.