Editing Christopher Tolkien (section)

== Career ==

Tolkien was for a long time part of the critical audience for his father's fiction, first as a child listening to tales of [[Bilbo Baggins]] (published as ''[[The Hobbit]]''), and then as a teenager and young adult offering feedback on ''The Lord of the Rings'' throughout its 15-year gestation.<ref name="McIlwaine 2022 Intro"/> He also redrew his father's working maps for inclusion in ''The Lord of the Rings''.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Campbell |first=Alice |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |title=Maps |encyclopedia=[[The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia|The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment]] |year=2013 |orig-year=2007 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-86511-1 |pages=405–408}}</ref> His father invited him to join [[the Inklings]], a literary discussion group, when Christopher was 21 years old. His father called this "a quite unprecedented honour".<ref name="McIlwaine 2022 Intro"/> He became a lecturer in English language at [[St Catherine's Society, Oxford]] in 1954.<ref name="McIlwaine 2022 Intro"/>

Away from his father's writings, he published ''[[Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks|The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise]]'': "Translated from the [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]] with Introduction, Notes and Appendices by Christopher Tolkien" in 1960.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tolkien |first=Christopher |year=1960 |title=The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise; translated from the Icelandic with introduction, notes and appendices |location=London |publisher=[[Thomas Nelson (publisher)|Thomas Nelson and Sons]] |oclc=1116195085}}</ref> Later, he followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a lecturer and tutor in English language at [[New College, Oxford]] in 1963.<ref name="McIlwaine 2022 Intro"/><ref name="RoutledgeEncyc">{{cite web |url=http://cw.routledge.com/ref/tolkien/ctolkien.html |title=Tolkien, Christopher Reuel |publisher=[[Routledge]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407080758/http://cw.routledge.com/ref/tolkien/ctolkien.html |archive-date=7 April 2014 |access-date=16 April 2016 }}</ref> 

In 1967 his father named him as his literary executor, and more specifically as his co-author of ''[[The Silmarillion]]''. After his father's death in 1973, he took a large quantity of [[legendarium]] manuscripts to his Oxfordshire home<!--[[West Hanney]]-->, where he converted a barn into a workspace. He and the young [[Guy Gavriel Kay]] started work on the documents, discovering by 1975 how complex the task was likely to be. In September 1975 he resigned from New College to work exclusively on editing his father's writings. He moved to France and continued this task for 45 years.<ref name="McIlwaine 2022 Intro"/> In all, he edited and published 24 volumes of his father's writings, most of them to do with the Middle-earth legendarium.<ref name="McIlwaine Timeline and Bibliog">{{harvnb|Ovenden|McIlwaine|2022|pp=26–27 "Timeline"}}</ref>

In 2016 Christopher won a [[Bodley Medal]], an award that recognises outstanding contributions to literature, culture, science, and communication.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.thebookseller.com/news/christopher-tolkien-awarded-bodley-medal-424211 |title=Christopher Tolkien awarded the Bodley Medal |last=Onwuemezi |first=Natasha |date=31 October 2016 |website=www.thebookseller.com |access-date=3 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104075133/http://www.thebookseller.com/news/christopher-tolkien-awarded-bodley-medal-424211 |archive-date=4 November 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>

He served as chairman of the [[Tolkien Estate]], the entity formed to handle the business side of his father's literary legacy, and as a trustee of the Tolkien Charitable Trust. He resigned as director of the estate in 2017.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.slashfilm.com/christopher-tolkien-resigns/ |title=Christopher Tolkien Resigns From the Tolkien Estate – Does This Mean More 'Lord of the Rings' Movies and Shows? |last=Hall |first=Jacob |date=15 November 2017 |website=[[/Film]] |access-date=16 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180119094538/http://www.slashfilm.com/christopher-tolkien-resigns/ |archive-date=19 January 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref>