Editing Christopher Tolkien

{{Short description|British book editor (1924–2020)}}
{{good article}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2013}} 
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Infobox writer 
| image            = Christopher John Reuel Tolkien 2019.jpg
| caption          = Tolkien in 2019
| birth_name       = Christopher John Reuel Tolkien
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|df=yes|1924|11|21}}
| birth_place      = [[Leeds]], England
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2020|01|16|1924|11|21}}
| death_place      = [[Draguignan]], France
| occupation       = {{hlist||Editor|illustrator|academic}}
| genre            = [[Fantasy literature|Fantasy]]
| alma_mater       = {{Nowrap|[[Trinity College, Oxford]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]], [[Bachelor of Letters|BLitt]])}}
| spouse           = {{marriage|Faith Faulconbridge|2 April 1951|1967|end=divorced}}<br/>{{marriage|[[Baillie Tolkien|Baillie Klass]]|1967}}
| parents          = {{ubl|[[J. R. R. Tolkien]] (father)| [[Edith Tolkien]] (mother)}}
| children         = 3, including [[Simon Tolkien|Simon]] and [[Adam Tolkien|Adam]]
| relatives        = {{ubl|[[Hilary Tolkien]] (uncle)|[[John Tolkien (priest)|John Tolkien]] (brother)|[[Priscilla Tolkien]] (sister)}}
| awards           = [[Bodley Medal]] (2016)
}}

'''Christopher John Reuel Tolkien''' (21 November 1924 – 16 January 2020) was an English and naturalised French academic editor and writer. The son of the author and academic [[J. R. R. Tolkien]], Christopher edited 24 volumes based on his father's [[Posthumous work|posthumously]] published work, including ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' and the 12-volume series ''[[The History of Middle-Earth]]'', a task that took 45 years. He also drew the original [[Tolkien's maps|maps]] for his father's fantasy novel ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''.

Outside his father's unfinished works, Christopher edited three tales by [[Geoffrey Chaucer]] (with [[Nevill Coghill]]) and his father's translation of ''[[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]]''. Tolkien scholars have remarked that he used his skill as a [[Philology|philologist]], demonstrated in his editing of those medieval works, to research, collate, edit, and comment on his father's Middle-earth writings exactly as if they were real-world legends. The effect is both to frame his father's works and to insert himself as a narrator. They have further noted that his additions to ''The Silmarillion'', such as to fill in gaps, and his composition of the text in his own literary style, place him as an author as well as an editor of that book.

== Early life and education ==

Christopher Tolkien was born on 21 November 1924 in [[Leeds]], England,<ref name="BBC 2020">{{cite news |date=16 January 2020 |title='First Middle-earth scholar' Christopher Tolkien dies |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-51143879 |work=[[BBC News]] |access-date=17 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200116224939/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-51143879 |archive-date=16 January 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/books/christopher-tolkien-dead.html |title=Christopher Tolkien, keeper of his father's legacy, dies at 95 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=16 January 2020}}</ref> the third of four children and the youngest son of [[J. R. R. Tolkien|J. R. R.]] and [[Edith Tolkien]] (''née'' Bratt).<ref name="Guardian 2020">{{cite news |last=Slawson |first=Nicola |date=16 January 2020 |title=JRR Tolkien's son Christopher dies aged 95 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/16/jrr-tolkiens-son-christopher-dies-aged-95 |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=17 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200117154518/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/16/jrr-tolkiens-son-christopher-dies-aged-95 |archive-date=17 January 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref> He was educated at the [[Dragon School]] in [[Oxford]], and later at the Roman Catholic [[The Oratory School|Oratory School]] near [[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]].<ref name="Drout 2007">{{cite book |last=Honegger |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Honegger |chapter=Tolkien, Christopher Reuel |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael Drout |title=The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment |title-link=The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |date=2007 |pages=663–665 |isbn=978-0-4159-6942-0 }}</ref>

He won a place to study English at [[Trinity College, Oxford]], still aged 17, but after a year and a half there he received his call-up papers for military service. He joined the [[Royal Air Force]] in July 1943 and at the start of 1944 was sent to South Africa for flight training. He gained his "wings" as a fighter pilot and was [[commissioned officer|commissioned]] in January 1945. He was given a posting back in England in February 1945, at [[Market Drayton]] in Shropshire. In June 1945 he switched to the [[Fleet Air Arm]]. While still in the service, he resumed his degree in April 1946; he was demobilised at the end of that year. He took his B.A. in 1948, and his [[Bachelor of Letters|B.Litt.]] in 1953 under the philologist [[Gabriel Turville-Petre]].<ref name="McIlwaine 2022 Intro"/>

== 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>

== Editorial work ==

=== The challenge of the legendarium ===

{{further|Tolkien's legendarium}}

{{Tolkien's legendarium|upright=2|caption=Navigable diagram of [[Tolkien's legendarium]]. Most of it is in ''The History of Middle-earth'', a 12-volume account of how J. R. R. Tolkien wrote ''The Silmarillion'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. It combines Christopher's editorial comments with his father's drafts, many of which were handwritten, sometimes partly-erased and often hard to decipher.<ref name="NYT 2020"/>}}
 
Tolkien wrote a great deal of material in the [[Middle-earth legendarium]] that remained unpublished in his lifetime. He had originally intended to publish ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' alongside ''The Lord of the Rings'' in the 1950s, but it was rejected by his publisher. Parts of it were in a finished state when he died in 1973, but the project was incomplete. He once called his son his "chief critic and collaborator", and named him his literary executor. Christopher organised the masses of his father's unpublished writings, some of them written on odd scraps of paper half a century earlier. Much of the material was handwritten; frequently a fair draft was written over a half-erased first draft, and names of characters routinely changed between the beginning and the end of the same draft.<ref name="NYT 2020"/> He explained:

{{blockquote|By the time of my father's death the amount of writing in existence on the subject of the [[History of Arda|Three Ages]] was huge in quantity (since it extended over a lifetime), disordered, more full of beginnings than of ends, and varying in content from heroic verse in the [[alliterative verse|ancient English alliterative metre]] to severe historical analysis of [[Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien|his own extremely difficult languages]]: a vast repository and labyrinth of story, [[Poetry in The Lord of the Rings|of poetry]], of philosophy, and [[Philology and Middle-earth|of philology]] ... To bring it into publishable form was a task at once utterly absorbing and alarming in its responsibility toward something that is unique.<ref name="McIlwaine 2022 Intro">[[Catherine McIlwaine|McIlwaine, Catherine]]. "Introduction" in {{harvnb|Ovenden|McIlwaine|2022|pp=7–10, 14–22}}</ref>}}

=== From ''The Silmarillion'' to ''The History of Middle-earth'' ===

{{further|The Silmarillion|The History of Middle-earth}}

Christopher and Kay produced a single-volume edition of ''The Silmarillion'' for publication in 1977.<ref name="NYT 2020"/> Its success led to the publication of ''[[Unfinished Tales]]'' in 1980, and then to the far larger project of ''[[The History of Middle-earth]]'' in 12 volumes between 1983 and 1996. Most of the original source-texts that Christopher used to construct ''The Silmarillion'' were published in this way. [[Charles Noad]] comments that the 12-volume ''History'' had done something that a putative single-volume edition of ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' with embedded commentary could not have achieved: it had changed people's perspective on Tolkien's Middle-earth writings, from being centred on ''The Lord of the Rings'' to what it had always been in Tolkien's mind: ''Silmarillion''-centred.<ref name="Noad 1994">{{cite journal |last=Noad |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Noad |title=[Untitled Review of ''[[The War of the Jewels]]''] |journal=[[Mallorn (journal)|Mallorn]] |issue=31 |year=1994 |pages=50–54 |jstor=45320384}}</ref> Noad adds that "The whole series of ''The History of Middle-earth'' is a tremendous achievement and makes a worthy and enduring testament to one man's creative endeavours and to another's explicatory devotion. It reveals far more about Tolkien's invented world than any of his readers in pre-''Silmarillion'' days could ever have imagined or hoped for."<ref name="Noad 1996">{{cite journal |last=Noad |first=Charles E. |title=[Untitled Review] |journal=[[Mallorn (journal)|Mallorn]] |issue=34 |year=1996 |pages=33–41 |jstor=45321696}}</ref>

=== "Great Tales" of the "Elder Days" ===

In April 2007, he published ''[[The Children of Húrin]]'', whose story his father had brought to a relatively complete stage between 1951 and 1957, but then abandoned. This was one of his father's earliest stories, its first version dating back to 1918; several versions are published in ''The Silmarillion'', ''Unfinished Tales'', and ''The History of Middle-earth''. ''The Children of Húrin'' is a synthesis of these and other sources. It, along with ''[[Beren and Lúthien]]'', published in 2017,<ref name="BBC Beren and Lúthien 2017">{{Cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-40109396 |title=JRR Tolkien book Beren and Lúthien published after 100 years |date=1 June 2017 |publisher=[[BBC]] |access-date=5 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170605022233/http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-40109396 |archive-date=5 June 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref> and ''[[The Fall of Gondolin]]'', published in 2018,<ref name="TolkienSociety2">{{cite news |url=https://www.tolkiensociety.org/2018/08/the-fall-of-gondolin-published/ |title=The Fall of Gondolin published |date=30 August 2018 |first=Daniel |last=Helen |publisher=[[Tolkien Society]] |access-date=20 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191208102521/https://www.tolkiensociety.org/2018/08/the-fall-of-gondolin-published/ |archive-date=8 December 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> constituted what J. R. R. Tolkien called the three "Great Tales" of the "Elder Days".<ref name="TolkienSociety100418">{{cite web |url=https://www.tolkiensociety.org/2018/04/the-fall-of-gondolin-to-be-published/ |title=The Fall of Gondolin to be published |date=10 April 2018 |first=Daniel |last=Helen |publisher=[[Tolkien Society]] |access-date=20 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180704153513/https://www.tolkiensociety.org/2018/04/the-fall-of-gondolin-to-be-published/ |archive-date=4 July 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Medieval works ===

Christopher edited some works by his father that were unconnected to the Middle-earth legendarium. ''[[The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún]]'' appeared in May 2009, a verse retelling of the Norse [[Völsung]] cycle, followed by ''[[The Fall of Arthur]]'' in May 2013,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/Titles/79908/the-fall-of-arthur-j-r-r-tolkien-9780007489947 |title=The Fall of Arthur – J.R.R. Tolkien |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511044715/http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/Titles/79908/the-fall-of-arthur-j-r-r-tolkien-9780007489947 |archive-date=11 May 2013 |access-date=23 May 2013 }}</ref> and by ''[[Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary]]'' in May 2014.<ref>{{cite news |last=Flood |first=Alison |title=JRR Tolkien translation of Beowulf to be published after 90-year wait |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/19/jrr-tolkien-beowulf-translation-published |access-date=7 December 2014 |date=19 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150119004230/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/19/jrr-tolkien-beowulf-translation-published |archive-date=19 January 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Raymond |first=Ken |title=Tolkien's 'Beowulf' battles critics |date=30 May 2014 |website=NewsOk.com |publisher=[[The Oklahoman]] |url=http://newsok.com/tolkiens-beowulf-battles-critics/article/4869349 |access-date=13 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150224215234/http://newsok.com/tolkiens-beowulf-battles-critics/article/4869349 |archive-date=24 February 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Opinions ==

=== Editor or author ===

{{further|Editorial framing of The Lord of the Rings}}

[[Vincent Ferré]] comments that early in the process of editing his father's unpublished writings, "the real nature of Christopher Tolkien's work was a matter of debate, before a more simplistic consensus began to prevail."<ref name="Ferré 2022"/> Christopher Tolkien explained in ''The Silmarillion''{{'s}} foreword in 1977 "I set myself therefore to work out a single text, selecting and arranging in such a way as seemed to me to produce the most coherent and internally self-consistent narrative."<ref name="Ferré 2022"/> In Ferré's opinion, "This choice remains one of his [most] distinctive marks on the book", noting that J. R. R. Tolkien had foreseen in a 1963 letter that the presentation of the stories "will need a lot of work ... the legends have to be worked over ... and made consistent ... and they have to be given some progressive shape."<ref name="Ferré 2022"/><ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#247 to Colonel Worksett, 20 September 1963}}</ref>

In 1981, the scholar of literature [[Randel Helms]], taking that statement as definitive of Christopher Tolkien's editorial, indeed authorial, intentions:<ref name="Ferré 2022"/> stated in terms that "''The Silmarillion'' in the shape that we have it [a single-volume narrative] is the invention of the son not the father".<ref name="Helms 1981">{{cite book |last=Helms |first=Randel |author-link=Randel Helms |title=Tolkien and the Silmarils |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |publication-place=Boston |date=1981 |isbn=978-0-395-29469-7 |page=93}}</ref> 

Christopher Tolkien disagreed, stating in the foreword to the 1983 ''[[The Book of Lost Tales]]'', that the outcome of his work had been "to add a further dimension of obscurity to ''The Silmarillion'', ... about the age of the work ... and about the degree of editorial intrusion and manipulation (or even invention), is a stumbling-block and a source of much misapprehension."<ref name="BOLT1 Foreword">{{harvnb|Tolkien|1983|pp=5–7 "Foreword"}}</ref> In the same foreword, while rebuffing Helms but without explaining why Helms's opinion was wrong,<ref name="Ferré 2022"/> Christopher Tolkien admitted that the wisdom of publishing ''The Silmarillion'' with (unlike ''The Lord of the Rings'') no [[Tolkien's frame stories|frame story]], "no suggestion of what it is and how (within the imagined world) it came to be", was "certainly debatable". He added "This I now think to have been an error."<ref name="BOLT1 Foreword"/> He noted, too, that the [[philologist]] and Tolkien scholar [[Tom Shippey]], in his book ''[[The Road to Middle-Earth|The Road to Middle-earth]]'', was "clearly reluctant to see [''The Silmarillion''] as other than a 'late' work, even the latest work of its author", i.e. that its text owes as much to Christopher Tolkien as to his father.<ref name="BOLT1 Foreword"/>{{efn|Shippey writes, for instance, that ''The Silmarillion'' was "[J. R. R. Tolkien's] last and boldest defiance of all the practitioners of 'lit.'."{{sfn|Shippey|2005|p=307}} }}

Ferré records that, much later, in 2012, Christopher Tolkien admitted "I had had to invent some passages",<ref name="Le Monde 2012"/> that he had had a dream that his father was anxiously searching for something, and that he had "realized in horror that it was ''The Silmarillion''."<ref name="Le Monde 2012">{{cite news |last=Rérolle |first=Raphaëlle |title=My Father's 'Eviscerated' Work - Son Of Hobbit Scribe J.R.R. Tolkien Finally Speaks Out |url=https://worldcrunch.com/culture-society/my-father39s-eviscerated-work-son-of-hobbit-scribe-jrr-tolkien-finally-speaks-out |work=[[Worldcrunch]] |date=7 July 2012 }}</ref> In Ferré's view, he should be thought of as "a writer in his own right, and not only as an 'editor' of his father's manuscripts". He gives two reasons for this: that ''The Silmarillion'' reveals his own writing style and "the choices he made in 'constructing'" the narrative; and that he had to devise parts of the story, both to fill gaps and when "threads were impossible to weave together".<ref name="Ferré 2022">[[Vincent Ferré|Ferré, Vincent]]. "The Son Behind the Father: Christopher Tolkien as a Writer", in {{harvnb|Ovenden|McIlwaine|2022|pp=53–69}}</ref>

Christopher Tolkien's editing of the 12 volumes of ''The History of Middle-earth'', using his skill as a philologist, created an editorial frame for his father's legendarium, and for the books derived from it. Ferré comments that this presented his father's writings as historical, a real set of legends from the past, in just the same way that his editing of ''[[The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays]]'' presented his father's essays as scholarly work.<ref name="Ferré 2022"/>

<gallery mode=packed widths=450 heights=300>
File:Editorial framing of The Monsters and The Critics.svg|Editorial framing of ''[[The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays]]'' by Christopher Tolkien presents it as a set of scholarly texts.<ref name="Ferré 2022"/>
File:Editorial framing of The History of Middle-earth.svg|Christopher Tolkien's editorial framing of the 12 volumes of ''The History of Middle-earth'' presents [[Tolkien's legendarium|his father's legendarium]], and the books derived from it, as a set of historic texts, analogous to the presentation of genuine scholarly works like ''The Monsters and The Critics''; and it creates a [[narrative voice]] throughout the series, a figure of Christopher Tolkien himself.<ref name="Ferré 2022"/>
</gallery>

=== Reaction to filmed versions ===

{{further|Peter Jackson's interpretation of The Lord of the Rings}}

In 2001 Christopher Tolkien expressed doubts over [[The Lord of the Rings (film series)|''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy]] directed by [[Peter Jackson]], questioning the [[Differences between The Lord of the Rings book and film series|viability of a film interpretation]] that retained the essence of the work, but stressed that this was just his opinion.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.xenite.org/faqs/lotr_movie/news_0000/472.html |title=Middle-earth & J.R.R. Tolkien Blog |website=Middle-earth & J.R.R. Tolkien Blog |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100625231031/http://www.xenite.org/faqs/lotr_movie/news_0000/472.html |archive-date=25 June 2010 |access-date=7 December 2014 }}</ref> In a 2012 interview with ''[[Le Monde]],'' he criticised the films, saying: "They gutted the book, making an [[action film]] for 15 to 25-year-olds."<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2012/07/05/tolkien-l-anneau-de-la-discorde_1729858_3246.html |title=Tolkien, l'anneau de la discorde |last=Raphaëlle Rérolle |newspaper=Le Monde.fr |access-date=7 December 2014 |date=5 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120709045110/http://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2012/07/05/tolkien-l-anneau-de-la-discorde_1729858_3246.html |archive-date=9 July 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 2008 he commenced legal proceedings against [[New Line Cinema]], which he claimed owed his family £80 million in unpaid royalties.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article3999008.ece |title=Hobbit movies meet dire foe in son of Tolkien |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615224143/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article3999008.ece |archive-date=15 June 2011 |work=[[The Sunday Times]] |date=25 May 2008}}</ref> In September 2009, he and New Line reached an undisclosed settlement, and he withdrew his legal objection to ''[[The Hobbit (film series)|The Hobbit]]'' films.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8245300.stm |title=Legal path clear for Hobbit movie |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090911095838/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8245300.stm |archive-date=11 September 2009 |work=[[BBC News]] |date=8 September 2009}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
{{Further|Tolkien family}}

Tolkien was married twice. He had two sons and one daughter. His first marriage in 1951 was to the sculptor Faith Lucy Tilly Faulconbridge (1928–2017). They separated in 1964, and divorced in 1967.<ref name="Times Obit">{{Cite web |title=Faith Tolkien Obituary (2017) - London Bridge, City of London - The Times |url=https://www.legacy.com/amp/obituaries/thetimes-uk/187107377 |access-date=20 October 2022 |website=www.legacy.com }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |date=2018 |title=In Memoriam |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/707029 |journal=Tolkien Studies |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=3–4 |doi=10.1353/tks.2018.0002}}</ref> Her work is featured in the [[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Faith Lucy Tilly Tolkien |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp61900/faith-lucy-tilly-tolkien |access-date=20 October 2022 |website=National Portrait Gallery}}</ref> Their son [[Simon Tolkien|Simon Mario Reuel Tolkien]] is a [[Barristers in England and Wales|barrister]] and novelist.<ref name="Times Obit"/>

He married [[Baillie Tolkien|Baillie Klass]] in 1967; they had two children, Adam and Rachel. In 1975 they moved to the south of France,<ref name="Tolkien Lecture">{{cite web |title=Christopher Tolkien, 1924 – 2020 |url=https://tolkienlecture.org/2020/01/20/christopher-tolkien-1924-2020/ |website=The J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature |date=20 January 2020 |access-date=3 June 2024}}</ref> where she edited her father-in-law's ''[[The Father Christmas Letters]]'' for posthumous publication.<ref name="Indie 2002">{{cite news |title=Grand tours: Who travels the world in a single night? |url=https://www.questia.com/read/1P2-1716622/travel-etc-grand-tours-who-travels-the-world-in |access-date=22 November 2012 |newspaper=[[The Independent on Sunday]] |date=22 December 2002 |archive-date=21 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921073323/http://www.questia.com/read/1P2-1716622/travel-etc-grand-tours-who-travels-the-world-in |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Baillie Tolkien 'Letters from Father Christmas' |url=https://www.tolkienestate.com/writing/baillie-tolkien-letters-from-father-christmas/ |publisher=The Tolkien Estate |access-date=3 June 2024}}</ref>

In the wake of a dispute surrounding the making of [[The Lord of the Rings (film series)|''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy]], he is said to have disapproved of the views of his son Simon.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1697884.stm |title=Tolkien's son denies rift |last=BBC News |date=7 December 2001 |access-date=16 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110307211943/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1697884.stm |archive-date=7 March 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/donotmigrate/3590335/A-leaf-torn-from-the-family-tree.html |title=J R R Tolkien's grandson 'cut off from literary inheritance' |last=Thomas |first=David |date=24 February 2003 |access-date=23 April 2010 |work=[[Sunday Telegraph]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120913071207/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/donotmigrate/3590335/A-leaf-torn-from-the-family-tree.html |archive-date=13 September 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> He felt that ''The Lord of the Rings'' was "peculiarly unsuitable for transformation into visual dramatic form", whilst his son became involved as an advisor with the series. They later reconciled, and Simon dedicated one of his novels to his father.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9686451/Simon-Tolkien-JRR-Tolkiens-grandson-admits-Lord-of-the-Rings-trauma.html |title=Simon Tolkien: J R R Tolkien's grandson admits Lord of the Rings trauma |last=Hough |first=Andrew |date=18 November 2012 |access-date=15 December 2012 |work=[[Sunday Telegraph]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121227045500/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9686451/Simon-Tolkien-JRR-Tolkiens-grandson-admits-Lord-of-the-Rings-trauma.html |archive-date=27 December 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=24 November 2012 |title='Being Tolkien's grandson blocked my writing ...' |url=http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/24/simon-tolkien-jrr-tolkien-hobbit |access-date=20 October 2022 |work=[[The Guardian]] }}</ref>

Tolkien died on 16 January 2020, at the age of 95, in [[Draguignan]], [[Var (department)|Var]], France.<ref name="NYT 2020">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/books/christopher-tolkien-dead.html |title=Christopher Tolkien, Keeper of His Father's Legacy, Dies at 95 |last1=Seelye |first1=Katharine Q. |date=16 January 2020 |work=[[The New York Times]] |last2=Yuhas |first2=Alan |access-date=16 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200116215455/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/books/christopher-tolkien-dead.html |archive-date=16 January 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Varmatin 2020">{{cite web |last=Amalric |first=Laurent |title=Christopher, le fils de J.R.R. Tolkien, s'est éteint dans le Var à l'âge de 95 ans |language=fr |trans-title=Christopher, son of J.R.R. Tolkien, dies in Var at the age of 95 |date=16 January 2020 |website=Var-Matin |url=https://www.varmatin.com/culture/christopher-le-fils-de-jrr-tolkien-sest-eteint-dans-le-var-a-lage-de-95-ans-448318 |url-status=live |access-date=16 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200116180840/https://www.varmatin.com/culture/christopher-le-fils-de-jrr-tolkien-sest-eteint-dans-le-var-a-lage-de-95-ans-448318 |archive-date=16 January 2020 }}</ref><ref name="BBC 2020"/><ref name="Guardian 2020"/>

== Bibliography ==

; As author or translator

* {{cite book |url=http://www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Saga-Book%201-22%20searchable/Saga-Book%20XIV.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Saga-Book%201-22%20searchable/Saga-Book%20XIV.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |chapter=The Battle of the Goths and the Huns |last=Tolkien |first=Christopher |title=Saga-Book |year=1953–1957 |volume=14 |pages=141–63 |author-link=Christopher Tolkien |ref=none}}
*"Introduction" to [[Gabriel Turville-Petre]], ''[[Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks]]'' (Viking Society for Northern Research, 1956, corrected reprint 1976), pp. xi-xx.
* {{cite book |url= http://vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/The%20Saga%20Of%20King%20Heidrek%20The%20Wise.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/The%20Saga%20Of%20King%20Heidrek%20The%20Wise.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |title=The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise |year=1960 |translator-last=Tolkien |translator-first=Christopher |translator-link=Christopher Tolkien |translator-mask=3}}, from the Icelandic ''[[Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks]]''

; As editor

* {{cite book |title=The Nun's Priest's Tale |last=Chaucer |first=Geoffrey |year=1958 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |author-link=Geoffrey Chaucer |orig-year= 1387–1400 |editor-last2=Coghill |editor-first2=Nevill |editor-link2=Nevill Coghill |title-link=The Nun's Priest's Tale |publisher=Harrap |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |title=The Pardoner's Tale |last=Chaucer |first=Geoffrey |year=1959 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |author-link= Geoffrey Chaucer |orig-year=1387–1400 |editor-last2=Coghill |editor-first2=Nevill |editor-link2=Nevill Coghill |title-link=The Pardoner's Tale |publisher=Harrap |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |title=The Man of Law's Tale |last=Chaucer |first=Geoffrey |year=1969 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |author-link= Geoffrey Chaucer |orig-year=1387–1400 |editor-last2=Coghill |editor-first2=Nevill |editor-link2=Nevill Coghill |title-link=The Man of Law's Tale  |publisher=Harrap |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |title=Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo |year=1975 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |translator-last=Tolkien |translator-first=J. R. R. |translator-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |publisher= |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |title=The Silmarillion |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=1977 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |title-link=The Silmarillion |publisher=Houghton |isbn=9780395257302 |ref=none}} 
* {{cite book |title=Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=1979 |publisher=[[Allen & Unwin]] |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |isbn=9780047410031 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |title=Unfinished Tales |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |orig-year=1980 |year=2010 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |title-link=Unfinished Tales |publisher=[[Grafton (publisher)|Grafton]] |isbn=978-0261102163 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |title=The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien |orig-year=1981 |year=2023 |editor-last=Carpenter |editor-first=Humphrey |editor-link=Humphrey Carpenter |editor-last2=Tolkien |editor-first2=Christopher |editor-link2=Christopher Tolkien |editor-mask2=3|title-link=The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-006337435-5 |ref=none}} 
* {{cite book |title=The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=2007 |orig-year=1983 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |title-link=The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0261102637 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |title=The History of Middle-earth |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=1983–2002 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |title-link=The History of Middle-earth |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0008259846 |ref=none}} 
** {{cite book |title=The Book of Lost Tales, part 1 |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=1983 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |volume=1 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |author-mask=—————  |title-link=The Book of Lost Tales I |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0261102224 <!--this is linked-->}}
** {{cite book |title=The Book of Lost Tales, part 2 |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=1984 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |volume=2 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |author-mask=—————  |title-link=The Book of Lost Tales II |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0261102149 |ref=none}}
** {{cite book |title=The Lays of Beleriand |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=1985 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |volume=3 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |author-mask=—————  |title-link=The Lays of Beleriand |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0261102262 |ref=none}}
** {{cite book |title=The Shaping of Middle-earth |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=1986 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |volume=4 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |author-mask=—————  |title-link=The Shaping of Middle-earth |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=9780261102187 |ref=none}}
** {{cite book |title=The Lost Road and Other Writings |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=1987 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |volume=5 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |author-mask=—————  |title-link=The Lost Road and Other Writings |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=9780007348220 |ref=none}}
** {{cite book |title=The Return of the Shadow |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=1988 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |volume=6 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |author-mask=—————  |title-link=The Return of the Shadow |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=9780007365302 |ref=none}}
** {{cite book |title=The Treason of Isengard |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=1989 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |volume=7 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |author-mask=—————  |title-link=The Treason of Isengard |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |isbn=978-0395515624 |ref=none}}
** {{cite book |title=The War of the Ring |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=1990 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |volume=8 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |author-mask=—————  |title-link=The War of the Ring |publisher=Grafton |isbn=978-0261102231 |ref=none}}
** {{cite book |title=Sauron Defeated |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=1992 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |volume=9 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |author-mask=—————  |title-link=Sauron Defeated |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |isbn=978-0395606490 |ref=none}} 
** {{cite book |title=Morgoth's Ring |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=1993 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |volume=10 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |author-mask=—————  |title-link=Morgoth's Ring |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0261103009 |ref=none}}
** {{cite book |title=The War of the Jewels |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=1994 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |volume=11 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |author-mask=—————  |title-link=The War of the Jewels |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0261103245 |ref=none}}
** {{cite book |title=The Peoples of Middle-earth |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=1996 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |volume=12 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |author-mask=—————  |title-link=The Peoples of Middle-earth |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0261103481 |ref=none}}
** {{cite book |title=The History of Middle-earth Index |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=2002 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |author-mask=————— |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |title=The Children of Húrin |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=2007 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |title-link=The Children of Húrin |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0007597338 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |title=The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=2009 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |title-link=The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0007317240 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |title=The Fall of Arthur |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=2013 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |title-link=The Fall of Arthur |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0007557301 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |title=Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary |year=2014 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |translator-last=Tolkien |translator-first=J. R. R. |translator-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |title-link=Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0007590094 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |title=Beren and Lúthien |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=2017 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |title-link=Beren and Lúthien |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0008214197 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |title=The Fall of Gondolin |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |year=2018 |editor-last=Tolkien |editor-first=Christopher |editor-mask=3 |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |title-link=The Fall of Gondolin |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn=978-0008302757 |ref=none}}

== Notes ==

{{notelist}}

== References ==

{{reflist}}

== Sources ==

* {{ME-ref|Letters}} <!--Carpenter 2023-->
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Ovenden |editor1-first=Richard |editor1-link=Richard Ovenden |editor2-last=McIlwaine |editor2-first=Catherine |editor2-link=Catherine McIlwaine |title=The Great Tales Never End: Essays in Memory of Christopher Tolkien |year=2022 |publisher=[[Bodleian Library Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-8512-4565-9}}
* {{ME-ref|ROAD}}    <!--Shippey 2005-->

== External links ==

* {{ISFDB name}}
* {{LCAuth|n79144796|Christopher Tolkien|49|ue}}

{{Inklings}}
{{Tolkien}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tolkien, Christopher}}
[[Category:1924 births]]
[[Category:2020 deaths]]
[[Category:English book editors]]
[[Category:English illustrators]]
[[Category:English Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:Tolkien scholars]]
[[Category:English people of German descent]]
[[Category:People educated at The Dragon School]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Fellows of New College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Inklings]]
[[Category:The Tolkien Society members]]
[[Category:Tolkien family|Christopher]]
[[Category:English emigrants to France]]
[[Category:Naturalized citizens of France]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Leeds]]
[[Category:Royal Air Force officers]]
[[Category:Royal Air Force pilots of World War II]]
[[Category:Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Royal Navy officers of World War II]]
[[Category:Royal Navy officers]]
[[Category:Tolkien Society Award winners]]