Christopher Tolkien, JRR Tolkien's younger son: biography

Christopher Tolkien (photo below) is the youngest son of John Ronald Ruel Tolkien, the author of such cult works as The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, or There and Back, and The Silmarillion. Christopher conducted a monumental editorial work on unfinished projects of his father. Thanks to this, the "Silmarillion", "The History of Middle-earth", Tolkien Sr.'s letters and essays and some other of his literary works were published.

Biography

Tolkien Christopher Ruel was born in the English city of Leeds in 1924. At the age of 19, during the Second World War, he enlisted in the Royal Air Force and spent some time in active service. After the victory of the Allied forces was transferred to the reserve.

Finished with the career of a military pilot, Christopher Tolkien followed in the footsteps of his father. In 1949 he graduated from Oxford University with a degree in English. A few years later he received a second education in the field of literature. In the 60's and 70's he held the same post as his father, he was an English professor at Oxford University.

Editorial work on the works of his father

In fact, to work on the works of John Ronald Ruel Tolkien, his son Christopher began from childhood, when he was the first listener and reader of the fairy tales of Bilbo Baggins, who later became the novel "The Hobbit, or There and Back." During the fifteen-year work on the "Lord of the Rings", the younger son offered his father much more constructive criticism and helped create a complete map of Middle-earth, which is still used today.

When Christopher reached adulthood - in England it's 21 years - his father invited him to attend the meetings of the Inclings Club in Oxford. Young Christopher participated in literary discussions on various topics with such giants of the "high fantasy" genre as Clive Lewis, Charles Williams and Roger Green. The high literary ideals of the father and his club mates made a deep impression on Christopher and helped him to better understand his father's work, which in turn allowed him to collect, edit (and in some cases even finish) and release the unfinished projects of John Ronald Ruel Tolkien.

Persistent work of Christopher Tolkien fans of "The Lord of the Rings" owed to such cult works as "Silmarillion", "Children of Hurin" and a rich collection of stories revealing the history of Middle-earth. In addition to painstaking work on the map, Christopher, based on his father's manuscripts, collected a very rich dictionary of languages spoken by the inhabitants of this magical continent.

The Silmarillion

After the death of John Ronald Ruel Tolkien on the shoulders of his son, Christopher lay the difficult task of releasing an unfinished book, which the publisher of The Hobbit and The Lord had initially rejected. Christopher used the early work that his father called the "Book of Lost Legends", the drafts of the "Silmarillion" and the expressed desires of the father regarding his publication.

"Silmarillion" is the story of Arda - the world, of which Middle Earth is a part. The book consists of five parts:

• "Song Ainur, or Ainulindale" - narrating about the creation of the world with the help of the song Iluvatar and Ainur. It tells about the creation of Ea - the universe in which the first musical theme proposed by Iluvatar (the creator) and picked up by Ainur (forces) created Arda - a visible and perceptible world. The second musical theme gave the outlines of this world and absorbed the strength of each of the Ainur. The third topic was sung by Iluvatar alone and gave life to the children of Iluvatar, the elves (the first-born) and the people (mortals).
• "Valakventa, or History of the Valar" - a collection of characteristics and descriptions of the Valar, Mayar and Melkor. According to the second part of the Silmarillion, those from Ainur, who wished to go to Ardu to meet the firstborn, were released by Iluvatar from Ea and gained clear characteristics. Elves called them Elements, or High Elvish - Valar. They have assistants, inferior in might and power - Mayar. Melkor is one of the strongest Ainur, who disobeyed Iluvatar, who brought dissonance to his music and left Ea. By the prototype of the biblical Lucifer, he became in Arda the ancestor of evil and the main enemy of the Valar.
• "Quenta Silmarillion, or Story of the Silmarilles" - a tale of precious stones created by the elven craftsman Feanor, in which the light of Arda was preserved. This is the most voluminous part of the "Silmarillion", in which the entire First Epoch is described.
• "Akallabeth, or the Fall of Numenor" is a legend, the focus of which are the second of the children of Iluvatar - people. The fourth part tells about the creation of their greatest kingdom, its flowering, decay and collapse, the result of which was the concealment of Valinor - the land of the Valar - outside of Arda.
• "About the Rings of Power" - the final part of the book, telling about the events of the Third Age, partially revealed in the "Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings."

"History of Middle-earth"

The most ambitious project of the editorial work of Christopher Tolkien under the general title "History of Middle-earth" includes 12 volumes. In this posthumously published collection includes all the early works of John Tolkien, as well as his drafts, notes, essays and letters, which was edited by Christopher Tolkien. Christopher's wife was busy editing the letters of her father-in-law.

The series is not supported by a certain storyline and genre constancy, including poems, songs, poems and journalism. The first two volumes of "History" are the early and late works of Tolkien the elder, collected by him in the "Book of Lost Tales."

"Lost Tales"

After the publication of the Silmarillion, several more rough drafts and manuscripts were added to Christopher's hands, with the history of the stories already published in the book. According to Tolkien, Jr., if these manuscripts were at his disposal while working on the Silmarillion, the book would have come out quite different.

In essence, the first two volumes of The History of Middle-earth tell about the same events as the Silmarillion, but with significant additions, and in some cases even with differences. John Tolkien often changed the names of places and peoples of Middle-earth and Arda, therefore, drafts published in the "Book of Lost Legends" make confusion in the chronological and plot line of the fictional universe. That is why Christopher carried out a large-scale work, providing the early creations of his father with his explanations and references to later works.

Children of Hurin

The supposed novel, over which Tolkien-father began to work in his youth, remained unfinished. The tragic story of Turin Turambar and Nienor was completed by Christopher Tolkien to the volume of the story and released in 2007. According to Christopher, he had to add some elements of the plot himself.

Copyright and screen versions of works

As Christopher is the only child of John Tolkien, he is the general manager of the Tolkien Estates Foundation, which has copyright to the writer's works. In this regard, for many years, there were problems and dislocations, especially with regard to the adaptations of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, which Tolkien Christopher categorically opposed. Rights for the embodiment of history on the screens, however, were sold during his father's lifetime.

For the first time talk about the adaptation of "The Lord" went even when the author himself was alive, which, it is worth noting, was not particularly enthusiastic about the idea of creating the film, but did not resist. John Tolkien some time even participated in the work on the script for the production film, but he died, and not having time to complete the case to the end.

The author, however, managed to sell the rights to the film adaptation, and after his death, the fund also bought names and characters, and therefore Christopher Tolkien can not affect the content of films on two works published during his father's life.

Attitude to the screen version of Peter Jackson

Despite the fact that the movie trilogy "The Lord of the Rings" by Peter Jackson is universally recognized as the best of the existing adaptations, Tolkien Christopher, whose children collaborated with the film crew, quite severely condemned the misinterpretation of the work. In an interview with the LeMonde newspaper, he complained that "The Lord" is not just a work in the genre of action, not a beautifully written action movie, but a much more complex novel that can influence the perception of the world. Peter Jackson removed from the trilogy the deepest and most complex and turned it into a simple movie for young people.

This attitude to the director's work and disagreements with the film company regarding the deductions led to heated arguments and legal proceedings, which significantly slowed down the shooting of the "Hobbit" and gave rise to a kind of confrontation "Christopher Tolkien vs. Peter Jackson".