I just learned that Christopher Tolkien, the son of THE Tolkien, passed away earlier this month. I had no idea and it shocked me.
While I was no huge fan of his scholarly works that he performed in editing and publishing historical books about his father’s world of Middle Earth, I acknowledge that without his drive to see the world of Middle Earth the impact of the initial Lord of the Rings probably wouldn’t be as big as it is today.
Here’s a link to his Wiki Page if you’re curious about him as a person.
I’ve read that he thought the Jackson LOTR films were an abomination…
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Yeah, his wiki page has some things to say about that. I guess he and his son parted ways (ie, Christopher disowned him?) over them. I didn’t check to see if it was backed up by fact though. Shame on me
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Ah cool tidbit. Will investigate further.
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I didn’t know about it either! But I do agree with the purposes opinion that Jackson’s movies shouldn’t have been made – at least from LotR books and their author’s wishes perspective 😉
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I like the movies myself. At least the LotR trilogy.
When you move into Hobbit territory though I am fully of the mind those shouldn’t have been made.
I’ve often wondered if the movies ever made someone who didn’t read very much check the books out and that that decision turned them into a reader.
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We were quite shook as well, but he did get pretty old so it shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise. Still sad tho. It happened the day after an actor in the Dutch Sesame Street back in the day passed away… so it was mainly the combined effect of 2 greats leaving us.
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I guess I just didn’t realize he was in his 90’s. I was still thinking he was in his 70’s at most 😀
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Oh, that’s a shame. I didn’t know until I saw your post. Wow! He was 95! I guess that’s a perk for living in France.
For some reason it reminds me that I still have to read The Silmarillion.
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Back when I was in highschool I had “ideas” about reading the 12 book Histories of Middle Earth. Then once I’d read the Silmarillion I decided to abandon that idea. You’d probably like them more than me though…
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He was a rare example of a son who took really good care of his father’s literary legacy 😦
I like the movies, a lot, but I respect his stance. Totally justified when it comes to the Hobbit movie trilogy… and I’m not too optimistic about the upcoming tv series.
His editorial work, his guardianship of the whole Tolkienian lore… he secured Tolkien’s position, and I think JRRT is such a giant looming over today’s genre partially thanks to Christopher!
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I concur with all of your sentiments here. Especially about the tv show. I’m not excited for it at all. He was the careful gardener and now the garden is going to go wild
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I was quite devastated when I read about this on Reddit a week or so back. It’s astonishing just how much work he did to preserve his father’s work. Admirable too.
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Very admirable. Especially that he never tried to change things to make himself look like a bigger influence than he was. If you want a contrast, look at what Brian Herbert did with his father’s Dune series 😦
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I saw this on the Internet at the time. My dad was a big fan of his father’s work but he couldn’t get through the Middle Earth histories!
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I’ with your dad on that. I barely made it through the Silmarillion, so the more “historic” books I’m not even going to try…
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I didn’t know about this too. I wonder if anyone could bring an even BIGGER change to the genre than Tolkien ever did, if it’s not going to come from a Tolkien today…
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That’s a very interesting though; having the fantasy genre change. I wonder if we’d notice it when it happens or if it would take 20+ years to occur.
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It.. would be sad if it already happened and we didn’t realize it. I mean, my bet would be on Sanderson and his books, since I’m seeing plenty of new books being inspired by his magic system/world building…
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My bet is on Sanderson too. His ideas of magic are being copied in one way or another by a wide variety of authors. I figure in 40 years others will look back and look at Sanderson the same you and I look at Tolkien now. At least, I hope so 🙂
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