I sort of had a grudge against Christopher for a long time, because after watching the AMAZING LotR movies, I really, REALLY wanted to see a Hobbit movie, but he wouldn’t hear of it, and he controlled the rights.
Then of course, years later, he gave in and the results were…underwhelming.
Regardless, I know the love he had for his dad’s work, and he made a lot of contributions, as others have pointed out, to the legacy and in editing and releasing otherwise unpublished work. I’m really glad he did that.
I’m sure he was a really awesome guy, and I certainly would’ve loved to sit down and have a chat with him. His passing is a damn shame.
You definitely are very out of the loop, heh; Christopher’s been instrumental in finding, compiling, editing, and publishing an enormous amount of his father’s work beyond the main trilogy and Hobbit. While I don’t believe he wrote much in the way of original prose, he often had to make calls on which particular version of events or revision of a document would be most in line with his father’s final vision, assembling often scattered, incomprehensible notes into novels with structure, flow, and cohesion.
Christopher Tolkien also drew the map of Middle Earth that his father consulted while writing LOTR. Not sure if that was the same version that made it into the published copies, as I seem to remember there being some discussion about different versions in Unfinished Tales.
Edit: just looked it up, and C. Tolkien not only drew the original map, he also created the revised version that has appeared in print since 2005.
Christopher Tolkien was very much an active participant in his father’s work (and as a kid, supposedly the first audience to stories about the Hobbit), and is basically the primary person responsible for curating the Tolkien legacy.
He worked with his father even while the latter was alive, and was also the main illustrator for his father’s work, drawing all of the maps in the books (including the ones in the LOTR), AFAIK. To me, his main claim to fame will also be editing and completing the Silmarillion (incidentally, together with Guy Gavriel Kay). Basically, he is responsible for the world-building that made Middle Earth a cohesive place, from the scattered fragments of his father’s imagination.
Not only are there more than four books, there are also different versions of those stories. At first, Christopher gathered his father’s notes into sets of loose narratives: Unfinished Tales and the Silmarillion. These were pretty rough, and for the most part the stories in Unfinished Tales took place in between the ones in Silmarillion, making it even more confusing. More recently, he edited these stories into a multi-volume work.
I haven’t read the newer versions, but either way I’d recommend them if you want to see more of Tolkien’s world. The stories add a lot of explanation and depth to the elves’ sadness, as well as Gandalf’s ultimate optimism. Be prepared, though: the writing reminds me of the King James Bible, right down to a genealogy chapter that takes you through all the begating in the Numenorean family tree.
There are a crap ton of books. Not a ton of JRR’s material in relation to commentary about that material. Pretty much every scrap of thrown away text Christopher could find, he re-used and commented on. In depth.
We’re past Bombadil and in Lothlorien now. They loved Bombadil and end up soaking in all the history, songs, and small details. They’re loving Gollum stalking the group, etc. In fact, they soak it all in better than I did the first time reading it. While slow going and while I sometimes feel fatigue thinking about how much we have left to go, it really is a beautiful book and I’m enjoying reading it together with them.
The Silmarillion is a masterpiece. Once you get past the theological world building of who begat who it takes off. In many ways it is far more epic, gorgeous and a grander achievement than the Lord of the Rings.
Christopher Tolkien added to his fathers work without compromising it. He also protected it until the end, the PJ Hobbit movies being the one failure. He had every right to look back on his life with full pride for his contributions. He was the steward and co-auther of works which have changed the world and will be recognized for ages, will only grow in importance, and will be taught in literature classes of the far future (if one exists).
He has created one hell of a legacy and is an historical giant of significant proportion. I can’t think of anybody else who has died in the past few years near the same level.
