Godspeed, Christopher

French newspapers are reporting the death of Christopher Tolkien, son and literary executor to the great J.R.R. Tolkien. As a boy, he drew the first published maps of Middle Earth. Following his father’s death in 1973, he supervised and edited his remaining work, publishing all that was publishable and much that was probably not.

He began with Silmarillion in 1977, and twenty-five volumes later finished with The Fall of Gondolin in 2018. He was “the last of the Inklings“.

Following in his father’s footsteps, he taught at Oxford before becoming full-time editor of his father’s work after his death. In retirement, he lived in the south of France, becoming a French citizen.

Many over the next days and weeks will no doubt have much to say about him, both good and evil, but as for me I will only say that Christopher Tolkien’s death leaves me with a strange melancholy. I never met the man, but I feel as though I should know him. Perhaps it is from his editorial hand, or from the rare interviews I’ve seen. He was the keeper of his father’s memory and his legendarium. For good or ill, he zealously guarded both, leaving many grateful but also resentful that more films and derivative materials were not approved.

Let us both pray for the soul of Christopher John Reuel Tolkien and raise a glass to his memory. I suspect he would be glad of both.

Brother Christopher, may the angels lead you to paradise.

Edited to add: the family and the Tolkien Society have now confirmed his death.