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9 unusual facts about Christopher Tolkien


Christopher Tolkien

In the years following his father's death, Christopher Tolkien worked on the manuscript and was able to produce an edition of The Silmarillion for publication in 1977; his assistant for part of this work was the young Guy Gavriel Kay, who would later become a noted fantasy author.

Journeys of Frodo

The book comprises 51 two-colour maps (a general map of Middle-earth and 50 numbered maps) at various scales, all based on the original The Lord of the Rings maps drawn by Christopher Tolkien from his father's sketches.

Sir Orfeo

Following J.R.R. Tolkien's death, his son Christopher Tolkien found an unpolished translation of Sir Orfeo and published it in edited form with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Pearl.

Ted Nasmith

In October 1996, Nasmith was asked by Tolkien's publishers to provide the artwork for the first illustrated edition of The Silmarillion, during which time Ted developed a strong working relationship with Christopher Tolkien.

The Lay of the Children of Húrin

The poem was published after the author's death by his son Christopher in The Lays of Beleriand, the third volume of The History of Middle-earth.

The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien

The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (ISBN 0-618-05699-8) is a selection of J. R. R. Tolkien's letters published in 1981, edited by Tolkien's biographer Humphrey Carpenter assisted by Christopher Tolkien.

The Monsters and the Critics

The Monsters and the Critics is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's scholarly linguistic essays edited by his son Christopher and published posthumously in 1983.

The Road to Middle-earth

The second edition included discussion of the 12-volume History of Middle-earth which was compiled and edited by Tolkien's son Christopher Tolkien as a companion piece to the works of his father.

The Shaping of Middle-earth

The Shaping of Middle-earth is the fourth volume of Christopher Tolkien's 12-volume series The History of Middle-earth in which he analyses the unpublished manuscripts of his father J. R. R. Tolkien.


Dominion of Men

However, through notes and letters of Tolkien, a great deal of it published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien, as well as in passages from the Annals of the Kings and Rulers (An appendix of The Return of the King) and other portions of The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, some events can be defined.

Glorfindel

In The Return of the Shadow, Christopher Tolkien states that some time after the publication of The Lord of the Rings, his father "gave a great deal of thought to the matter of Glorfindel" in the book, and decided that it was a "somewhat random use" of a name from The Silmarillion that would probably have been changed, had it been noticed sooner.

Translation of The Lord of the Rings into Swedish

After The Silmarillion was published in 1977, Christopher Tolkien consented to a Swedish translation only on the condition that Ohlmarks have nothing to do with it.


see also

Palantír

It was presumably lost at the fall of Sauron, but since the stones are virtually indestructible, it would still be buried in the wreckage of the Dark Tower, or (as Christopher Tolkien speculates in Unfinished Tales) destroyed by the eruption of Orodruin.

The Lays of Beleriand

There is an inscription in the Fëanorian characters (Tengwar, an alphabet Tolkien has devised for High-Elves) in the first pages of every History of Middle-earth volume, written by Christopher Tolkien and describing the contents of the book.