Christopher Tolkien

Tolkien was born in Leeds, England, the third of four children and youngest son of John Ronald Reuel and Edith Mary Tolkien (née Bratt). He was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford, and later at The Oratory School.[2]

He entered the Royal Air Force in mid-1943 and was sent to South Africa for flight training, completing the elementary flying course at 7 Air School, Kroonstad, and the service flying course at 25 Air School, Standerton. He was commissioned into the general duties branch of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve on 27 January 1945 as a pilot officer on probation (emergency) and was given the service number 193121.[3] He briefly served as an RAF pilot before transferring to the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve on 28 June 1945.[4] His commission was confirmed and he was promoted to flying officer (war substantive) on 27 July 1945.[5][6]

After the war, he studied English at Trinity College, Oxford, taking his B.A. in 1949 and his B.Litt. a few years later.[7]

Tolkien had long been part of the critical audience for his father's fiction, first as a child listening to tales of Bilbo Baggins (which were published as The Hobbit), and then as a teenager and young adult offering much feedback on The Lord of the Rings during its 15-year gestation. He had the task of interpreting his father's sometimes self-contradictory maps of Middle-earth in order to produce the versions used in the books, and he re-drew the main map in the late 1970s to clarify the lettering and correct some errors and omissions. Tolkien was invited by his father to join the Inklings when he was 21 years old, making him the youngest member of the informal literary discussion society that included C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams, Warren Lewis, Lord David Cecil, and Nevill Coghill.[8]

He published The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise: "Translated from the Icelandic with Introduction, Notes and Appendices by Christopher Tolkien" in 1960.[9] Later, Tolkien followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a lecturer and tutor in English Language at New College, Oxford, from 1964 to 1975.[7]

In 2016, he was given the Bodley Medal, an award that recognises outstanding contributions to literature, culture, science, and communication.[10]

Tolkien was married twice. He had two sons and one daughter.

His first marriage in 1951 was to sculptor Faith Lucy Tilly Tolkien (née Faulconbridge) (1928–2017). After their separation in 1964, they divorced in 1967.[23][24] Her work is featured in the National Portrait gallery.[25] Their son is barrister and novelist Simon Mario Reuel Tolkien.[23]

Christopher Tolkien and Baillie Tolkien (née Klass) married in 1967. In 1975 they moved to the French countryside where she edited her father-in-law's The Father Christmas Letters for posthumous publication. They had two children, Adam Reuel Tolkien and Rachel Clare Reuel Tolkien.

In the wake of a dispute surrounding the making of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Christopher is said to have disapproved of the views of his son, Simon Tolkien.[26][27] Christopher felt that The Lord of the Rings was "peculiarly unsuitable for transformation into visual dramatic form" whilst his son became involved as an advisor with the series. They later reconciled, with Simon dedicating one of his novels to his father.[28][29]

Christopher Tolkien died on 16 January 2020, at the age of 95, in Draguignan, Var, France.[11][30][31][32]

As author or translator

• Tolkien, Christopher (1953–1957). The Battle of the Goths and the Huns (PDF). pp. 141–63. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
• "Introduction" to G. Turville-Petre, Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks (Viking Society for Northern Research, 1956, corrected reprint 1976), pp. xi-xx.
• The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise (PDF). Translated by ———. 1960. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022., from the Icelandic Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks

As editor

• Chaucer, Geoffrey (1958) [1387–1400]. ———; Coghill, Nevill (eds.). The Nun's Priest's Tale.
• Chaucer, Geoffrey (1959) [1387–1400]. ———; Coghill, Nevill (eds.). The Pardoner's Tale.
• Chaucer, Geoffrey (1969) [1387–1400]. ———; Coghill, Nevill (eds.). The Man of Law's Tale.
• ———, ed. (1975). Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo. Translated by Tolkien, J. R. R.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1977). ——— (ed.). The Silmarillion. ISBN 9780395257302.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1979). ——— (ed.). Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien. ISBN 9780047410031.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (2010) [1980]. ——— (ed.). Unfinished Tales. ISBN 978-0261102163.
• Carpenter, Humphrey; ———, eds. (2005) [1981]. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. ISBN 978-0261102651.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (2007) [1983]. ——— (ed.). The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays. ISBN 978-0261102637.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (1983–2002). ——— (ed.). The History of Middle-earth. ISBN 978-0008259846.
  • Tolkien, J. R. R. (1983). ——— (ed.). The Book of Lost Tales, part 1. Vol. 1. ISBN 978-0261102224.
  • Tolkien, J. R. R. (1984). ——— (ed.). The Book of Lost Tales, part 2. Vol. 2. ISBN 978-0261102149.
  • Tolkien, J. R. R. (1985). ——— (ed.). The Lays of Beleriand. Vol. 3. ISBN 978-0261102262.
  • Tolkien, J. R. R. (1986). ——— (ed.). The Shaping of Middle-earth. Vol. 4. ISBN 9780261102187.
  • Tolkien, J. R. R. (1987). ——— (ed.). The Lost Road and Other Writings. Vol. 5. ISBN 9780007348220.
  • Tolkien, J. R. R. (1988). ——— (ed.). The Return of the Shadow. Vol. 6. ISBN 9780007365302.
  • Tolkien, J. R. R. (1989). ——— (ed.). The Treason of Isengard. Vol. 7. ISBN 978-0395515624.
  • Tolkien, J. R. R. (1990). ——— (ed.). The War of the Ring. Vol. 8. ISBN 978-0261102231.
  • Tolkien, J. R. R. (1992). ——— (ed.). Sauron Defeated. Vol. 9. ISBN 978-0395606490.
  • Tolkien, J. R. R. (1993). ——— (ed.). Morgoth's Ring. Vol. 10. ISBN 978-0261103009.
  • Tolkien, J. R. R. (1994). ——— (ed.). The War of the Jewels. Vol. 11. ISBN 978-0261103245.
  • Tolkien, J. R. R. (1996). ——— (ed.). The Peoples of Middle-earth. Vol. 12. ISBN 978-0261103481.
  • Tolkien, J. R. R. (2002). ——— (ed.). The History of Middle-earth Index.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (2007). ——— (ed.). The Children of Húrin. ISBN 978-0007597338.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (2009). ——— (ed.). The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún. ISBN 978-0007317240.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (2013). ——— (ed.). The Fall of Arthur. ISBN 978-0007557301.
• ———, ed. (2014). Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary. Translated by Tolkien, J. R. R. ISBN 978-0007590094.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (2017). ——— (ed.). Beren and Lúthien. ISBN 978-0008214197.
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (2018). ——— (ed.). The Fall of Gondolin. ISBN 978-0008302757.

• Christopher Tolkien at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Christopher Tolkien at Library of Congress, with 49 library catalogue records