Christopher Tolkien, son of J.R.R. Tolkien and editor of The Silmarillion, has worked for 30 years on “The Children of Hurin,” an epic begun by his father in 1918. Now, it is on the docket to be printed next year. Parts of the work have been published before.
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I wouldn’t hope for much. From what I hear, C. Tolkien’s only real interest in his father’s work is in its reliablity as a cash cow.
Man, I’ve turned into a hateful wretch, haven’t I?
That is hateful, if it isn’t true; but if it is, well . . . it makes me sad. I’d like to think Christopher Tolkien or at least one of Tolkien’s sons is as kind-hearted and generous as Tolkien was.
Phil: one of the sons was. A Catholic priest who died a couple of years back, while the films were still coming out, his parish was in the North of England, and he was apparently very good to the poor and used what money he’d inherited from his father for charitable purposes. He’d been interviewed a year or so before his death, was deeply amused by the whole Tolkien cultus thing and then-upcoming movies without taking any of it very seriously, and generally came off as a pleasant, level-headed kind of guy.
Lars: I’d never heard that it was all about profit, but Christopher is pretty clearly a dysfunctional individual (divorced, estranged himself from his son John Tolkien, who wrote a legal thriller a year or two back and was interviewed rather heavily at the time). The impression I got from the “History of Middle Earth” volumes, where you get a lot of editorializing by CT, is of this guy who sees his father’s Elvish/ME works as a burden or trust he can’t abandon and also can’t finish with.
He’s already tackled the “Children of Hurin” before: a couple pages of material in the Silmarillion from the release of Hurin by Morgoth to the end of that chapter are by CT (an attempt to patch over a place in the story for which no outlines or drafts consistent with what is used elsewhere in the Silm exist, or at least were known to exist at the time).
The poor man, how sad. I choose to remain hopeful though. Miracles do happen.
It’s nice, but yes it might be just a cash cow rehash stretched thin…..hmmmm, maybe someone has had “the ring” on too long?
I’m amazed by the comments on Christopher Tolkien. Sure, there’s money being made. But I think the History of Middle-earth series was a great venture; thanks to Christopher & the publishers, fans and scholars don’t have to travel to Oxford and hope to see manuscripts for a few hours; a lot can be done by pulling the appropriate volumes down. I’ve done that for a small scholarly article within the past few weeks. The series was released as affordably-priced, well-made clothbound books with tipped-in color plates in some of the volumes, etc.; not at all shoddy, opportunistic exploitation. I for one was very glad to be able to read things such as The Notion Club Papers and the late fragments. Nobody’s making anybody buy them, other than maybe some libraries feeling they “have to” buy them (along with the latest masterpieces by Terry Brooks).
I just wonder how much money will be made on this? Not a lot I venture. Nothing like the royalties from the Lord Of The Rings or The Hobbit.
I will be interested in seeing what he’s made of it.
And I also really like most of the History Of Middle Earth. I can’t really see re-reading much of it, but parts of it I read a lot, like the Lay of Lethian.
If you are, or know Chip Mantz..He needs to contact his family..he knows the number..Thanks
we are looking for Chip Mantz , he’s a huge tolkein fan – He’s very much needed at home – Mother is diagnosed with alzheimer disease
the twenty or so books of the history of middle earth is truly a unique glimpse into the working mind of an author, the children of hurin was already touched on in other volumes and can’t be really expanded upon. When proffessor tolkien retired and upon his death his entire written works were bequethed to Marquette University in the United States-anyone can access those writtings and pages by going there or if they completely catalogued them by now, the internet.