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Christopher John Reuel Tolkien. Photo by Cité internationale de la patisserie.

Top 10 Incredible Facts about Christopher Tolkien

Christopher John Reuel Tolkien was born on 21^st November 1924 – died on 16^th January 2020.

He was the third child and the youngest son of J.R.R. Tolkien and Edith Tolkien. He was the literary executor of the Tolkien Estate and edited much of his father’s work for posthumous publication.

He became a French citizen in later life.

1.Born in Leeds and Raised in Oxford, England

He was born on 21^st November 1924 in Leeds, England. He was the third of four children and youngest son of John Ronald Reuel and Edith Mary Tolkien.

Christopher Tolkien was named after his father’s friend, Christopher Wiseman.

2.He attended the Dragon school and the Oratory school in Caversham, Berkshire

Christopher went to the Dragon School in Oxford and Oratory School in Caversham, Berkshire.

Due to a heart ailment, he was forced to stay at home and work with a private tutor.

He enjoyed watching stars with a telescope had passion for railways. As early as age  five, Christopher was concerned with the consistency of The Hobbit.

He started working for the Hobbit after its publication and he was paid two pence for every correction.

3.He Trained as a Pilot in South Africa

In July of 1943 he entered the Royal Air Force and in November of that year he went to South Africa to train as a pilot.

He completed 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^th January 1945, and he served as a pilot officer on probation and was given the service number 193121.

 He briefly served as an RAF pilot before transferring to the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve on 28^th June 1945. His commission was confirmed and he was promoted to flying officer (war substantive) on 27 July 1945.

His absence did not however slow his contributions to his father’s works as his father continually sent him parts of The Lord of the Rings to go over. In 1945 he returned to England and was stationed in Shropshire and later that year he returned to Oxford.

4.He was the Youngest Member of the Informal Literary Discussion Society

On October 9th, 1945 his father informed him that the Inklings wished to consider him a permanent member. The task of reading The Lord of the Rings to the Inklings was passed on to Christopher and it was generally agreed that he was a better reader than his father.

In 1954-55 Christopher was delegated the re-drawing of his father’s Lord of the Rings maps to clarify the lettering and correct some errors and omissions before publication.

5.He was Taught English by his Father’s Friend, C.S. Lewis at Trinity College

In 1946 Christopher returned to Trinity College to resume his studies and reading English. For a while his tutor was C.S. Lewis. His thesis was a translation of The Saga of King Heidrek the Wise and he received his Bachelors of Arts.

In 1949 Christopher also became a lecturer in Old and Middle English as well as Old Icelandic at Oxford. He worked as an editor on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the Pardoner’s Tale, and the Nun’s Priest’s Tale. He later followed his father’s footsteps by becoming a lecturer and tutor in English Language at New College, Oxford, from 1964 to 1975

But he resigned when he began to devote his time to his father’s literary affairs, and soon afterward moved with his family to southern France.

6.He Compiled  his Fathers Book, The Silmarillion, in Four Years

After his father’s death, Christopher embarked on organizing the masses of his father’s notes, some of them written on odd scraps of paper a half-century earlier.

Much of the material was handwritten and frequently a fair draft was written over a half-erased first draft, in some instances names of characters routinely changed between the beginning and end of the same draft.

Deciphering this was an arduous task, and perhaps only someone with personal experience of J.R.R. and the evolution of his stories could have made any sense of it.

Even so, Christopher has admitted to having to occasionally guess at what his father intended.

Guy Gavriel Kay helped him to compile The Silmarillion in only four years.

During this time he also edited his father’s translations of Sir Gawain, the Green Knight, and Sir Orfeo.

He recorded portions of The Silmarillion in 1977 and 1978 which was issued by Caedmon Records, New York.

7.He was Literary Executor of the Tolkien Estate

He also worked on the Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings which was first published in 1975 as Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings in A Tolkien Compass.

 In 1979 he wrote about his father’s illustrations and drawings for their publication in Tolkien calendars and Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Through 1980 and 1983 Christopher edited unfinished tales and published them in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays

The books were published in a twelve issue series titled the The History of the Earth of which the first volume was The Book Of Lost Tales Part One and the final publication was issued in 1996.

He has done his latest publications are  The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún (2009), The Fall of Arthur (2013), and Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary (2014).

8.He was a Strong Critic of The Lord of the Ring Film trilogy Directed by Peter Jackson

In 2001, he expressed doubts over The Lord of the Rings film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson, questioning the viability of a film interpretation that retained the essence of the work, but stressed that this was just his opinion. In a 2012 interview with Le Monde, he criticized the films and said that, they gutted the book, making an action film for 15 to 25-year-olds.

9.He was Married to Two Wives

Christopher married his first wife, Faith in 1928, and they had one son, Simon Tolkien. A bust of Tolkien by Faith was exhibited at the Royal Academy and Tolkien paid for its casting in bronze. It is now in the English Library in Oxford.

In 1975, he moved to the French countryside with his second wife, Baillie Tolkien.

They had two children, Adam Reuel Tolkien and Rachel Clare Reuel Tolkien.

10.He Reconciled with his First Born Son, Simon Mario Reuel Tolkien before his Death

In the wake of a dispute surrounding the making of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, he is said to have disapproved of his son by his first marriage, barrister and novelist Simon Mario Reuel Tolkien’s views about the idea of an adaptation.

 Christopher felt that The Lord of the Rings was “peculiarly unsuitable for transformation into visual dramatic form”. However, they reconciled before Christopher’s death.

He died on 16 January 2020, at the age of 95, in Draguignan, Var, France