Editor of the Legendarium: Christopher Tolkien (1924-2020)

Imagine being a child, listening with your siblings to bedtime stories about Bilbo Baggins, or being enchanted at Christmas-time as your father read the latest installment in the Father Christmas letters, featuring the antics of Polar Bear. Then imagine being that child at five years old and grasping enough to point out inconsistencies in your father’s stories. Or being a young man in your 20s, and joining the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, and others for a weekly pint at the pub – participating in one of the most famous literary discussion groups of the 20^th century,

Perhaps it’s no wonder that J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) eventually chose his youngest son Christopher Tolkien (1924-2020) as his literary executor. An academic and writer in his own right, Christopher would preserve and extend his father’s legacy for nearly 50 years after the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings died. It is because of Christopher’s dedication to this task that we have The Silmarillion, The Fall of Arthur, The Fall of Gondolin, Beren and Luthien, The Children of Hurin, The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, and many other stories and tales. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.