Christopher Tolkien's take on his father's work

[typhoonikan]

Perhaps I'm selfish and want more from Tolkien's work, I dunno...

But after reading The Hobbit, LoTR, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and BoLT2, I just wonder what it would have been like if Christopher would have continued on his fathers legendarium instead of publishing his unfinished notes and jottings.

For example, finishing the full narrative of The Coming of Tuor to Gondolin in Unfinished Tales would be a great publish. But I understand that to do this, Christopher would have to do much of the writing himself. I also understand that Christopher took the literary archaeology route for his father's works instead of finishing them himself.

Has anyone felt this way before?
I would love for more accounts and clearer tellings of the realm of Angmar and Arnor, Galadriel's inconsistencies settled, and basically more completed works from the second age which Tolkien wrote the least on.

 

[Poplartree]

No, I think Christopher Tolkien does a wonderful job. Continuing the lengendarium would have looked like pure money-making (and it would have been it, too), whereas publishing his father's scribbles is much closer to JRR Tolkien's thought.

Besides, he would have had to be as talented as his father was. Even though I don't diminish his talents as a writer — putting the Children of Hurin and the Sil into shape must have been a trial — did you ever read any text as talented as JRR Tolkien's ? A style is a very personal thing. You can't imitate it without sounding fake.

 

[Mike]

If Christopher Tolkien had done that, we would have ended up with something like Brian Herbert's "expansion" of the Dune saga, but with elves. I, for one, am glad that such a travesty does not exist.

 

[YayGollum]

I agree whole-heartedly with that sentiment, something which I am not normally prone to do. I am a large fan of not assuming to continue someone else's creative endeavor, unless the first person spent some time actually instructing someone else on what to do, of course. Also, I enjoy the History Of Middle Earth type stuffs a lot more than I thought that I would. Lots of cool ideas in there.

 

[Eledhwen]

I have to agree with Stockholm, Mike and Yay here; it would be little better than fan fiction - very good, well-studied, impeccably researched, and maybe even very close in style, but not JRR Tolkien. The professor died when the stories were still somewhat in flux. Who can know what he ultimately intended?

You can have too much of a good thing. Quality, not quantity.

 

[Arda Frog]

Like others have stated, it's a good thing Christopher decided just to edit and release his fathers writings!

I cannot stand the additions to Dune made by Brian/Kevin. Especially now that they have written books that go in-between the original Frank Herbert novels.

I also found it quite ridiculous when they released "Road to Dune" and it had blurbs comparing it to the Silmarillion. I'd say 90% of that book was Brian/Kevin and the other 10% is the actual words Frank via a few letters. They claimed they had notes to an alternate version of the original Dune, yet they re-wrote that as a novella which takes up almost all of the books with none of Frank's notes. "Road to Dune" is clearly yet another pastiche falsely advertised like it is a litteray archaeological excavation in the vein of the Silmarillion!

 

[Elfarmari]

I am a large fan of not assuming to continue someone else's creative endeavor, unless the first person spent some time actually instructing someone else on what to do, of course.

I completely agree. As much as I wish things like the Tuor story and the Lay of Leithian were finished, I'd rather have all the notes and musings of J.R.R. Tolkien on the subject than some imitation. As the HoME series shows clearly, in sometimes painstaking detail, Tolkien's own ideas were evolving so constantly that even making the Silmarillion coherent must have been a stretch. In a way, it makes it more like the mythology Middle-earth was originally conceived to be, with ideas and stories constantly changing.

 

[Bucky]

But Christopher DID finish his father's work in the case of the Silmarillion......

He and that Guy Kay dude wrote and rewrote the whole book, opening a can of worms as to what is and isn't 'canon'. For example, they changed JRR's unfinished version of 'Of the Ruin of Doriath' and CT later laments that....

As well as Gil-Galad's heritage, Fingolfin's third son, etc. - Did one of Feanor's twin son's die in the burning of the ships at Losgar or not?

Yet most Tolkien readers don't even know this - unless they delve into HoME.