Taking up posts by
@The Enting here ...
... and here ...
(has anybody told you that you can occasionally come across as a nag? 😁)
I'll take a shot at a short review.
1. Catherine McIlwaine, one of the two co-editors, is the
Tolkien Archivist at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Her "Introduction" is a compact biography of Christopher Tolkien, with emphasis on the special relationship between JRRT and Christopher, which extended to both being fellows of the English School at Oxford. It also focuses on the relationship between the two and the Bodleian Library, where the originals of JRRT's manuscripts of material not published in his lifetime are centered, and on Christopher's work on HoMe. It has several pictures of Christopher from various
dates. Following McIlwaine's essay is a two-page timeline ("Annals" so to speak) of highlights of Christopher's life.
Before that timeline, McIlwaine also comments on the following 10 essays, which I feel I simply couldn't do better, so I'll quote them here with minimal additions.
2. Eulogy by Maxime H. Pascal
"The French poet and close family friend Maxime Pascal wrote a beautiful, moving and highly personal eulogy which was delivered at Christopher's funeral in January 2020. It has been translated for this volume by Baillie Tolkien, Christopher's wife and constant companion for fifty-three years." A picture of Christpher from 2006 is included.
(Note: both Christopher and Baillie were fluent French speakers, perhaps one major difference to his father.)
3. Priscilla Tolkien "A Personal Memory"
"With the generosity of spirit she displayed throughout her life towards her father's legions of fans, Priscilla Tolkien contributed some personal reminiscences of her brother. As the last of JRRT's children and the closest in age to Christopher
[?], she was able to give a
precious first-hand account of life growing up in the Tolkien household."
It is accompanied by a handful of pictures, including one taken on her first birthday together with Christopher, then aged five.
4. Vincent Ferré "The Son Behind The Father"
"Based on an in-depth analysis of the publications of
Middle-earth, Vincent Ferré questions whether the term 'editor' is sufficient to encompass his work. He argues that Christopher's contribution went beyond the merely editorial and is sufficiently inventive and creative to be considered original literary work in its own right.
(Note: Ferré's end notes are certainly the most voluminous, almost twice those of the essay in second place ...)
5. Verlyn Flieger "Listening To The Music"
"Verlyn Flieger begins by exploring Tolkien's description of
The Lord of the Rings as 'a monster: an immensely long, complex, rather bitter, and terrifying romance, unfit for children.' Her illuminating analysis of these words positions the book as the endpoint of Tolkien's legendarium, and examines how his projected but unused ending would have linked it back explicitly to his creation myth,
The Music of the Ainur, written almost forty years earlier."
This essay is accompanied by facsimiles of a
map, writings, and pictures by JRRT.
6. John Garth "The Chronology Of Creation"
"Taking up Christopher Tolkien's mantle as 'literary archaeologist', John Garth uses meticulous research to build a case for an earlier date of composition for
The Music of the Ainur. Garth's research
places its creation alongside the three '
Great Tales' written in 1916-17, and in doing so puts the tale of Middle-earth's genesis at the heart of the
Lost Tales.
Garth states at the end of the essay "I hope to be able to publish these and further findings in due course." So this essay seems to be a compressed preliminary to more extensive writings (
my mind boggles, at any rate ...
) It also includes a picture of JRRT when he was back in England after the Battle of the Somme, and facsimiles of his writing.
7. Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull "I Wisely Started With A Map"
"Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull's review of
Tolkien's maps of Middle-earth and
Arda shows clearly that his cartography was an integral part of his story-telling, and was indeed central to the development of his tales. As Tolkien wrote about Middle-earth, he mapped it as well. His
maps were an indivisible part of the mythopoeic process as well as a means of authenticating the world he had created.
Unsurprisingly, this essay includes half a dozen of JRRT's maps.
8. Carl F. Hostetter "Editing The Tolkien Manuscript"
"Using previously unpublished manuscripts, Carl F. Hostetter shows the range of problems facing the editor of Tolkien's work, from deciphering his 'challenging and sometimes defeating handwriting' to prising clues from the materiality of the texts in order to date them. In this editorial masterclass Hostetter reveals the meticulous and painstaking work undertaken by Christopher Tolkien as he brought his father's manuscripts into a publishable form."
This essay shows four of JRRT' previously unpublished manuscripts in facsimile, and Hostetter's editorial treatments of them (with not a few question marks) on (mostly) the facing page.
9. Stuart D. Lee "A Milestone In BBC History"
"Delving into the BBC archives, Stuart Lee reconstitutes a lost radio production of The Lord of the Rings. This was the first dramatization of the work, and the first six episodes were written before all three volumes had even been published. In the essay Lee not only looks at Tolkien's response to the adaptations, the actors and their accents but also unearths the views of listeners, recorded by the BBC's Audience Research Department."
This essay has facsimiles of a letter written by JRRT to the adaptation's producer, Terence Tiller, a manuscript of JRRT' suggestions for improvement of the script, and a typescript of the script (actually used?).
10
Tom Shippey "King Sheave And The Lost Road"
"Tom Shippey explores Tolkien's unfinished time-travel story 'The Lost Road', looking for clues as to how it might have been completed and seeking answers in the related poem 'King Sheave', which was to have been part of 'The Lost Road' tale. He finds fertile ground in Tolkien's lectures on Beowulf, and sets out the connections between the Anglo-Saxon epic and Tolkien's projected work."
Three pictures bearing on Shippey's text are included.
11. Brian Sibley
[Editor of the book "The Fall of Númenor" slated for publication in November 2022] "Down From The Door Where It Began ..."
"Brian Sibley's journey with the
hobbits through the doorways of Middle-earth lays bare the extraordinary number and variety of portals used by Tolkien in The
Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He explores the meaning and significance of doorways in Tolkien's work, revealing their importance as indications of what lies beyond but also the role they play in the personal growth of individual characters."
Six facsimiles of pictures and writing are included here, two of them covering two pages.
P.S.: this may be the last "short book review" I do in this decade!!! Pecking away with just the right index finger while holding the book open ... I think I can now sympathize with Squint-eyed Southerner having to do his typing on a gadget hardly larger than a postage stamp!
🥵😵🥴🤒
