All fans of Tolkien are pretty lucky his son was this involved in his fathers works, and after his fathers passing worked hard to give us more. He could just as easily have not cared about any of it.
I also had a tear in my eye, when I heard Christopher explain, in French, about how he'd been worried about his father in the night, when he was very small, and after he went downstairs and found him, he cried, and left a tear on his father's painting. And his father kindly did not fuss, but painted over it. And this was the same painting that he had come to France to see, when he was an old man, so many years later. Perhaps the point is, outside of all the vast achievements of JRR's lore, is that his published stories are very often about very human moments like that one.
cally, I once had a debate with a friend of mine (my best friend) about Tolkien, and other authors. Tom was telling, or arguing that Tolkien was merely writing fantasy, and I needed to read other works that were about "the human condition". I was freakin stunned. I said "You have got to be kidding". Look at Frodo1s journey, and how he went from a hobbit within his safety zone and found out by taking the quest to destroy the ring, he became wiser, and saw good and evil, yet he ultimately failed. Gollum was needed to fight with him,and fell into the lava of Mt. Doom. Frodo has taken so much mental and physical hurt from the morgul knife to his mind being taken out into reality, and he can never have peace again in his life. He must go to the gray Havens to sail to the west with Gandalf and Elrond and Galadriel. Nothing can be more about "the human condition" than the story of Frodo. After I spoke my mind to him, he had no answer at all. His argument was lost in the truth of Tolkien, and the "Human Condition". He just looked into his pint of beer and said "shit", You got me Greg. I never thought about that. I said You are taking your courses and professors words as gospel it seems Tommy! He just shook his head and said "shit" again, and then he laughed. It seems like yesterday, that talk we had out in the bar, on a night 30 yrs ago.
Me too!! I was like a baby , crying at seeing Chris at his most weak and yet his mind was still sharp as a razor blade.. I imagine him coming downstairs and seeing J.R.R. painting ( you look close and you will see a very small spot that was messed up with the teardrop) and the worry was gone as his dad did not even get annoyed at the teardrop. " And who has ever held his father in such high regard and love".-------Feanor That is a para phrase, the written word ,I don`t have time to look for cuz it is a single sentence amid a huge book.
Christopher was the only one of J.R.R.`s children, who deeply loved his fathers work. He has given us so many books to find the deep and vast history Tolkien had and from the unfinished works, like the Silmarillion and the letters of Tolkien. He published the 12 books on the LotR`s and the Silmarillion`s constant additions and changes that J.R.R. made throughout his life. I am sorry, I am having a hard time putting my thought to word. Without Christopher being so eager, and supportive of the entire writings of the Master.
@ Hero, I am a dunce !! I have a 4 CD set of audio recorded by J.R.R. and Christopher reading from The Hobbit, LotR`s and the Silmarillion. Absolutely great stuff. Tolkien reading "Riddles in the Dark" from the Hobbit might be the best and funny of all!! He becomes Gollum entirely, there. Mind blowing and you can hear how much he is enjoying himself as Gollum ! "What`s he got in his pocketses, oh we guesses precious, we guesses"! " We shall never be safe again precious, gollum, we can`t go sneaky and tripsy or goblinses will get us precious!! Curse us and crush us"!!
This, like all the times we get to listen to Christopher, is wonderful. Yes, Christoher was THE star of the children, the one who loved unconditionally and understood what his father was all about.
9:39 If Gandalf "had the ring, he would be FAR worse than Sauron, because he would be righteous and self-righteous." What an incisive insight...coercion, even for good ends!
This was such a pleasure to watch and deeply warmed my spirit to hear Christopher recount his father's work, which has left an indelible impression on my experience in this wonderful and at times terrible, mysterious world.
Thanks a lot for sharing this! How great Christopher Tolkien was! I watched the final section with tears in my eyes. What a way to greet the last episode of one’s life. May he rest in peace. ❤
J.R.R.’s daughter Priscilla: One of Priscilla’s greatest contributions to the preservation of her father’s work, came through her years of engagement with the Tolkien Society, a membership organization and charity devoted to promoting the life and works of J.R.R. Tolkien. While her brother Christopher, who was known to fans as the editor of Tolkien’s posthumous works, lived in France for most of his life, Priscilla remained in Oxford, and became engaged in fan communities. Christopher was only able to attend one event by the Tolkien Society during his lifetime: the 1992 Centenary Conference. Priscilla, on the other hand, was an annual presence at the Tolkien Society and became particularly known for generously hosting fans at her home. She was also the family’s photographic archivist of her father’s works. She went through all of her fathers papers and preserved them at Oxford.
Yes, she went to so many Tolkien Society dinners they called her Prescilla, Queen of the Desserts. ... Seriously though, she gave so much of her time to keep the connection between her father's legacy and the fandom alive. Thank you Prescilla.
I do find it funny and ironically hilarious that Tolkien disliked allegory being placed onto his writing. Then Christopher Tolkien goes on to describe everything his father wrote into allegory saying The ring is the machine. I disagree his analysis on his own father's work because Tolkien said the ring can be anything, lust, greed, anger, hatred, envy and all desires of men and women. Not just one thing.
I'd say allegories are about specific events, political, ideological or technological. The machine and its influence on the environment is a broad concept, much like good and evil and music. Had he written an allegory about the industrial revolution, the story would have to resemble real life events a little more closely.
I'll take your word for the approximate quote........."Tolkien said the ring can be anything, lust, greed, anger, hatred, envy and all desires of men and women. Not just one thing." Then you disagree with Christopher that "the ring is the machine". I agree with you. IF we analyze what you quote from JRRT, those five items are all sins driven by unregulated desire, but you left out one key item. The machine, in all its manifestations, is merely a means for fulfilling those regulated or unregulated desires, a mere tool equating to variations upon fishing ants from their anthill. The Prince of Pride and King of Sin, Sauron, is the fabricator of the Ring because he has the ambition of seizing the mantle of Eru. THE question for all of us is always the same....how ought we to live, how do we employ the time given to us that honors the gift?
It's so easy to find fault. It's even easier to remain silent in the presence of bullying force. When we find someone celebrating the little acts of bravery or telling truths when most others hide it or repeat falsehoods, we owe it to ourselves and to fellow humans of like intentions to speak up in support. But with instant internet and AI, it's not always possible to tell truth from fiction and reality from robots. Thanks yourself.@@pphedup
"I came here to escape my name and my doom" "Your doom lies in yourself, not in your name" thats from the Children of Hurin and sums up so many aspects of Tolkien, in particular I think, the machine. Electric cars predated the internal combustion engine and much of the devastation of the world has been about oil and gas, and that engine. The tyranny didn't come from the machine, really had little to do with it. Its systems of organizations and hierarchies that are the problem, and as such much of the very structure of Tolkiens world is the very structure he fears rather than machines. While 'bad people' tend to use machines, the ultimate 'evil' is not a machine, it is magic.
Tolkien was very traditional, a devout RC, & deeply conversant with the historical structures of several ancient languages. I don't think that systems, organizations and hierarchies such as the Donnish university system and the hierarchy of the RC religion bothered him. It is stated in this upload and by Tolkien elsewhere, that he did dislike the tyranny of the machine, of the machine age, and cried for the factory-slavery of the people who were oppressed by the machine world.
It is out of my love and unwavering respect for JRR Tolkien, that I hold such contempt for Amazon for trying to destroy the legacy that obviously inspired this video. Some things were meant to be left alone, and any attempt to disrupt the canon and lore is blasphemous
Scott, I cannot put the anger and outrage I have toward Amazon in words. It is my belief that Tolkien lore must not be perverted or altered just to make money off of it. I know Tolkien sold the rights to LotR`s in 1968. I do not understand why he did that. For my part, I wish he did not do that. The Silmarillion is my personal "Bible". I do not care if this is called blasphemy by the Church at all. It is, in a way, my own truth. I realize how radical or crazy one might view my thoughts on Tolkien`s "Mythos" or "sub-creation", and I could not care less. It is just my own thoughts, and nobody is being harmed by it. Of course people who spew scripture will say I am harming myself in these views, and again, I don`t care.
I think that Tolkien's legacy would benefit from his work coming in the public domain. It will properly earn its place as a mythos. Tolkien himself said that he wrote the world with such detail as for other minds could also work in it. Let everyone make movies and write novels in his world. A bad hecules movie or a bad troy movie doesn't take anything away from the greatness of homer's writings. People can always access the original work whenever they want
@@usmanazam449Well said. And dare I admit that I really enjoy and respect Peter Jackson's incredible LOTR movies achievement?...not including his rewriting and padding out of the Hobbit.
It is a simplistic, hackneyed and juvenile live action cartoon - with none of Tolkien's soul, wit or narrative vision. That seems to be the 'best' that modern popular culture can come up with these days. It's just like Christopher Tolkien described in this interview: Thanks to machines and digital production it's easier to churn out 'products' then ever before. The Machine is enabling low-skilled individuals to produce more - and worse - labour.
All fans of Tolkien are pretty lucky his son was this involved in his fathers works, and after his fathers passing worked hard to give us more. He could just as easily have not cared about any of it.
I also had a tear in my eye, when I heard Christopher explain, in French, about how he'd been worried about his father in the night, when he was very small, and after he went downstairs and found him, he cried, and left a tear on his father's painting. And his father kindly did not fuss, but painted over it. And this was the same painting that he had come to France to see, when he was an old man, so many years later.
Perhaps the point is, outside of all the vast achievements of JRR's lore, is that his published stories are very often about very human moments like that one.
cally, I once had a debate with a friend of mine (my best friend) about Tolkien, and other authors. Tom was telling, or arguing that Tolkien was merely writing fantasy, and I needed to read other works that were about "the human condition". I was freakin stunned. I said "You have got to be kidding". Look at Frodo1s journey, and how he went from a hobbit within his safety zone and found out by taking the quest to destroy the ring, he became wiser, and saw good and evil, yet he ultimately failed. Gollum was needed to fight with him,and fell into the lava of Mt. Doom. Frodo has taken so much mental and physical hurt from the morgul knife to his mind being taken out into reality, and he can never have peace again in his life. He must go to the gray Havens to sail to the west with Gandalf and Elrond and Galadriel. Nothing can be more about "the human condition" than the story of Frodo. After I spoke my mind to him, he had no answer at all. His argument was lost in the truth of Tolkien, and the "Human Condition". He just looked into his pint of beer and said "shit", You got me Greg. I never thought about that. I said You are taking your courses and professors words as gospel it seems Tommy! He just shook his head and said "shit" again, and then he laughed. It seems like yesterday, that talk we had out in the bar, on a night 30 yrs ago.
Me too!! I was like a baby , crying at seeing Chris at his most weak and yet his mind was still sharp as a razor blade.. I imagine him coming downstairs and seeing J.R.R. painting ( you look close and you will see a very small spot that was messed up with the teardrop) and the worry was gone as his dad did not even get annoyed at the teardrop. " And who has ever held his father in such high regard and love".-------Feanor That is a para phrase, the written word ,I don`t have time to look for cuz it is a single sentence amid a huge book.
Christopher was the only one of J.R.R.`s children, who deeply loved his fathers work. He has given us so many books to find the deep and vast history Tolkien had and from the unfinished works, like the Silmarillion and the letters of Tolkien. He published the 12 books on the LotR`s and the Silmarillion`s constant additions and changes that J.R.R. made throughout his life. I am sorry, I am having a hard time putting my thought to word. Without Christopher being so eager, and supportive of the entire writings of the Master.
@ Hero, I am a dunce !! I have a 4 CD set of audio recorded by J.R.R. and Christopher reading from The Hobbit, LotR`s and the Silmarillion. Absolutely great stuff. Tolkien reading "Riddles in the Dark" from the Hobbit might be the best and funny of all!! He becomes Gollum entirely, there. Mind blowing and you can hear how much he is enjoying himself as Gollum ! "What`s he got in his pocketses, oh we guesses precious, we guesses"! " We shall never be safe again precious, gollum, we can`t go sneaky and tripsy or goblinses will get us precious!! Curse us and crush us"!!
This, like all the times we get to listen to Christopher, is wonderful. Yes, Christoher was THE star of the children, the one who loved unconditionally and understood what his father was all about.
Christopher was great in his way, and clearly a great son. Grateful for his contribution to share his father’s legendarium
9:39 If Gandalf "had the ring, he would be FAR worse than Sauron, because he would be righteous and self-righteous." What an incisive insight...coercion, even for good ends!
Christopher was a co-author of many lines in the world of Arda, during JRR's lifetime and still gave all the credit to his father.
This was such a pleasure to watch and deeply warmed my spirit to hear Christopher recount his father's work, which has left an indelible impression on my experience in this wonderful and at times terrible, mysterious world.
Thanks a lot for sharing this! How great Christopher Tolkien was! I watched the final section with tears in my eyes. What a way to greet the last episode of one’s life. May he rest in peace. ❤
I could listen to this man talk all day, I wish he were still with us. 😣
J.R.R.’s daughter Priscilla: One of Priscilla’s greatest contributions to the preservation of her father’s work, came through her years of engagement with the Tolkien Society, a membership organization and charity devoted to promoting the life and works of J.R.R. Tolkien.
While her brother Christopher, who was known to fans as the editor of Tolkien’s posthumous works, lived in France for most of his life, Priscilla remained in Oxford, and became engaged in fan communities. Christopher was only able to attend one event by the Tolkien Society during his lifetime: the 1992 Centenary Conference. Priscilla, on the other hand, was an annual presence at the Tolkien Society and became particularly known for generously hosting fans at her home. She was also the family’s photographic archivist of her father’s works. She went through all of her fathers papers and preserved them at Oxford.
Yes, she went to so many Tolkien Society dinners they called her Prescilla, Queen of the Desserts.
...
Seriously though, she gave so much of her time to keep the connection between her father's legacy and the fandom alive. Thank you Prescilla.
Thank you for publishing this interview. I dream of places in Middle-Earth to visit. He was incredible.
Thank you sooo much for this! ❤️
RIP Christopher
A wonderful video. Thank you.
Thank you so much for making this.
Thanks for this wonderful archive ❤
I love this
The discussions about a "secondary world", remind me of carl jungs work
Thank you, Christopher, for not being another Brian Herbert. What a legend :)
* good insight there
I do find it funny and ironically hilarious that Tolkien disliked allegory being placed onto his writing. Then Christopher Tolkien goes on to describe everything his father wrote into allegory saying The ring is the machine. I disagree his analysis on his own father's work because Tolkien said the ring can be anything, lust, greed, anger, hatred, envy and all desires of men and women. Not just one thing.
I'd say allegories are about specific events, political, ideological or technological. The machine and its influence on the environment is a broad concept, much like good and evil and music. Had he written an allegory about the industrial revolution, the story would have to resemble real life events a little more closely.
I'll take your word for the approximate quote........."Tolkien said the ring can be anything, lust, greed, anger, hatred, envy and all desires of men and women. Not just one thing." Then you disagree with Christopher that "the ring is the machine". I agree with you.
IF we analyze what you quote from JRRT, those five items are all sins driven by unregulated desire, but you left out one key item.
The machine, in all its manifestations, is merely a means for fulfilling those regulated or unregulated desires, a mere tool equating to variations upon fishing ants from their anthill.
The Prince of Pride and King of Sin, Sauron, is the fabricator of the Ring because he has the ambition of seizing the mantle of Eru.
THE question for all of us is always the same....how ought we to live, how do we employ the time given to us that honors the gift?
@@kevinrussell1144 Kevin Russell, How eloquent. Thank you.
It's so easy to find fault. It's even easier to remain silent in the presence of bullying force. When we find someone celebrating the little acts of bravery or telling truths when most others hide it or repeat falsehoods, we owe it to ourselves and to fellow humans of like intentions to speak up in support.
But with instant internet and AI, it's not always possible to tell truth from fiction and reality from robots.
Thanks yourself.@@pphedup
I know they are father & son but my they sound similar. I must learn more.
"I came here to escape my name and my doom"
"Your doom lies in yourself, not in your name"
thats from the Children of Hurin and sums up so many aspects of Tolkien, in particular I think, the machine. Electric cars predated the internal combustion engine and much of the devastation of the world has been about oil and gas, and that engine. The tyranny didn't come from the machine, really had little to do with it. Its systems of organizations and hierarchies that are the problem, and as such much of the very structure of Tolkiens world is the very structure he fears rather than machines. While 'bad people' tend to use machines, the ultimate 'evil' is not a machine, it is magic.
Tolkien was very traditional, a devout RC, & deeply conversant with the historical structures of several ancient languages. I don't think that systems, organizations and hierarchies such as the Donnish university system and the hierarchy of the RC religion bothered him. It is stated in this upload and by Tolkien elsewhere, that he did dislike the tyranny of the machine, of the machine age, and cried for the factory-slavery of the people who were oppressed by the machine world.
8:00 onwards some counts
Tolkien and nietzche werent so apart here
ahh yes...i totally agree with what ever you just said good Sir 46:30
Its amazing that without Christopher Tolkien, we would have a less appealing and developed Arda.
I will take the ring 😢😊❤
@zatoichi4449😊
immortal elves 50:30
It is out of my love and unwavering respect for JRR Tolkien, that I hold such contempt for Amazon for trying to destroy the legacy that obviously inspired this video. Some things were meant to be left alone, and any attempt to disrupt the canon and lore is blasphemous
Scott, I cannot put the anger and outrage I have toward Amazon in words. It is my belief that Tolkien lore must not be perverted or altered just to make money off of it. I know Tolkien sold the rights to LotR`s in 1968. I do not understand why he did that. For my part, I wish he did not do that. The Silmarillion is my personal "Bible". I do not care if this is called blasphemy by the Church at all. It is, in a way, my own truth. I realize how radical or crazy one might view my thoughts on Tolkien`s "Mythos" or "sub-creation", and I could not care less. It is just my own thoughts, and nobody is being harmed by it. Of course people who spew scripture will say I am harming myself in these views, and again, I don`t care.
I think that Tolkien's legacy would benefit from his work coming in the public domain. It will properly earn its place as a mythos. Tolkien himself said that he wrote the world with such detail as for other minds could also work in it. Let everyone make movies and write novels in his world. A bad hecules movie or a bad troy movie doesn't take anything away from the greatness of homer's writings. People can always access the original work whenever they want
@@usmanazam449Well said. And dare I admit that I really enjoy and respect Peter Jackson's incredible LOTR movies achievement?...not including his rewriting and padding out of the Hobbit.
It is a simplistic, hackneyed and juvenile live action cartoon - with none of Tolkien's soul, wit or narrative vision. That seems to be the 'best' that modern popular culture can come up with these days.
It's just like Christopher Tolkien described in this interview: Thanks to machines and digital production it's easier to churn out 'products' then ever before. The Machine is enabling low-skilled individuals to produce more - and worse - labour.
Reminds me of when Tolkien said “ evil cannot create, it can only destroy “.