January 21, 2020 11:00am by David Farrar

RIP Christopher Tolkien

The son of acclaimed fantasy author JRR Tolkien, who wrote The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, has died aged 95.
Christopher Tolkien was responsible for publishing much of his late father’s work and undertook significant editing on those works.
The Tolkien Society announced his death this morning, sending its “deepest condolences to the Tolkien Family”.
Tolkien Society Chair Shaun Gunnar said “all of us in the Tolkien Society will share in the sadness at the news of Christopher Tolkien’s death, and we send our condolences to Baillie, Simon, Adam, Rachel and the whole Tolkien family at this difficult time.

It can be hard to be the son of a great man, but Christopher Tolkien handled it well. In fact he was a significant contributor to his father’s legacy, which became his own life’s work.

In fact JRR referred to Christopher as his “chief critic and collaborator”.

It will be interesting to see who becomes the literary executor to the Tolkien works, as this can have a major impact on future TV series and films.