How lucky was Tolkien to have a son like Christopher, who shows such interest in his fathers works that he took it on himself to carry the mantle that extra bit further by completing and releasing many of the stories that would have dissapeared.

"I go to my father(s), in whose mighty company, I shall not (now) feel ashamed..." RIP Christopher Tolkein

Rest in Peace master... He's taken a ship to the West and reunited with his father.

The passion with which he speaks about his fathers work is just a joy to witness. A great man raised by a true genius.

J.R.R. Tolkien deserves far more credit than he actually gets even with the popularity of film. He created not only an epic story but a complete world filled with culture and multiple languages. He was brilliant and changed not only fantasy but all literature forever.

If it wasn't for Christopher Tolkien, we might never had been able to read The Silmarillion, one of my all time favourite books, I re-read it every other year or so. If there is some way of bringing this book faithfully to the screen, I hope I live to see it.

It seems that Tolkien was such a perfectionist that his version of The Simarillion would never have been completed. His mind was too genius for one lifetime.

Thank goodness Christopher is here to help his father's legacy wrap up and rest in peace.. The Silmarillion is a great work.

He is magnificently articulate.

The Silmarillion is my all-time favorite book. But its nothing like the Lord of the Rings. Its a very heavy, intense, archaic book with many sub-stories and plots. It is not for the faint of heart. But, if you have patience, and can understand the overall meaning of the tragedy and curse of the Silmarils, it is very moving. It's also a beautifully written mythopoesis, and was Tolkien's swan song and attempt at creating his own private mythology. Christopher is an amazing writer himself, and did a beautiful job with his father's work.

Remember, The Hobbit was written for him as a child so that his father could read him bed time stories.

He looks a bit like Gandalf himself

Homie would go bonkers if he saw what they're now doing with his father's work. He seems like such a dedicated and a fiercely loyal man to his father.

His English is so good the captions almost work.

I have a lot of respect for Christopher Tolkien. But after reading 'The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings', I have even more respect for him. It seems that he is very like his father and his father trusted him with reading early chapters of his books and he became a de facto member of the Inklings in his own right.

R. I. P. Christopher Tolkien, thank you for giving us the extra lore of Middle-earth for us! May you be reunited with your father above!

You can sense the passion he has for his own fathers novels. His dad was most certainly his hero.

Christopher Tolkien was an incredible man, he did so much for his father's legacy and so much for everyone who ever enjoyed these works... Rest in peace.

Rest in peace, your father awaits with Mandos.

The Silmarillion is my favorite book. I have read it numerous times and each time is like reading it for the first time in that I bring away something new with each reading. The creation story is the most beautiful bit of fiction written. Tokien was pure genius. I am so glad his son, Christopher undertook the enormous task of editing JRR's work and putting it into an order that makes it manageable for this reader. Christopher is an amazing author in his own right.

It is such a strange thing that the huge, amazing world of middle-Earth is born from one single mind. I believe Tolkien was what we call an *inspired Genius*. Just like Mozart, Einstein, or Shakespeare. Very interesting to hear J.R.R Tolkien's Younger son (Now 90!) speaking of his father, and I'm very grateful to Christopher Tolkien for his huge work on editing and publishing his father's notes into books.

Thanks for everything, Christopher: you and your father have enriched my life immeasurably. R.I.P.

It should be every Father's dream to have a son like him.

the amount of pressure he must had when he was young. but still he followed his father’s footsteps. amazing family!

Professor Tolkien changed the world forever with his writings, and we'll always be thankful for both the writings he published in his lifetime, and the writings his son allowed us to see via his editing and subsequent publishing. Thank you, sirs, for your amazing contribution to World Literature.

In volume 10 of the History of Middle-earth, which is "Morgoth's Ring", Tolkien's discussion of the fundamental and metaphysical aspect of Elvish and Mannish nature is really detailed and deep. Although Christopher Tolkien says that his father had not enough energy to complete this discussion, I think what Tolkien has arrived at in this respect is already remarkable.

It's so sad. Imagine, being old and decrepit, unable to finish your masterpiece, because you had become so in love with it, so longing to see it fully realized, and had thus poured so much thought into its conception, that was now too great a task for you, being wearied by old age, to perform.

The Silmarillion is one of my all time favourite books. It is filled with epic and beautiful stories, and describes scenes that leave a permanent mark on my mind. I will never forget the duel between Morgoth and Fingolfin, or the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, or the cruel curse upon the family of Turin. The Silmarillion is a wonderful, amazing book and it changed my life, and gave me inspiration.

Tolkien was an amazing creative mind , he fathered a genre that many enjoy today , he was a genius

I can truly respect Professor Tolken & his son's work to tell us this other world we've known & grown to love. I understand why they didn't like the film adaptations. Tolken was a perfectionist & he created this other world because he wanted something unique known to him & for others to read. He only gave away the film rights because he thought his books were supposed to be unfilmable. It is too much detail to put into one film, even at that, a trilogy. Jackson & his writers only trimmed down what is understandable as a film, a movie to watch & not get lost so to speak. In LOTR you'd jump from one story to another. You couldn't do a literal adaptation otherwise they would've ended up in a mish mash. It only works in books because its storytelling. Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens & Fran Walsh wrote an appropriate way for their movie. J.R.R Tolken wrote an appropriate way for his books. I love the books & i love the movies. Either way, we still get the great depiction of Middle-Earth & its people.

His Quenya language is not just better than Esperanto, it’s better than Finnish. No one can possibly top it, no one will ever try. So Tolkien really is some kind of genius after all. I can honestly say that the Ainulindale was one of the most amazing things I have ever read. I will always admire that piece in particular. Anything in cold print that makes me sit up and read furiously, well, that in my book is admirable and not too often encountered.

I enjoy his deliberate and considered pronunciation of the fictitious dialectic words almost as much as I love his deep passion for his father’s mythos.

When I read, I take the Silmarillion as History. Even in the history of our own world, there are inaccuracies, contradictions, incomplete accounts and even total omissions of known truths (handed down orally or in other forms, but with no "proof" that we can look back on). So LOTR is the reality, and Silmarillion is our window to look upon Middle Earth through the eyes of an inhabitant thereof toward the end of the third age. This would be the knowledge available to them if they had access to all the libraries, councils of the wise and time to visit ancient landmarks and other places of antiquity to learn all they could. Very kind of Prof. Tolkien as it helps us connect with our favorite characters, lands and cultures like one can with no other work of fiction (to my knowldge anyway).

I just realized The Silmarillion is here in my apartment, and I have forgotten to read it! Oooooooh this is the moment I will look back to and think, " Oh, If I could turn back time so I can read it for the first time again.... " Silmarillion-virginity will be lost. Tonight.

RIP, Christopher Tolkien. I respect what you did.

Read the Hobbit and the Trilogy as a kid was sad to come to the end as i thought that was it, then discovered The Silmarillion for me that was like " The lost book"

If you expect this book to be a “prequel” to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, you might be dissapointed. I, on the other hand, love it. It reads almost like a medieval chronicle, an romanticised version of history. In this case, of Tolkien’s secondary world. Far less detailed descriptions of places and characters, far less dialogue or introspection (although it seems there is much more of that in older versions of these stories, that i haven’t read yet). And certainly almost no humour. But despite all that, i am fascinated by the Silmarillion every time i read it. Rest In Peace Christopher Tolkien. I can never thank you enough for the great effort you made to share as much of your father’s legacy as you possibly could, but i still try...

Thank you Christopher. For continuing the epic saga that your father started.

The last ship has sailed and he's on that one....rip mr C. Tolkien

I first read the Hobbit and loved it so it was natural to delve into the LOTR. However, I was lost a lot of times by the many references to a much older time period. I wasn't that impressed with the trilogy. I then saw the Silmarillion in a book store and decided to give Tolkien one more try and I was swept off my feet! I read it 3x in a row and then re-read LOTR. This time I thoroughly enjoyed the Rings cuz I knew what these references were about. It was so much more enjoyable to understood the history that lead up to the other 4 books. Tolkien created this utterly beautiful, yet tragic world that seems so real. It went way beyond the typical fantasy/mythology story.

The Silmarillion is just........*kiss*.

Just the way Tolkien wrote those notes on the side is a pleasure listening to lol

R.I.P thank you for taking your time to make your fathers work available even after his death.

Christopher is such an underrated part of the Lord of the Rings books. The man basically finished his father's work in a fantastic way. His father couldn't be prouder.

RESPECT TO THIS MAN FOR PRODUCING THIS BOOk... i really wished he and PJ woul dhave got along for the greater good

It was when Christopher retired, that Amazon struck. Christopher was like Gondor, while he stood, Middle-earth could thrive.

Every glimpse into JRRT's thoughts is a joy.

The tales of the Elder Days are a gift that just keeps giving. The scale and depth of Tolkien Sr's world are astonishing and reward perseverance so much. Thank you, Christopher, for the decades of work on bringing as much as possible of it into the light.

"...too large a task. Too large. Too tired". Wow. Ponder that.

Thanks for the special interview.

I have heard from the movie industry and on the comments that The Silmarillion cannot be adapted onto the big screen. Well let me propose this: how about the SILVER SCREEN? Think about it! The book is Tolkien's creation myth, what better way to do it justice than to turn it into A DOCUMENTARY? Give BBC the rights! Those guys will SURELY respect the works of one of Britain's greatest sons! And if Jackson still proves to have the same fire he did when he directed LOTR, rope him in! Imagine that! On BBC prime time, for an entire month's worth of episodes, BBC PRESENT: J.R.R. TOLKIEN'S THE SILMARILLION. Imagine that!

Tolkien created something absolutely greater than himself. To say he was a "great" writer is an understatement. My grandfather passed the stories to my father and then to me and I'll continue with my children. Long live Middle Earth!!!

GANDALF: End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it.

I wish I was articulate like this gentleman.

A great contribution. We used it as the opening for our Roundtable discussion with NYC Area JRR Tolkien & Fantasy Fans this past weekend. Thank you for posting.

Humankind is given the gift of creation not the gift of completion but this will never stop us trying to find the end.

Rest in peace JRRT and Christopher

And now we are stuck with the grandson. The true 3rd darklord.

RIP Cristopher

Thank you for sharing this, and thank you Christopher for your clear commitment to your father and his creation. The world is so much better for both of you....

I love the Silmarillion, it is the freshest, most elaborately detailed, most encapsulating novel of fantasy in our lifetime. I am a writer and I envy this work. I am writing a mythology behind a fantasy series of my own, and I always start with the Beginning. I have tried as elaborately as possible to describe the seriousness of the situations involved. I called it the Book of the Lost Forest

That's so inspiring. A man that made a legend, as well as his heir, his son. That's beautiful.

Have to disagree JustinBiberFan90210 - These books were popular when they were published, there were radio broadcast of JRR Tolkien reading them on a radio show and records/ albums made in 1952 England. And they really took off in the 1970's when the first movies were made. Alot of people read these books a long time ago, and they were not gay or nerds.

What an articulate and sophisticated Englishman!

My eternal gratitude for The Silmarillion 🙏 My paperbacks showed wear, so I have a hardback now. Printed in 1981 it's lush.💎

Wow that's amazing. I had not seen this video when I read the book. Really makes me want to reread it! Literally one of my favorite books. :)

I just got the strongest urge to reread my favorite book ... yet again :D

What an incredibly captivating voice

I like the part when he talks about the silmarillion.

nice post, The Silmarillion is one of the best work of Tolkien

this is wonderfull , since im small im in passion with secondary world building , to know that one of the best autors of all time had this gravitational pull , that the constructions want to pull toward each other is verry pleasent to hear :)

That was so in-depth and enlightening; I'd like to think of it as a piece of my own history now that I've learned about the books more in detail. Christopher seems very smart. He looks a bit like his own father.

I don't think a grand piece of literature like The Silmarillion should receive the judgmental gaze of the movie industry when Hollywood is a complete mockery of what it once was. No one could take it on, ESPECIALLY Peter Jackson. I've heard it said and I have to agree; it is too big for any screen. There's not enough dialogue for the general masses either. So much would have to be ad libbed. Would ruin the magic of the story telling. There'd have to be a lot of narration and that's why we have audiobooks. It should never meet that fate after what has happened to The Hobbit. If someone's too lazy to read it; it's their loss.

I wish from the bottom of my heart that J.R.R.Tolkien had finished The Silmarillion! I find it's Universe beautiful...it really is a shame he couldn't do it...But still it's amazing as it is, it's like reading a melody! I hope one day Peter Jackson makes an awesome adaptaion of this peace of art!

May he rest in peace!

I wish The Silmarillion was adapted into a TV show like Game of Thrones, except without all the sex and gore (well at least not too much).

JRR Tolkien wrote everything we know about Middle Earth and Arda, but we only got some of his work via the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. Christopher Tolkien collected and gathered his father's work and published pretty much everything else and thus completing the picture, and thus fundamentally altering the nature of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings.

Reading and re-reading The Hobbit, you can really tell that it doesn't really feel like it is integrated into The Lord of the Rings, it feels like a separate work only tangentially related, in the same way The Lord of the Rings is so apart from the Simarillion. The Simarillion feels like it is the Universe's internal mythology of the Men of the West rather than a proper Prequel. There are the tiniest hints in The Lord of the Rings of this shared mythology and religion of Rohan and Gondor (like Aaragon singing about the tale of Beren and Lúthien on Weathertop, Faramir referencing Numenor in The Two Towers, as well as Sam referencing Beren and Luthien later on.)

Fascinating insight about the evolution of Tolkien's world. It explains the functions of the writing of "Unfinished Tales", as it has a lot of the "writing back" that Christopher refers to.

Descanse en paz Christopher Tolkien, gracias a él podemos disfrutar las demás obras del maestro. Dios los tenga en su santa gloria a ambos.

I’m doing research on specific religious sect and Tolkien came up on my research. I was very fortunate to see Tolkiens exhibit in NYC. I remember seeing some of these books on display and the world building Tolkien and his beautiful map. I liked Lord of rings trilogy but I only seen video essays dissecting the movies versus the books.

"Too large, too complex" pretty much nails it I think. Those are the words I could have used 35 years ago after reading L of TRs and pondering this complicated Simarilion. (I haven't read yet. But have made several attempts to.) I've got an "original 1st American Edition"? I'm not sure. I've got the Green and Red Leather bound volumes of The Hobbit and the Trilogy. They can be got cheap at Lord of the Rings Fanatics Shop

Rest in peace legend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chrisopher Tolkien is a genius like his father!

Rest in peace 🖤 I hope amazon don't ruin ur father legacy .

The only way I could see an adaptation to screen working with The Silmarillion is in the form of a high quality, long running fantasy series like Game of Thrones. You would still have serious continuity issues. Maybe you could cover a different epoch or Age with the different seasons? There would be permanent cast members for the major powers, but a continuous stream of actors/actresses for Elf/Dwarf and Men. There is a very small list of guys I would trust to handle it though.

i say all the time i wished that god would let all the rappers and musicians that died finish there works. this is the author that i also wished would have had the time and god would give the energy to complete this universe... i hope the family lets other great writers and creator continue his work in the future.

Its a fantastic book and Tolkein's magnum opus.

The REAL J.R.R's work still hold up perfectly for me & my children/grandchildren ...even tho his children are older than my grandfather.. A true author for the ages.

I would love to see The Silmarillion made into a series of movies, but I can't conceptualize how a film maker would format such a series. The time line is enormous, at least tens of thousands of years to cover the First and Second ages, and the stories and characters are only loosely interconnected. And not all of the stories are directly related to a central theme, i.e. the making of the Silmarils, their theft by Morgoth, and the wars fought to recover them and eventually to eliminate Morgoth himself. It would have to be several different series, each covering a few chapters of the book. To do such a series at the technical and special effects level of Peter Jackson's LOTR and Hobbit movies would be so expensive, and would take so many years to complete, that I can't imagine any currently existing studio or production company backing the project. Has anyone even even written a preliminary screenplay to explore how such a series of movies might be done? Look at how long it took George Lucas to complete 6 films of the Star Wars stories, or Jackson to do six films for LOTR and the Hobbit. Remember that any studio will only finance a project if they are confident that: 1) it is actually "do-able" in a technical sense, and within the capabilities of the director and producers, and 2) that it has a reasonable chance to make at least some profit, meaning that total returns will exceed production cost. That would be a difficult calculation to make for a series of films to be made from a novel as "unusual" as The Silmarillion.

First read in the late 70's and many times since.

O mundo não pode acabar antes que seja produzido o filme `` O Silmarillion``, pois,ainda pretendo ver na telona.

Rip Christopher 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

Indeed, and as good as the movies are the books are amazing!

fascinating insight.

christopher tolkien was far more comfortable during interviews than his father..

What if The Silmarilion becomes a TV series? Think about the amount of detail that could be captured. Perhaps it could stay closer to the story and theme of The Silmarilion than a movie.

John is in the Undying Lands right now.

I love the Silmarillion! I would love to see it made into a movie. :) Looking forward to how they're going to portray the characters of that book. It's a complex novel but when you have finished it you'll find it was worth your time. ;)

The Silmarillion is the definition of EPIC.