Review of "The Great Tales Never End: Essays in Memory of Christopher Tolkien" by Grundy

Review of "The Great Tales Never End: Essays in Memory of Christopher Tolkien"

"... Why to think of it, we're in the same tale still! It's going on. Don't the great tales never end?"

"No, they never end as tales," said Frodo. "But the people in them come, and go when their part's ended. Our part will end later – or sooner."

"And then we can have some rest and some sleep," said Sam.

The Great Tales Never End: Essays in Memory of Christopher Tolkien, released June 24, is above all an expression of gratitude and appreciation for someone without whom J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium would be much smaller, with only a fraction of its great tales known to us. Christopher Tolkien's part in the tale has come to an end, but this book recognizes his remarkable life and contributions to the world.

While many think of Christopher Tolkien solely as his father's literary executor, it easily might have been otherwise. Christopher set aside an independent career in academia in 1975 to take up the task of fulfilling his father's vision of "other hands" continuing what he had begun. This work—sorting through his father's papers, ordering them, and producing not only what would become The Silmarillion but also the multi-volume History of Middle-earth, standalone volumes of the Great Tales, and scholarly editions of his father's work on Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and others—would occupy him for the remainder of his long life, with his final volume The Fall of Gondolin published in 2018. 

Begun initially as a festschrift in the expectation it would be published while Christopher Tolkien was alive to read and enjoy it, The Great Tales Never End instead stands as a memorial. One can only hope that Christopher was aware during his life of the sentiments expressed in this collection—the love, respect, admiration, and gratitude. Any one of the essays included would have been a fine tribute, beginning with Catherine McIlwaine's introduction. Contributors include Vincent Ferré, Verlyn Flieger, John Garth, Wayne Hammond, Christina Scull, Carl Hostetter, Stuart Lee, Tom Shippey, and Brian Sibley, as well as a translation by Baillie Tolkien of Maxime Pascal's eulogy delivered at Christopher's funeral. 

The writing covers Christopher's life, the chronology of the Legendarium, the challenges Christopher faced in editing and producing coherent narratives from his father's manuscripts, as well as more academic analysis. The book is interspersed throughout with photos and color illustrations, including family photos, notebook excerpts, and drawings by both Christopher and his father. Newcomers to the fandom and longtime travelers to Middle-earth alike will find new facts and facets to interest them.

At the same time, this is no dry, impersonal collection of essays—the inclusion of not only family friend Maxime Pascal's moving eulogy but also the late Priscilla Tolkien's personal recollections of her older brother reminds the reader early on that Christopher was not merely his father's assistant or executor, not just an academic, but a person with a loving family, friends who treasured him, and a life beyond the boundaries of Middle-earth. 

It was no small undertaking to put together a collection attesting to the full breadth of Christopher's life and work, from his early involvement first as listener and then error-hunter for The Hobbit, through his contributions to The Lord of the Rings to his academic career and the frankly daunting task as his father's literary executor, but the editors have done a fine job, assembling the essays into a well-considered and coherent whole that concludes, as indeed it must, there and back again; door to door; journey done.