A salute to Christopher Tolkien and Robert E. Howard

An important date and some notable news to acknowledge this week.

Christopher Tolkien, youngest son of J.R.R. Tolkien and his literary heir, passed away on January 16 at age 95.

Today, Jan. 22, is the birth of Robert E. Howard (1906-1936), the man who of course delivered unto us sword-and-sorcery, and the likes of Conan and Kull and Solomon Kane.

As should come as no surprise I’m a fan of both.

In Flame and Crimson I draw some sharp distinctions between sword-and-sorcery and high fantasy. Genres are defined as much by what they are as what they exclude, and sword-and-sorcery vs. high fantasy proved a useful comparison for helping me to establish a working definition for the former. But I’ll also admit that these distinctions are at times artificial and strained, and fall apart at the edges. Far more important than the bucket in which you place it is the quality of a given work. I’m obviously a big sword-and-sorcery fan, but I also admit that a lot of it is not very good. I’m not a fan of most multi-volume fat fantasy, but The Lord of the Rings is in my opinion the greatest work of fantasy ever written, and in my younger days I read the heck out of endless Dragonlance series, even (shudder) Dennis McKiernan’s The Iron Tower Trilogy.

I have to believe that if Howard ever had the chance to read The Lord of the Rings or The Silmarillion he’d be blown away. We do have an account from L. Sprague de Camp that Tolkien “rather enjoyed” the Conan stories (although some have speculated that Tolkien was merely being polite). But Tolkien also appeared to have a limited exposure to REH, having only read perhaps “Shadows in the Moonlight” in the L. Sprague de Camp-edited Swords & Sorcery. I believe if Tolkien were ever exposed to some of Howard’s verse, for example lines like these:

Into the west, unknown of man,
Ships have sailed since the world began.
Read, if you dare, what Skelos wrote,
With dead hands fumbling his silken coat;
And follow the ships through the wind-blown wrack–
Follow the ships that come not back.

He would have found a kindred spirit.

Christopher Tolkien has received his share of criticism over the years for being overly protective and litigious of his father’s works, and Middle-Earth in general. Having seen the latest Hobbit films, I can’t say I blame him. But Christopher was not just a preserver of the flame, he edited and published multiple volumes of his father’s writings on the history of Middle-Earth, stories from its elder Ages that otherwise would have been consigned to gathering dust in old notebooks. He did so with extraordinary patience and care, when he could have exploited his father’s legacy and sold the IP for millions. Here are a few examples over on Sacnoth’s Scriptorium.

Christopher struggled with how to present his father’s numerous notes and various and occasionally conflicting versions of Middle-Earth’s history, and after believing he may have missed the mark in his single narrative approach to The Silmarillion with Guy Gavriel Kay, decided to go all in on his 12 volume History of Middle-Earth. From volume 1, The Book of Lost Tales:

There are explorations to be conducted in this world with perfect right quite irrespective of literary critical considerations; and it is proper to attempt to comprehend its structure in its largest extent, from the myth of its Creation. Every person, every feature of the imagined world that seemed significant to its author is then worthy of attention in its own right, Manwe or Feanor no less than Gandalf or Galadriel, the Silmarils no less than the Rings.

Christopher’s work organizing and publishing these myths and histories was appreciated by millions. Layer on his service in the Royal Air Force during World War 2, and I have nothing but respect for the man.

So, respect to these deceased gentlemen. Though Howard, Tolkien, and now Tolkien’s son and editor have passed into the West, their works have achieved immortality.