Did JRRT encourage new ME stories?

[narfforc]

Yes William you are right, anything written would be like Celebrimbor trying to recreate the Slimarils, I for one would marvel at a jewel he made that maybe glistened at times yet I would discard a lump of dead glass created by Melkor. It would be unfair to say that no-one will ever be born that would or could not recreate the magic, never is a long time.

[davem]

I can see someone with a knowledge of M-e equal to Tolkien's coming along one day. I can also see someone with his genius for storytelling coming along one day. What I can't see is that they will ever be the same person.....

It strikes me that a true creative genius would want to create their own world, not simply take up someone else's.

That said, Tolkien in his Will authorised Christopher to continue his work

’Upon Trust to allow my son Christopher full access to the same in order that he may act as my Literary Executor with full power to publish edit alter rewrite or complete any work of mine which may be unpublished at my death or to destroy the whole or any part or parts of any such unpublished works as he in his absolute discretion may think fit and subject thereto’

So its entirely possible that Christopher will do the same. In other words, a continuation or addition to the mythology is not entirely out of the question - JRRT actually gave Christopher the right to do just that. That Christopher did so little 'completing'/re-writing is a testament either to his respect for his father's work - or an acknowledgement that he was not up to doing more than he has.

Either way, Tolkien himself clearly was not opposed to Christopher adding to the Legendarium.

[narfforc]

If I am not mistaken Davem did not Tolkien write to Christopher almost pleading with him to try his hand at writing, and if he could not find his style why not try his (fathers) own. I have always looked at this as Tolkien wanting Christopher to expand on his own writings, knowing in some way that the vast legacy he would leave behind was unpublished. Imagine working on something that took most of your life and seeing it rot in the garage, I think Tolkien may well have had the foresight to involve Christopher in his work, however it took two lifetimes to achieve what we all love today, and left no time for Christopher to find his feet.

[Rikae]

Originally Posted by Davem

I think Tolkien is pretty clear - he doesn't object to depictions in other media of what he's created. He's careful to exclude other minds & hands adding to the stories.

Hmm. Doesn't this go a bit against the use of the phrase "leave scope"? The possibility of stories merely being interpreted in another medium can't really be concieved as requiring any kind of "scope" be left at all; a strict, literal interpretation in another medium would not necessitate any awareness of the "majestic whole",but only a dogmatic adherance to what is written, and furthermore, something merely "sketched" cannot be completed without some degree of storytelling involved, whether it be in flim, paint, or what-have-you.

[Bêthberry]

There's a fair bit of irony involved in Tolkien's appropriation of authorial "ownership", although I suppose it can be understood as his business practice in defending his right to income from his "intellectual capital."

Still, as the writer of a mythology and as a profoundly inspired reader of the ancient mythologies, Tolkien would have been very aware of how mythologies take on a life of their own, a narrative existence not limited by copyright, etc. He must have been torn by his own niggling over 'getting it right' and his understanding that stories evolved and change focus and direction depending upon the social and cultural climate that gives them life.

Stories, like languages, change.

[Child of the 7th Age]

The point I want to make does not pertain directly to JRRT, but does touch upon Christopher and the estate in terms of their views on LotR RPGs. John Rateliff makes his living working with videogames, developing guides and such. By all accounts, he has the blessing and approval of CT for his two-volume work on the Hobbit. In fact, the way it's generally been described is that the estate asked him to do for the Hobbit what CT was already doing with LotR and the material for Silm.

The interesting thing is that Rateliff is the author of a guide for a LotR RPG. See here. Admittedly, an RPG of this type is not a fanfiction or a piece of straight writing. It is a videogame. Still, it's interesting to me that Christopher felt comfortable with Rateliff, given this aspect of his background. I believe that at the time their relationship started Rateliff was working in the Marquette archives and was in graduate school. He took over the Hobbit project from an older colleague who unexpectedly died (and took many, many years to finish it! ) As far as I know, Rateliff's relationship with CT has continued to be cordial. Isn't Decipher a licensed product that grew out of the movie? Still, it's interesting that Rateliff's involvement with a videogame/movie has not posed a problem for the estate.

[davem]

I'm not sure CT sees the games as having anything to do with Middle-earth - actually this is pretty much the reason he didn't include the early drafts of TH in H0M-e.

Wikipedia has

When Christopher Tolkien began publishing The History of Middle-earth, a twelve-volume series documenting J. R. R. Tolkien’s creative writing process in the creation of Middle-earth, with texts dating from the 1920s to the 1970s, he made a conscious decision not to issue a volume detailing the creation of The Hobbit. According to him, The Hobbit was not originally a part of the Middle-earth universe and was attached to his father's earlier, far darker legendarium only superficially, although the existence of The Hobbit forever altered the legendarium. The tone of The Hobbit is much lighter and more appropriate to a children’s tale than that of J. R. R. Tolkien’s other writings.

As Christopher Tolkien was not going to embark on a published study of The Hobbit, the task was given to Taum Santoski in the 1980s. Santoski had connections to the Marquette collection of Tolkien material, which is where the original manuscripts reside. He died in 1991, and ultimately the task passed to John Rateliff. Although Christopher Tolkien did not work directly on The History of The Hobbit, the work will be in a very similar vein to the "literary archaeology" of his History of Middle-earth.[4]

Rateliff submitted a finished draft of the book to Christopher Tolkien, who, approving of the work, gave The History of The Hobbit his personal blessing to be published in association with his father’s other works.