CT's lawyer lays the facts down

[Mithalwen]

A lot of good stuff has been said but I would point out both that Simon Tolkien was publicising his first novel when these stories emerged ( and that sensation sells.) and that the world has changed a lot in the past forty years, fathers are generally much more involved with their children and the needs of children of separated parents are better understood. So even if there is an element of truth it wouldn't make CT particularly monstrous by the standards of the time. Even in families that stay together it is not unusual for a child to have a better relationship with one parent than another ..it certainly was the case in mine..

I am just now reading the letters and from them, you can glean the deep love Tolkien had for all his family. If you look at the donations of the Tolkien Trust you can see the kind of people the family are by the wide range of humanitarian causes they put the money from the estate to. And having recently had the pleasure of receiving a charming personal reply to a communication that demanded no response at all, from Adam Tolkien I can second Lalwende's comments. But I did not need that or a lawyers statement to know that the blog was ludicrous and libellous and guess the Simon Tolkien quotes "spun" ... frankly it would not be saying a lot for JRRT's judgement if it were even half true.

As for access ..I am sure we would all love to get our claws on everything. It isn't possible but HoME is enoughfor most ..and I believe that some of the Trust money is going on making some of the archive available in a more accessible form.

[Mänwe]

Squatter, you are right, my language was inappropriate. Lampooned it is then! I believe that Christopher is in his right to challenge certain publications of his fathers material.

Oringinally posted by Child of the 7th Age

The estate threatened to bring lawsuits and all these sites were shut down so that it is now difficult to find a good online map. Writers outside the circle chosen by the estate have had trouble publishing some materials.

I think this is no different to those on this site and other forum sites who make a point to correct other members of their points made in their posts. To some degree we seek for a perfection in the understanding of Tolkien's world and with it at times comes said correction of others.

In a way Christopher is performing this "correction", he is preserving the Tolkien estate from being completely diluted by the masses. He is very much of the same "thought" stock as Tolkien himself. Who in his letters we see is disappointed with certain representations of characters by critics.

I can quote a fair amount from the letters, mostly to Allen & Unwin,

"An abridgement by selection with some good picture-work would be pleasant, & perhaps worth a good deal in publicity; but the present script is rather a compression with resultant over-crowding and confusion, blurring of climaxes, and general degradation: a pull-back towards more conventional 'fairy-stories'. People gallop about on Eagles at the least provocation; Lórien becomes a fairy-castle with 'delicate minarets', and all that sort of thing. But I am quite prepared to play ball, if they are open to advice..." (Letter #201)

"As far as I am concerned personally, I should welcome the idea of an animated motion picture, with all the risk of vulgarization; and that quite apart from the glint of money, though on the brink of retirement that is not an unpleasant possibility. I think I should find vulgarization less painful than the sillification achieved by the B.B.C." (Letter #198) [My bold]

I could continue and bloat my post to the most hideous of distended proportions, including much of letter #210, of which many of the points are critisisms. Tolkien is at best scathing of the attempts at an adaptation. Much like the Tolkien estate today, and referring back to Child of the 7th Age's example of their "censoring". Despite the possibility of money coming their way in return (I refer to my bold).

Christopher is Tolkien pure and simple, far more interested in protecting the interests of his father's work and the work itself, who, to use a term Tolkien frequently wrote, would "degrade" the story. Long live Christopher and his sensible censorship!

[Boromir88]

Let's clear something up about Wild boar. My friend's brother owns a manor house in the Pyrenees and wild boar live in the woods there (their dog lost its mind from the scent of boar everywhere, driven mad by hunting instinct), so maybe someone saw some wild boar in the woods near CT's house. Certainly nobody would allow them to run wild near their house! A wild boar is certainly not a pet or a substitute guard dog, it can't be 'trained', and one can easily kill a full grown adult.

Also, when reading that, it really doesn't make sense...how could a wild boar guard someone's house? I mean it would have to be a tamed boar if it was set up serve as a guard dog, err boar...right?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

Also, when reading that, it really doesn't make sense...how could a wild boar guard someone's house? I mean it would have to be a tamed boar if it was set up serve as a guard dog, err boar...right?

You wouldn't go anywhere near a wild boar without some kind of weapon at hand! Even pigs, domesticated boar, can be incredibly vicious creatures (especially the males). As soon as I read this about CT and his 'wild boar' I thought - Hmmm, someone's been taking the Thomas Harris book (and film) Hannibal too seriously.

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

The story about keeping wild boar does seem ridiculous, but it originated in an article in a respected British newspaper.

I remembered the article from the time, and I've tracked it down using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. It appeared on the website of the Daily Telegraph on 7th January 2001, and its author was Daniel Foggo.

Since pages from the archive often take a long time to load, and may disappear altogether, I've quoted the relevant parts below.

Originally Posted by telegraph.co.uk

Father John Tolkien, a retired Roman Catholic priest, says that family members are already constantly harassed by devotees of his father's work and predicts that the extra interest generated by the films will mean that anyone with the Tolkien name will now have to disguise their origins.

"The Tolkien family is under perpetual abuse of one kind or another. It goes on all the time," said Fr Tolkien, 83. "I am anticipating endless bother when the film actually comes out." His outburst sheds light on rumours within the film industry of a rift between the Tolkien family and New Line Cinema, the makers of the film. The film rights to The Lord of the Rings have not been owned by the Tolkien family since the 1960s, leaving New Line Cinema with no legal obligation to consult the author's children.

...

Fr Tolkien said: "It's quite incredible. When I think when we were growing up these were just stories that we were told. Personally, when you've grown up with something you don't want someone else putting their finger on it." He added that many of those harassing the family were "people wanting money". Others were obsessed fans wanting to catch a glimpse of their idol's relatives. His brother Christopher was already in hiding, he said.

"Christopher, who acts as literary editor for the Tolkien estate, doesn't live in England any more and when he comes to England he doesn't use his own name. Christopher lives in France and has had some trouble recently with people trying to get at him. He keeps wild boar in his garden, which is a little bit dangerous but they are useful when people become a nuisance."

So there you have it: a silly story, probably untrue, but originating in the Tolkien family and reported by a British broadsheet.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

I realize this is an ancient thread, but since I stumbled on it I thought I would clear up the wild boar story:

1) CT has assured me, personally, that he doesn't keep wild boar and the story is nonsense.
2) His property isn't walled or fenced anyway.
3) Both of CT's brothers were fond of spinning yarns and pulling people's legs. In this case Fr John might well have figured that starting this rumor would be both amusing, and a deterrent to overzealous fans.