Christopher Tolkien, who played a major role protecting the legacy of his father’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, has died. He was 95. The Tolkien Society and publisher Harper Collins UK
confirmed Tolkien’s death. The Centre Hospitalier de la Dracenie, a
hospital in southern France, said the son of author J.R.R. Tolkien died
there Thursday.
克里斯托弗·托尔金，英国文豪J.R.R.托尔金的小儿子，托尔金文学遗产执行人，于当地时间2020年1月15日在法国普罗旺斯辞世，享年95岁。托尔金作品的中国出版方世纪文景证实了他的死讯。
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and academic, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.约翰·罗纳德·鲁埃尔·托尔金（常缩写为 J.R.R. Tolkien，1892年1月3日－1973年9月2日），英国作家、诗人、语言学家及大学教授，以创作经典古典奇幻作品《霍比特人》、《魔戒》与《精灵宝钻》而闻名于世。
He served as the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1945 and Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, from 1945 to 1959. He was at one time a close friend of C. S. Lewis—they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings. Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972.托尔金曾于1925年至1945年间，在牛津大学彭布罗克学院担任盎格鲁-撒克逊语的劳林森与博斯沃思教授，并于1945年至1959年间转至牛津大学默顿学院任英国语言与文学的默顿教授。他是C·S·刘易斯的密友——两人皆为非正式文学讨论社“迹象”的社员。1972年3月28日，托尔金获英国女王伊丽莎白二世颁授的大英帝国司令勋章。
刘易斯（左）与托尔金（右）
While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien, the great success of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings led directly to a popular resurgence of the genre. This has caused Tolkien to be popularly identified as the "father" of modern fantasy literature—or, more precisely, of high fantasy.
尽管在他之前有很多其他作者的奇幻作品问世，但《霍比特人》和《魔戒》的巨大成功造成了该文学类型的流行与复兴。因此托尔金被大众公认为“现代奇幻文学之父”——或更准确地说，是古典奇幻。
In 2008, The Times ranked him sixth on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". Forbes ranked him the fifth top-earning "dead celebrity" in 2009.
2008年，《泰晤士报》把他列为“1945年后50位最伟大的英国作家”榜单上的第6名。2009年，他在《福布斯》收入最高的“已故名人”榜单中列第5名。J.R.R.托尔金在写《魔戒》的同时，也在创造一个充满传奇与神话的宏大世界，但是作为一个完美主义者，直至去世之前，他都没有以任何形式出版过这部作品。克里斯托弗花了四年时间整理和编纂这些传说，并于1977年出版了《精灵宝钻》。根据《纽约时报》的报道，托尔金作品的研究专家科雷·奥尔森(Corey
Olsen)在一次采访中说：“这打开了托尔金丰富而深刻的想象力世界，令人惊叹。”《精灵宝钻》畅销全球，在英国就售出一百余万册。
Tolkien’s life work was closely identified with that
of his father. He helped edit and publish much of the science fiction
and fantasy writer’s work after J.R.R. Tolkien died in 1973. Among the
books the younger Tolkien worked on were The Silmarillion, The Children Of Hurin, and other texts that flesh out the complex world his father created.
1973年J.R.R.托尔金去世后，克里斯托弗成为了他的文学遗产执行人，在过去的47年间，克里斯托弗编辑或主持了其父亲24部作品的出版工作，其中多部作品成为了国际畅销书，如《精灵宝钻》、《胡林的子女》等。
He also drew the original maps that adorned the three Lord of the Rings books — The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King — when they were published in the 1950s.《魔戒》于20世纪50年代出版时，他也绘制了该系列三部曲——《护戒同盟》、《双塔奇兵》、《王者归来》的原版地图。Tolkien Society chairman Shaun Gunner said “millions of people around
the world will be forever grateful to Christopher for bringing us so
many of his father’s literary works.托尔金协会主席肖恩·古纳尔说：“全世界上百万读者都将感谢克里斯托弗的付出。他整理了许多父亲托尔金的文学作品。”“Christopher’s commitment to his father’s works have
seen dozens of publications released, and his own work as an academic in
Oxford demonstrates his ability and skill as a scholar,” he said. “We
have lost a titan and he will be sorely missed.”1983至1996年间，克里斯托弗出版了12卷本的《中洲历史》，这系列作品是从托尔金70箱未出版的材料中汇编而成，收集、分析了大量跟托尔金作品有关的资料，不仅揭示了托尔金作品的创作过程，还展示了托尔金的思维方式，研究托尔金作品的英国教授Thomas
Shippey认为，如果没有克里斯托弗，我们对托尔金如何创造他的传奇将知之甚少。
J.R.R. Tolkien scholar Dimitra Fimi said Christopher Tolkien helped the public understand his father’s works.托尔金学者迪米特拉·菲米（Dimitra Fimi）称赞克里斯托弗丰富了他父亲的作品。
“Tolkien studies would never be what it is today without Christopher Tolkien’s contribution,” she said. “From editing The Silmarillion to the mammoth task of giving us The History Of Middle-earth series, he revealed his father’s grand vision of a rich and complex mythology.”她说：“他为我们打开了一扇窗，让我们得以了解托尔金的创作过程，他提供的学术评论丰富了我们对中洲世界的理解。他是中洲世界的制图师和第一名研究者。”The newspaper for the Var region in southern France,
Var Matin, said Tolkien and his wife, Baillie, had lived quietly on the
edge of the village of Aups since 1975. No funeral date has been set,
the newspaper said.托尔金的书迷们也在社交媒体上对克里斯托弗去世的消息表达哀悼。
“我们需要一个谦卑的人，把自己的一生奉献给别人的作品。”一位书迷在推特上写道，“我想到了所有那些没有克里斯托弗的参与就不可能出版的书。其中的一些书定义了我们现在如何看待J.R.R.托尔金的遗产。”
记录托尔金个人生活的专辑电影也于2019年5月北美上映，来回顾一下托尔金传奇的一生：
来源：TIME, Wikipedia
编辑：Veronica