If you ever have the opportunity to watch the full 2-hour documentary J.R.R.T.: A Film Portrait of J.R.R. Tolkien (which unfortunately is only available in the United Kingdom), watch it. This documentary, narrated by Dame Judi Dench, includes interviews with the Tolkien children, Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, and Tom Shippey among others. It is a remarkable study of J.R.R. Tolkien’s legacy and his thoughts as perceived by those who were close to him and upon whom he had a profound impact.
You may have heard Hawke Robinson mention a YouTube channel on Middle-earth Talk Radio where someone using the screen name of Higgins 380 has been uploading Tolkien-related videos for the past few years. The Higgins 380 Channel is packed with a lot of videos, including quite a few excerpts from the Film Portrait documentary. Unfortunately the video and audio quality is not very good (perhaps that is intentional) but you can still hear most of what is said if you put on headphones, sit in a quiet room, and crank the volume up.
That said, I thought it would be interesting to share a small selection of these videos featuring Christopher Tolkien’s commentary from the documentary. These segments deal with two topics. The first set deal with Christopher’s overview of how The Silmarillion fit into his father’s life and imagination. I have always been fascinated with these comments from Christopher.
The second set of videos covers J.R.R. Tolkien’s concept of “the machine”. According to Christopher, his father was symbolizing coercion and domination through this imagery. I think it’s a very interesting concept.
Christopher Tolkien Talks About The Silmarillion
Christopher Tolkien Talks About The Machine
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Have you read our other interviews with Tolkien scholars?
