Which of Tolkien’s four children became the literary executor of his Middle-earth writings?

Christopher Tolkien became the literary executor of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth writings.

Born in 1924, Christopher was Tolkien’s third child and youngest son. He worked closely with his father’s papers and became deeply familiar with the manuscripts, drafts, maps, and linguistic materials behind the published books. After Tolkien’s death in 1973, Christopher edited and arranged many of these materials for publication.

His major editorial projects included The Silmarillion, published in 1977, and the twelve-volume History of Middle-earth, published between 1983 and 1996. These books revealed how Tolkien’s mythology changed over decades and often included alternate versions rather than one polished final narrative.

Christopher is sometimes confused with Tolkien’s eldest son, Father John Tolkien, who became a Roman Catholic priest, or with Tolkien’s daughter Priscilla, who helped preserve aspects of the family legacy. Christopher died in 2020, after decades of editorial work on his father’s literary estate.