[Lalwendë]

No, I don't want any 'authorised' fan-fic either. Not because I think it is bad (much of it is very good), but because I don't want the waters to be muddied. I want to read what Tolkien wrote, and to know that any other 'spin-offs' are just that, spin-offs. I want clear lines where possible.

Aside from anything else, this helps keep it clear what Tolkien wrote and what he did not. I've read a fair few posts/articles where people have named all the Nazgul and claimed their information was correct because 'it's in the books'. But it isn't. That info came from a computer game as far as I know. Imagine how much misinformation there would be if we had authorised fan fiction?

The other thing is that Tolkien's work is not a natural mythology, it is a created one. I wonder how much it really has to say about the history of our real world? Do 'natural' mythologies have more to say about the 'truth'? I'd hate to think that people ditched what was left of England's actual folklore and myth in favour of what Tolkien had written down. That would be very sad indeed.