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jallanite, the term "canon" actually comes from church history and refers to the body of Scripture that was considered cohesive and authoritative. Applied to Tolkien, that could fit Christopher's Silmarillion, as he strove for coherency and was certainly the only authorized person for a task like posthumous publication of his father's works. There are numerous arguments for both opinions, pro- and con-canon. It's good to hear both sides, but Tolkien's body of work being what it was, fragmental and developed over decades, there are inconsistencies even between those two major works of Middle-earth published in his lifetime. My personal opinion is that it's close enough...
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'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth.. .'
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