[Mithadan]

The term "canon" is probably both misused and overused in the context of Tolkien's work. Middle Earth related books published by Tolkien are generally considered part of the canon; i.e. LoTR, Hobbit, Road goes ever on and Tom Bombadil (with the last two given less emphasis due to "poetic license"). As someone else commented, Silmarillion was compiled, edited and in some places actually written by Christopher Tolkien. He accepted the daunting task of reviewing such of his father's drafts as he had found, picking and choosing between inconsistent or stylistically different versions, and editing/authoring to make the story flow with some degree of consistency. All this was done in the space of about 3 years after JRRT died in 1973. As Christopher later set out to review, edit and publish others of his father's writings he became aware that, in some places, he may have chosen poorly among drafts. He also revealed he himself had written segments such as the fall of Doriath. As a result, Silmarillion is not considered "canonical" as it may not reflect the tale as JRRT actually intended it to be. The same goes for UT which includes some of Tolkien's best writing which was left sadly unfinished.

HoME, which is the source of much of the debate, complicates matters greatly. In HoME we see many of the conflicting drafts and CT reveals places where he may have used early ideas instead of later ones. BoLT 1 and 2 are the very earliest of JRRT's Middle Earth writings. BoLT was begun around 1918 and much of the detail included was later superceded or omitted, and is the least canonical of the HoME series.

Although I am a member of the Canon project on this website, I am reluctantly leaning towards the view that there can be no real "canon" gleaned from Sil., UT and HoME other than might satisfy personal taste (sorry Lindil). If you want my view on degrees of canonicity (if that is a word), the books can be graded in this order: (1) LoTR; (2) Hobbit; (3) HoME 12 (made up of portions of what had been prepared for inclusion in LoTR appendices but were omitted primarily due to space constraints; (4) Sil., UT and HoME 5, 10 and 11(take your pick); (5) Tom Bombadil and Road Goes Ever On (some would place this as number 4); and (6) everything else. Letters is impossible to grade. Because Sil. was a constantly changing work, Letters discussing Sil. cannot be viewed as more authoritative than Sil itself (and UT, portions of HoME etc.). But letters addressing LoTR and Hobbit, to the extent they don't contradict anything which was published, are more "canonical".

[ June 06, 2002: Message edited by: Mithadan ]