‘Canonicity’: the Book or the Reader?

[Aiwendil]

Davem wrote:

So, in a sense, there is no 'canon', in the sense of a coherent, self consistent sub created world.

Yes - this is where many discussions of "canon" are, I think, misguided. For, as I tried to say long ago in the early pages of the thread, you cannot simply ask "what are the facts about Middle-earth?" Middle-earth is fictional. There is no real world to which the texts refer, and with reference to which propositions may be true or false. One can only have a discussion about the "true story" of Middle-earth if one first decides upon certain principles by which to select which statements to take as fact and which not to.

So when you ask:

So, do we have to accept all statements of 'fact' that Tolkien made as equally valid? Surely the facts of geography are unquestionable? But he changed certain geographical 'facts' over the course of his writings. Or 'facts' about the nature of his races - they changed. Or 'facts' about particular characters- again, same thing. Simply, he never stopped creating & changing the 'facts' about Middle earth, & if he'd lived he would have carried on doing that.

. . . the problem is that "accept" is not defined. What does it mean to "accept" a fact about Middle-earth? Accept that this particular text contains this particular statement? There is certainly no problem with this. Accept that some fact is true about Middle-earth? That's nonsense - there is no Middle-earth. There are only texts.

HerenIstarion wrote:

Besides, relating it to Canonicity issue, if such an assumption (option 1 in origin of Moral Law) were imperative for the Author, and he made it explicit in his letters...

Which it certainly is. And indeed that means that when we discuss Middle-earth, we must accept, within the fictional world, that option 1 is true. Our opinions about that assumption in the real world ought to have nothing to do with our opinions about the same in Middle-earth (unless we find option 1 so glaringly self-inconsistent that we cannot even suspend disbelief and accept it in Arda).