The Canon

[Child of the 7th Age]

Lindil --

I really wanted to thank you for taking the time to provide such a thoughtful post. I made a copy of it on my printer to save in a notebook where I keep things that seem particularly helpful. And I will make sure to look at those other later writings of Tolkien which you cited as being personal favorites in addition to the ones I was familiar with.

I can definitely see how useful it would be to have a conciliar body define what canon is. (I am a medieval historian, and your words reminded me of the conciliar movement within the Church in the 14th century!) But, knowing how many academics are, I think you are right--it would be an impossible task to get such individuals to agree to meet, let alone to actually come to an agreement on the literature itself.

Too bad. What that means, I think, is that the battle may, by default, be fought out on a smaller scale in projects such as your own as well as in scholarly articles in journals and monographs. I know that two of the articles in Tolkien's Legendarium, for example, dealt with the question of the Elf-friend narrator/compiler.

The biggest problem is that it will take a long, long time, if ever, for any kind of concensus to be achieved.

I guess there is no possibilty of using an existing group like the Mythopoeic Society or the Tolkien Society to try and sponsor something like this. (Probably not.)

sharon