The Canon

[Kuruharan]

One of the reasons I originally asked the question was that I had seen a fair number of posts in discussions where a respondent would use the word 'canon' to validate his position or invalidate another's. I wanted to see the yardstick by which such replies were being measured.

Point of Note: Sometimes when someone is on the losing end of a debate, they'll inject a question of canon to try and divert the argument into a discussion of (for example) whether the comment about Glorfindel's hair color is really canonical, or if Tolkien was just having a bad day when he wrote that bit about Balrog wings.

This usually only leads to further confusion on the part of everyone. So I guess that the answer to your question is that the "yardstick" itself is rather murky.