Incanus or Outcanus… canon who?

[Tar Elenion]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

As part of my searches about Kay's contribution, I came upon the fact that CT has acknowledged that chapter twenty two of the Quenta Silmarillion was in fact not an edited version of one of JRRT's texts but largely rewritten by CT himself.

Just brings to mind how some of us used to have to point this out repeatedly, usually in response to the infamous Thingol quote:
"‘How do ye of uncouth race dare to demand aught of me, Elu Thingol, Lord of Beleriand, whose life began by the waters of Cuiviénen years uncounted ere the fathers of the stunted people awoke?’"

The upshot of this of course influences what people might call canon. There are many online discussions asking how much of the Silm reflects CT's writing and even how much reflects Favriel Kay's work. Certainly I find the style in CT's edition of the Silm much different from JRRT's style in HoMe and the later editions of Tolkien Sr's work and for that reason I am not sure that we can say that the Silm is canon, if by canon we mean, as Tar Elenion says,

Most of the Silmarillion is, essentially, from Tolkien, it is just edited together from a variety of texts written over decades, with editorial intervention to make some sort of internal and external consistency (not necessarily fully achieved).

So was CT the first fanfiction writer? He was certainly a fan.

JRRT, as I understand it, specifically charged CT with completing The (or 'A') Silmarillion.