The Canon

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by Galin

Well, as obvious as the question admittedly was, here's another, what does that say then, about author-published work being canon?

Ah- but in that case we would be talking about author publication of the very work in question. Canonicity debates, with very few exceptions, always swirl around the First Age material precisely because T never published any of it. We don't have arguments over LR canon, other than noting internal inconsistencies which really isn't a canonicity issue at all.

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I would submit the following classes of "canonicity:"

Class I: Published and never subsequently contradicted either in or out of print. Exemplar: almost all of the LR, almost all of The Hobbit save Chapter 5.

Class II: Published but subsequently contradicted in print, and the original publication revised to match. Exemplar: Hobbit Chapter 5.

Class III: Published but subsequently contradicted in unpublished material, then publication revised to match. Exemplar: Finrod > Finarfin.

Class IV: Published but subsequently contradicted in print, no revision. Exemplar: Galadriel's Ban in LR vs RGEO.

Class IV-A: "Ghosts" remaining in the LR narrative subsequently contradicted by the Appendices, written years later. Exemplar: Celeborn's origin.

Class IV-B: Internal contradictions in a published work, remains of earlier drafts overlooked in revision. Exemplar: Sleeping without fear in Caras Galadhon "for the first time" since Rivendell.

Class IV-C: Internal contradictions in a published work, dormitat dulce Homerus. Exemplar: Gimli's wood-cutting axe.

Class V: Unpublished, not contradicted by any published or subsequent unpublished material. Exemplar: Akallabeth

Class V-A (strongest): Unpublished, consistent in part with published material where parallel, uncontradicted elsewhere, result of development over multiple texts. Exemplars: Beren & Luthien (1937); The Quest of Erebor; Akallabeth again.

Class V-B: Unpublished, consistent in part with published material where parallel, uncontradicted elsewhere, one-off. Exemplar: The Battles of the Fords of Isen

Class V-C: Unpublished, neither confirmed nor contradicted by other material. Exemplar: The Wanderings of Hurin.

Class VI: Unpublished, contradicted by other unpublished material.

Class VI-A: Unpublished, contradicted only by earlier unpublished material. Exemplar: the "Long Tuor."

Class VI-B: Unpublished, superseded by later unpublished material. Many examples.

Class VII: Unpublished, superseded by later published material. All drafts of published material &c.

Class VIII: Unpublished, contradicts previously published material. Exemplar: Celeborn-as-Teler.

Class IX: Material by CT which contradicts JRRT material. Exemplar: the Fall of Doriath material in The Silmarillion.

Class X: Material by others which contradicts or makes spurious additions to JRRT material. Exemplars: Peter Jackson's movies, fan-fic.