So, there is Tolkien canon and Legendarium canon? (davem has been insisting on this
). From this there are certain texts which are plainly not part of the information which we have about Middle-earth - and there are those which plainly
are about Middle-earth. However, I still do not accept that The Hobbit should be considered as separate from the Legendarium purely because it has a different tone and style.
Even if Tolkien himself did not think the style was coherent with the style of LotR and The Sil, it is still part of the Legendarium because it concerns plots, characters and places which we come across within other parts of the legendarium, and not just tangentially, but directly and extensively.
Many many writers have been and would be uncomfortable for certain works they have produced to be considered by scholars but nevertheless they
are considered. Tolkien's own Letters do not demonstrate that he was particularly embarrassed by The Hobbit, merely that he didn't like certain aspects of it and in retrospect thought they may have been improved in some way.
The question of style and tone is now really just one of taste. The Hobbit is already out there, on release as t'were, and there isn't anything we can do about it, and as such it will inevitably be considered as part of ther Legendarium.
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Originally Posted by Bethberry
Maybe academics are embarassed about the significance of childish things to adults?
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Too true I fear. Maybe it is one of the pitfalls of intellectualising a legendarium that is at root simply a good adventure?