[jallanite]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Yet, I think that it deserves as much "authority" as LOTR. At some point, one must draw the line and accept that a work such as The Silmarillion could never be "perfect" in cohesion or presentation.

I don’t think it deserves as much authority as The Lord of the Rings. Christopher Tolkien doesn′t think it deserves as much authority as The Lord of the Rings. Christopher Tolkien does not need to draw any line just because you say he does. No line needs to be drawn.

Yet, CT has done the best he could with what he had.

Christopher Tolkien again and again indicates in HoME where he thinks he could have done better with what he had.

If we are to endlessly debate the relative merits of the Silm versus HOME, how does any discussion here of the Arda legendarium regarding matters outside TH and LOTR have any basis of fact, when people can just point to whatever text agrees with their ideas?

That is exactly what happens now in every Tolkien forum when a discussion comes up which is touched on in HoME. Most matters outside of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings covering matters touched on in these tales up to the beginning of the Fourth Age of Middle-earth don’t “have any basis of fact″. They are all fiction. Try to get people to not look at the other works when they have something to say on a matter that comes up. Very few who have read much in the HoME series will listen.

No, I say the Silm is the nearest thing to a complete work on the earlier mythos; it was compiled by the man in the best position to do so, and I will consider it "canon".

And that same man has never called it canon and has pointed out many things he thinks he did poorly. Do you only listen to Christopher Tolkien when what he says pleases you?

Don’t complain “when people can just point to whatever text agrees with their ideas″ when you are instead putting forth ideas that nothing in the text supports.

Consider it canon if you want. Also define canon to mean that you are not allowed to look outside it except when inventing the idea that certain works are canon. It won’t change anything.