‘Canonicity’: the Book or the Reader?

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

And there, I think, is the essential dividing line of this entire thread. Some do not believe in absolute Truth, and in that case, Tolkien's definition does not apply very well. Nor would Tolkien's story have a deep Truth to be revealed; everything becomes subjective and individualized. Others do believe in absolute Truth, and can accept Tolkien's definition of Faerie as a revelation of that truth, and see numerous demonstrations of Truth in each of his stories.

I doubt the two opposing views will come to agreement on that topic any time soon.

Uh oh…the nature of Truth and/or truth…I didn’t quite see this coming (but now that it’s here… )

Mark 12:30, you have raised what is probably the most central point to this whole discussion, for which I thank you mightily (*Fordim bows*): the conflict does seem to be between the idea of Truth in the singular versus a plurality of truths. I think, however, that there is a way for us to reconcile what you have characterised here as “two opposing views.” Rather than focusing on the relationship between “absolute Truth” versus an absolute plurality of truths we need to recognise that truth is, itself, a difficult and complex amalgam of the two. Perhaps better put, a truthful (truth-full) statement (or interpretation of a text) engages both the idea of absolute Truth in the singular and a plurality of truths.

My reasoning for this is based on the simple fact that to adopt either ‘position’ on its own without referencing the other is, in the end, impossible.

1) To claim that there is no Truth, only an unending and infinite series of entirely particularised and individual truths is to undo the concept of truth entirely. Falsehood is legion, whereas truth is always undergirded in some manner by singularity (we all speak of “the” truth). The very idea of truth necessitates that there be some point at which the journey toward truth stops at a single point.

2) To claim that there is only one absolute Truth is to deny the fact that we all of us use a wide variety of truths to explore and explain our everyday lives. The fact of birth is something that we can only explain through a variety of different, and entirely truthful ways: theological, biological, sociological, familial, personal, societal, moral, imaginatively, emotionally, etc. Which one of these truth-full descriptions of birth is The Truth? The really dangerous aspect of this approach is that once somebody begins to reduce the overwhelming complexity of human experience to a single absolute Truth…well, that’s where people like Hitler come from.

So where does this leave us? Faith in (or hope of) “the” Truth, in the singular, is necessary if we are to keep hold to the idea of truth at all (that is, to distinguish it from falsehood). But we cannot ever claim to have found or achieved any singular Truth without doing violence to all the other orders or kinds of truth in the world. The best we can do – and this is hard enough and wondrous enough to justify the attempt – is to speak or think or act truth-fully, which is to say that we do so in a manner that maintains our hope in Truth, without denying the plurality of individual truths.

So what has this to do with Tolkien? I’m not entirely sure, but I think it’s a way to work through this enchantment quandry. As we interpret LotR we should not do so either to proclaim the singular Truth that it embodies (for that is to deny the other truths of other individuals, or, perhaps even worse, to deny ourselves the plurality of truths we all live with). Nor should we proclaim our own individual truth without any reference whatsoever to the idea or hope of a singular Truth embodied by the text that, in some manner, unifies our experience of the text with the experiences of other people.

Tolkien said that fairy-stories never end – “don’t the great tales never end?” Sam asks with great native wisdom. And that, I think, is the whole point. What Tolkien’s writings constantly remind us is that the absolute Truth of Middle-Earth must remain forever just beyond our grasp – but not beyond the limits of our imagination.