Do you consider The Silmarillion to be fully "canon"?

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by jallanite

It seems to me to be clearer if more long-winded to refer to “the published Silmarillion” or to a statement in the HoME series when there are differences. The reason that the word canon is so seldom used in fan forums is, I believe, because it brings with it too many ideas of authority that just don’t work, according more authority to the published Silmarillion than its co-author accords it. Best to not use such a weighted term. Yes the published Silmarillion is “authorized”, but no more so than is indicated by its co-author.

Certainly there were various issues confronting CT when compiling the published Simarillion. Sifting through decades of writing from a dead man that often contradicted itself has to have been an incredibly arduous task.

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. Yet, CT has done the best he could 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?

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".