Canon: what ARE we babbling about? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

mark12_30 · 08-18-2005, 09:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davem

Couldn't agree more. But if he hadn't made those changes TH would have been even less 'consistent' with the rest of the Legendarium than it is. It was never intended to be part of it & making it 'fit', once LotR had become part of The Sil, was one of Tolkien's major problems in the early stages of writing it. As he stated(letter19):

It began to "fit" when Elrond entered the tale, and the swords were revealed as being from Gondolin. He couldn't keep the Sil out of the Hobbit even then-- any more than he could keep it out of Roverandom.

And if he had suceeded in completely separating TH from the Sil, then where would his Hobbit Sequel have ended up? LOTR began as a simple Hobbit sequel-- and got "drawn up".

View Poll Results: Canonicity means:
The author's published works, during his lifetime	3	15.00%
The author's published works including those edited/published posthumously	5	25.00%
ALL of the author's works, notes, letters, and ideas, published or not, conflicting or not	9	45.00%
What the reading community says is Canon	0	0%
What the BarrowDowns community says is Canon	1	5.00%
What the critics say is Canon	0	0%
Canon is whatever I, the reader, want it to be	1	5.00%
Something completely (or slightly) different [if you choose this last option, please explain yourself in the thread. Thank you]	1	5.00%
Voters: 20. You may not vote on this poll