Canon: what ARE we babbling about?

[davem]

Originally Posted by Helen

Even if he wasn't being a perfectionist-- and I think he was-- even so, he said some of the details of tone and treatment.

Typical English understatement....

Again, these are details, and throwing out the work based on these details alone doesn't make sense.

I'm not throwing it out based on those details alone - I've given a good few reasons...

He could have said the same thing about LOTR, which he didn't realise was going to connect so thoroughly to the Sil until he wrote Weathertop.

But he never connected TH so thouroughly..

Saying that the tale could stand apart is not the same as saying it is disconnected.

Nor is it saying the opposite...

As Tolkien stated the only reall connection between TH & The Sil are the references to Gondolin & they play a pretty irrelevant part. Tying TH so strongly into the Legendarium puts a weight on it which it cannot really bear - plus it makes a wonderful stand alone novel into a 'mere' prequel - something it was not meant to be, & a fate it doesn't deserve. TH should stand alone for what it was intended to be, a children's story - & it is a classic of that genre. Placing it in the Legendarium on equal terms with The Sil writings & LotR is unfair to it.