The Canon - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Kalessin · 06-05-2002, 08:50 PM

The canon in a literary sense is commonly understood to mean the body of (published) works by an author. In Tolkien's case this becomes a little confusing - The Silmarillion was put together, so to speak, by his son, in the form of a complete narrative, based on a vast number of definitively 'unfinished' and sometimes obscurely linked drafts and notes. Unfinished Tales (which at various times contradicts the chronology or other aspects of The Silmarillion) is more of a collection of this kind of supplementary or draft material by Tolkien, again collated, edited and in some cases addended by his son Christopher.

However, as Tolkien himself never appears to have considered any of his major works (published or not) as definitive or final, and was constantly revising and revisiting, the notion of a set 'canon' representing the author is a little fluid. In conversational terms, I would assume the term to apply to all his published works as of now, or perhaps all that deal with Middle Earth.

Peace [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

06-05-2002, 08:50 PM	#3
Kalessin Wight Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Earthsea, or London Posts: 175	The canon in a literary sense is commonly understood to mean the body of (published) works by an author. In Tolkien's case this becomes a little confusing - The Silmarillion was put together, so to speak, by his son, in the form of a complete narrative, based on a vast number of definitively 'unfinished' and sometimes obscurely linked drafts and notes. Unfinished Tales (which at various times contradicts the chronology or other aspects of The Silmarillion) is more of a collection of this kind of supplementary or draft material by Tolkien, again collated, edited and in some cases addended by his son Christopher. However, as Tolkien himself never appears to have considered any of his major works (published or not) as definitive or final, and was constantly revising and revisiting, the notion of a set 'canon' representing the author is a little fluid. In conversational terms, I would assume the term to apply to all his published works as of now, or perhaps all that deal with Middle Earth. Peace [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]