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EspañolMIDDLE-EARTH CANON
The 'Middle-earth canon' [1] consists of J. R. R. Tolkien's stories of Middle-earth, some of which were compiled and edited posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien. It is related to the concept of Tolkien's legendarium.
The official canonical works published by Tolkien or the Tolkien Estate include ''The Hobbit'', ''The Lord of the Rings'', ''The Silmarillion'', ''Unfinished Tales'', ''History of Middle-earth'' Volumes I through XII, ''The Adventures of Tom Bombadil'', ''Bilbo's Last Song'', ''The Road Goes Ever On'', ''The History of The Hobbit'' and ''The Children of Húrin.'' These works, together with Tolkien's unpublished notes, [2] contain the substance of Tolkien's legendarium, a collection of tales which, much like the world's histories, legends and mythologies, contains numerous points of obscurity, omission, or apparent contradiction.
Tolkien spent much of his life seeking to bring a level of consistency to his created world. As a result of the manner of its creation, the world of Middle-earth is complicated. Its creator developed the various elements of his fictional mythology over the course of decades, making substantial changes up to and including the abandonment of major themes, important facts and entire tales, and wholesale rewrites and revisions of otherwise 'complete' narratives. In two of his letters, Tolkien provided explanations and examples:
Towards the end of Tolkien's life, the focus of his writing shifted from pure story telling inspired by his philological pursuits to more philosophical concerns, and Tolkien never finalized a unified, systematic and wholly internally consistent legendarium. Even those materials published in the author's lifetime rarely if ever achieved (so far as he was concerned) a satisfactory state of completion and consistency. ''The Hobbit'', ''The Lord of the Rings'', ''The Adventures of Tom Bombadil'', and ''The Road Goes Ever On'' were all published while Tolkien was alive. But ''The Hobbit'' was revised twice, and ''Lord of the Rings'' once — both because of inconsistencies.
Tolkien himself indicated that he often felt bound by what had been published before. Even when he altered ''The Hobbit'' to bring the story of the finding of the Ring in line with later changes, Tolkien retained the original as the version which Bilbo told when trying to justify his acquisition of the Ring. Likewise, in preparing ''The Silmarillion'' for publication, Christopher Tolkien made editorial alterations to remove many possible inconsistencies with ''The Lord of the Rings''. Since then, Christopher Tolkien has identified some elements which he believes he 'got wrong', and he has provided reasons for his believing that one version or another was his father's 'intent'. All of this is inherent in trying to identify a consistent 'history' within the canon of Middle-earth.
With the posthumous publication of ''The Silmarillion'', questions arose regarding how to resolve inconsistencies between it and the other texts. As alternate ideas of Tolkien were published in The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, ''Unfinished Tales'' and the ''History of Middle-earth'' series, the consistency within the canon of the 'new' material in ''The Silmarillion'' was called into question by some Tolkien enthusiasts.
Tolkien did not initially conceive of or write ''The Hobbit'' as a part of the greater Middle-earth legendarium captured in ''The Silmarillion'' (the latter being based on tales begun in 1916). Rather, with ''The Hobbit'', Tolkien was populating an imaginary landscape with ready-to-hand characters and locations for a children's adventure story. Tolkien borrowed several references to his, at that time, unpublished ''Silmarillion'' mythology to give the newer story a sense of depth; an internal history, replete with mysterious myths and legends. Thus Gandalf and Thorin Oakenshield wield swords from Gondolin, and Elrond, ruler of Rivendell, is called Half-elven. The references are all to the ''First Age'' of Middle-Earth, as Tolkien would later call it, since the ''Second Age'' and ''Third Age'' were not yet conceived. When ''The Hobbit'' was later fit into the larger history as taking place near the end of the ''Third Age'', more than six thousand years after the end of the ''First Age'', this created a certain amount of incongruence that was never fully resolved even in the revisions. However, as far as ''The Hobbit'' was originally concerned, the mere mention of these 'externally referencing' details were the end of it.
These Middle-earth references were, in their original conception, anecdotal. After the success of ''The Hobbit'', Tolkien developed, at the urging of his publisher, a sequel that from the outset he also fully meant to be an episode (the last episode, perhaps) of the cycle laid out in ''The Silmarillion''. This dramatic shift in the relationship between Hobbits, of the family Baggins, and ''the'' Middle-earth, of the Valar, Eldar and Edain, meant that ''The Hobbit'' as originally published contained serious inconsistencies with respect to details of the world of Middle-earth. With ''Lord of the Rings'' being both fully sequel to ''The Hobbit'', and fully sequel to ''The Silmarillion'', Tolkien was faced with making the facts and history of ''The Hobbit'' 'fit' with those of ''The Silmarillion''. As a result, successive editions of ''The Hobbit'' were produced in order to rectify many, though not all, inconsistencies.[3]
While there is a general consistency across all of these works, the most consistent agreement between sources may be found with the second (1950) edition of ''The Hobbit'', the second (1965) edition of ''Lord of the Rings'', and ''The Adventures of Tom Bombadil'' and ''The Road Goes Ever On'' there are incidental inconsistencies some of which are difficult, or impossible, to reconcile. In the 2004 edition of ''Lord of the Rings'', Christopher Tolkien, Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull carefully supervised a complete standardization and silently corrected several errors that came about in the text. These changes are documented in ''.
The author died in 1973 without ever resolving his published and unpublished works on Middle-earth into a complete, self-consistent narrative. His son, Christopher Tolkien, as Literary Executor and editor, posthumously published ''The Silmarillion'' based on his manuscripts, completing much of the background narrative of Middle-earth and bringing various accounts into a solid general consistency with other published work, yet also introducing some new inconsistencies with published works.
Published in 1977, four years after Tolkien’s death, ''The Silmarillion'' itself represents a compressed and abridged cycle of Middle-earth’s oldest tales exhibited in the structure and style of the various ''Annals'' and ''Quenta Silmarillion''s versions seen in the numerous volumes of the ''History of Middle-earth''. It achieved its final form under the editorial control of Christopher Tolkien, who organizied and published his father’s greatest project. The younger Tolkien edited a version of what his father might have produced; however, he warned readers not to look for absolute consistency between the posthumous work and items published earlier:
Throughout his commentaries in the twelve volumes of ''The History of Middle-earth'', Christopher Tolkien has pointed out many choices, differences and discrepancies in his final editorial selections/alterations in ‘’The Silmarillion’’. In most cases, he defends them as what he thinks would have been his father's true intentions. A particularly acute problem, in this regard, are the chapters published in ''The Silmarillion'' about the ruin of Doriath and the fall of Gondolin, especially the former.[5] It cannot be certain that these chapters, as published, represent J. R. R. Tolkien's own ideas about how those stories ought to be handled.
An example of anecdotal inconsistency within the canon between the published works can be found in the lineage of Gil-galad. In the published ''Silmarillion'' he is said to be the son of Fingon, but, as disclosed in the ''History of Middle-earth'', [6] this was largely an invention of Christopher Tolkien, based on a single marginal note by his father. In fact, Tolkien considered many genealogical arrangements for Gil-galad (most notably that he was the son of Finrod Felagund) before finally deciding that he was in fact the son of Orodreth (who himself was no longer a son of Finarfin, but rather his grandson).
An example of general consistency within the canon can be seen by comparing the chapter ''Of the Voyage of Eärendil'' in ''The Silmarillion'' with its corresponding sections in the ''History of Middle-earth'' Volume V. The ''Quenta Silmarillion'' of the 1930's was the final writing of J. R. R. Tolkien of this section and it is carried forward into ''The Silmarillion'' nearly word for word with editorial modifications - for consistency with other works- primarily limited to nomenclature; e.g. Fionwë to Eönwë, Lindar to Vanyar, etc.
1. Some relevant dictionary definitions of canon are: ''American Heritage Dictionary'': "an authoritative list, as of the works of an author"; "a basis for judgement; standard; criterion." ''Compact Oxford English Dictionary'': "4: the authentic works of a particular author or artist. 5: a list of literary works considered to be permanently established as being of the highest quality". ''Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary'': "3: b : the authentic works of a writer c : a sanctioned or accepted group or body of related works (the canon of great literature); 4:b : a criterion or standard of judgement."
2. Linguistic materials concerning Middle-earth, written by Tolkien, have been published, with the permission of the Tolkien Literary Estate, in two periodical publications. The Qenya and Gnomish Lexicons, in full, appear in ''Parma Eldalamberon'' Numbers 11-16. Other mostly self-contained fragments,notes and poems appear in various isssues of ''Vinyar Tengwar''.
3. Among simple inconsistencies surviving into the later editions, Bilbo and the dwarves take far too long to reach Rivendell if the map from ''The Lord of the Rings'' is used to gauge the distance; this inconsistency can only be explained with great difficulty if at all.
4. ''The Silmarillion'', p.8, additionally: "My father came to conceive ''The Silmarillion'' as a compilation...and it is to some extent a compendium in fact and not only in theory."
5. ''History of Middle-earth'' Vol.XI, p.356, Christopher Tolkien writes: "I think now that this was a mistaken view, and that the undoubted difficulties could have been and should have been, surmounted without so far overstepping the bounds of editorial function."
6. ''History of Middle-earth'', Vol. XII, pp. 349-351
★ J. R. R. Tolkien
★ List of Middle-earth writings
★ Tolkien fandom
:''These links are to websites where the Middle-earth canon issue is discussed by readers, fans, etc.''
★ The Tolkien Estate Website
★ FAQ Tolkien Estate Website "The Estate exists to defend the integrity of J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings. Christopher Tolkien's work as his father’s literary executor has always been to publish as faithfully and honestly as possible his father's completed and uncompleted works, without adaptation or embellishment."
★ ''Tolkien's Parish'' (an essay by Steuard Jensen).
★ ''Is Your Canon on the Loose?'' (an essay by Michael Martinez).
★ ''Encyclopedia of Arda'' (includes a note on canon [see page bottom]).
| Contents |
| Canonical Works |
| Consistency within the Canon |
| ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'' |
| ''The Silmarillion'' and other posthumous works |
| References and footnotes |
| See also |
| External links |
Canonical Works
The official canonical works published by Tolkien or the Tolkien Estate include ''The Hobbit'', ''The Lord of the Rings'', ''The Silmarillion'', ''Unfinished Tales'', ''History of Middle-earth'' Volumes I through XII, ''The Adventures of Tom Bombadil'', ''Bilbo's Last Song'', ''The Road Goes Ever On'', ''The History of The Hobbit'' and ''The Children of Húrin.'' These works, together with Tolkien's unpublished notes, [2] contain the substance of Tolkien's legendarium, a collection of tales which, much like the world's histories, legends and mythologies, contains numerous points of obscurity, omission, or apparent contradiction.
Consistency within the Canon
Tolkien spent much of his life seeking to bring a level of consistency to his created world. As a result of the manner of its creation, the world of Middle-earth is complicated. Its creator developed the various elements of his fictional mythology over the course of decades, making substantial changes up to and including the abandonment of major themes, important facts and entire tales, and wholesale rewrites and revisions of otherwise 'complete' narratives. In two of his letters, Tolkien provided explanations and examples:
''"I am doubtful myself about the undertaking [of finalizing ''The Silmarillion'']. Part of the attraction of the L.R. is, I think, due to the glimpses of a large history in the background: an attraction like that of viewing far off an unvisited island, or seeing the towers of a distant city gleaming in a sunlit mist. To go there is to destroy the magic, unless new unattainable vistas are again revealed. Also many of the older legends are purely 'mythological', and nearly all are grim and tragic: a long account of the disasters that destroyed the beauty of the Ancient World, from the darkening of Valinor to the Downfall of Númenor and the flight of Elendil."'' (#247)
''"…even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally)."'' (#144)
Towards the end of Tolkien's life, the focus of his writing shifted from pure story telling inspired by his philological pursuits to more philosophical concerns, and Tolkien never finalized a unified, systematic and wholly internally consistent legendarium. Even those materials published in the author's lifetime rarely if ever achieved (so far as he was concerned) a satisfactory state of completion and consistency. ''The Hobbit'', ''The Lord of the Rings'', ''The Adventures of Tom Bombadil'', and ''The Road Goes Ever On'' were all published while Tolkien was alive. But ''The Hobbit'' was revised twice, and ''Lord of the Rings'' once — both because of inconsistencies.
Tolkien himself indicated that he often felt bound by what had been published before. Even when he altered ''The Hobbit'' to bring the story of the finding of the Ring in line with later changes, Tolkien retained the original as the version which Bilbo told when trying to justify his acquisition of the Ring. Likewise, in preparing ''The Silmarillion'' for publication, Christopher Tolkien made editorial alterations to remove many possible inconsistencies with ''The Lord of the Rings''. Since then, Christopher Tolkien has identified some elements which he believes he 'got wrong', and he has provided reasons for his believing that one version or another was his father's 'intent'. All of this is inherent in trying to identify a consistent 'history' within the canon of Middle-earth.
With the posthumous publication of ''The Silmarillion'', questions arose regarding how to resolve inconsistencies between it and the other texts. As alternate ideas of Tolkien were published in The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, ''Unfinished Tales'' and the ''History of Middle-earth'' series, the consistency within the canon of the 'new' material in ''The Silmarillion'' was called into question by some Tolkien enthusiasts.
''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''
Tolkien did not initially conceive of or write ''The Hobbit'' as a part of the greater Middle-earth legendarium captured in ''The Silmarillion'' (the latter being based on tales begun in 1916). Rather, with ''The Hobbit'', Tolkien was populating an imaginary landscape with ready-to-hand characters and locations for a children's adventure story. Tolkien borrowed several references to his, at that time, unpublished ''Silmarillion'' mythology to give the newer story a sense of depth; an internal history, replete with mysterious myths and legends. Thus Gandalf and Thorin Oakenshield wield swords from Gondolin, and Elrond, ruler of Rivendell, is called Half-elven. The references are all to the ''First Age'' of Middle-Earth, as Tolkien would later call it, since the ''Second Age'' and ''Third Age'' were not yet conceived. When ''The Hobbit'' was later fit into the larger history as taking place near the end of the ''Third Age'', more than six thousand years after the end of the ''First Age'', this created a certain amount of incongruence that was never fully resolved even in the revisions. However, as far as ''The Hobbit'' was originally concerned, the mere mention of these 'externally referencing' details were the end of it.
These Middle-earth references were, in their original conception, anecdotal. After the success of ''The Hobbit'', Tolkien developed, at the urging of his publisher, a sequel that from the outset he also fully meant to be an episode (the last episode, perhaps) of the cycle laid out in ''The Silmarillion''. This dramatic shift in the relationship between Hobbits, of the family Baggins, and ''the'' Middle-earth, of the Valar, Eldar and Edain, meant that ''The Hobbit'' as originally published contained serious inconsistencies with respect to details of the world of Middle-earth. With ''Lord of the Rings'' being both fully sequel to ''The Hobbit'', and fully sequel to ''The Silmarillion'', Tolkien was faced with making the facts and history of ''The Hobbit'' 'fit' with those of ''The Silmarillion''. As a result, successive editions of ''The Hobbit'' were produced in order to rectify many, though not all, inconsistencies.[3]
While there is a general consistency across all of these works, the most consistent agreement between sources may be found with the second (1950) edition of ''The Hobbit'', the second (1965) edition of ''Lord of the Rings'', and ''The Adventures of Tom Bombadil'' and ''The Road Goes Ever On'' there are incidental inconsistencies some of which are difficult, or impossible, to reconcile. In the 2004 edition of ''Lord of the Rings'', Christopher Tolkien, Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull carefully supervised a complete standardization and silently corrected several errors that came about in the text. These changes are documented in ''.
''The Silmarillion'' and other posthumous works
The author died in 1973 without ever resolving his published and unpublished works on Middle-earth into a complete, self-consistent narrative. His son, Christopher Tolkien, as Literary Executor and editor, posthumously published ''The Silmarillion'' based on his manuscripts, completing much of the background narrative of Middle-earth and bringing various accounts into a solid general consistency with other published work, yet also introducing some new inconsistencies with published works.
Published in 1977, four years after Tolkien’s death, ''The Silmarillion'' itself represents a compressed and abridged cycle of Middle-earth’s oldest tales exhibited in the structure and style of the various ''Annals'' and ''Quenta Silmarillion''s versions seen in the numerous volumes of the ''History of Middle-earth''. It achieved its final form under the editorial control of Christopher Tolkien, who organizied and published his father’s greatest project. The younger Tolkien edited a version of what his father might have produced; however, he warned readers not to look for absolute consistency between the posthumous work and items published earlier:
''"a complete consistency (either within the compass of The Silmarillion itself or between The Silmarillion and other published writings of my father's) is not to be looked for, and could only be achieved, if at all, at heavy and needless cost."'' [4]
Throughout his commentaries in the twelve volumes of ''The History of Middle-earth'', Christopher Tolkien has pointed out many choices, differences and discrepancies in his final editorial selections/alterations in ‘’The Silmarillion’’. In most cases, he defends them as what he thinks would have been his father's true intentions. A particularly acute problem, in this regard, are the chapters published in ''The Silmarillion'' about the ruin of Doriath and the fall of Gondolin, especially the former.[5] It cannot be certain that these chapters, as published, represent J. R. R. Tolkien's own ideas about how those stories ought to be handled.
An example of anecdotal inconsistency within the canon between the published works can be found in the lineage of Gil-galad. In the published ''Silmarillion'' he is said to be the son of Fingon, but, as disclosed in the ''History of Middle-earth'', [6] this was largely an invention of Christopher Tolkien, based on a single marginal note by his father. In fact, Tolkien considered many genealogical arrangements for Gil-galad (most notably that he was the son of Finrod Felagund) before finally deciding that he was in fact the son of Orodreth (who himself was no longer a son of Finarfin, but rather his grandson).
An example of general consistency within the canon can be seen by comparing the chapter ''Of the Voyage of Eärendil'' in ''The Silmarillion'' with its corresponding sections in the ''History of Middle-earth'' Volume V. The ''Quenta Silmarillion'' of the 1930's was the final writing of J. R. R. Tolkien of this section and it is carried forward into ''The Silmarillion'' nearly word for word with editorial modifications - for consistency with other works- primarily limited to nomenclature; e.g. Fionwë to Eönwë, Lindar to Vanyar, etc.
References and footnotes
1. Some relevant dictionary definitions of canon are: ''American Heritage Dictionary'': "an authoritative list, as of the works of an author"; "a basis for judgement; standard; criterion." ''Compact Oxford English Dictionary'': "4: the authentic works of a particular author or artist. 5: a list of literary works considered to be permanently established as being of the highest quality". ''Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary'': "3: b : the authentic works of a writer c : a sanctioned or accepted group or body of related works (the canon of great literature); 4:b : a criterion or standard of judgement."
2. Linguistic materials concerning Middle-earth, written by Tolkien, have been published, with the permission of the Tolkien Literary Estate, in two periodical publications. The Qenya and Gnomish Lexicons, in full, appear in ''Parma Eldalamberon'' Numbers 11-16. Other mostly self-contained fragments,notes and poems appear in various isssues of ''Vinyar Tengwar''.
3. Among simple inconsistencies surviving into the later editions, Bilbo and the dwarves take far too long to reach Rivendell if the map from ''The Lord of the Rings'' is used to gauge the distance; this inconsistency can only be explained with great difficulty if at all.
4. ''The Silmarillion'', p.8, additionally: "My father came to conceive ''The Silmarillion'' as a compilation...and it is to some extent a compendium in fact and not only in theory."
5. ''History of Middle-earth'' Vol.XI, p.356, Christopher Tolkien writes: "I think now that this was a mistaken view, and that the undoubted difficulties could have been and should have been, surmounted without so far overstepping the bounds of editorial function."
6. ''History of Middle-earth'', Vol. XII, pp. 349-351
See also
★ J. R. R. Tolkien
★ List of Middle-earth writings
★ Tolkien fandom
External links
:''These links are to websites where the Middle-earth canon issue is discussed by readers, fans, etc.''
★ The Tolkien Estate Website
★ FAQ Tolkien Estate Website "The Estate exists to defend the integrity of J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings. Christopher Tolkien's work as his father’s literary executor has always been to publish as faithfully and honestly as possible his father's completed and uncompleted works, without adaptation or embellishment."
★ ''Tolkien's Parish'' (an essay by Steuard Jensen).
★ ''Is Your Canon on the Loose?'' (an essay by Michael Martinez).
★ ''Encyclopedia of Arda'' (includes a note on canon [see page bottom]).
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