LOTR:Canon

"I would draw some of the great tales in fullness, and leave many only placed in the scheme, and sketched. The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama."

—J.R.R. Tolkien

It is difficult to speak of what is "true" in the context of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, or what texts should be considered canon; some readers do not believe that any clear canon exists at all. Others argue that a legendarium for its very nature does not need any kind of canon.

There are various reasons for the matter of what is authoritative to be confusing:

• Tolkien worked on Middle-earth over the course of decades, making substantial changes. Readers may remember, for example, the differences between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with regard to Gandalf and the Elves. Moreover, toward the end of his life the focus of his writing shifted from pure story telling to more philosophical concerns, which led to a considerable shift in tone and content.

• Tolkien's writing is laden with details and hints, which can be contradictory, especially in the posthumously published work. Such information should not take precedence over more explicit statements elsewhere, but it can help to flesh out our understanding of Middle-earth (even if it does at times add confusion). In general, the revised versions of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings are considered canon, but with The Silmarillion and other posthumous texts the matter is more complex.

• To add to the confusion, in some cases, Tolkien intentionally left some gaps in his works. In one of his letters (#144) he provided both an explanation and an example of this, writing concerning Tom Bombadil that "even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally)." Giving an incomplete picture in this way can be frustrating, but it also makes the invented world feel more natural.

I am doubtful myself about the undertaking. Part of the attraction of The Lord of the Rings 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.

- from The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, letter 247

For the purposes of this wiki, canon will be defined as anything pertaining to Middle-earth that was written/invented by J.R.R. Tolkien or developed under license from Tolkien Enterprises. Although elements of the latter will be regarded as non-canon relative to Tolkien's works, they are both officially approved by his estate and internally consistent with themselves and any other directly related works. For example, the three films comprising the Jackson trilogy are internally consistent with each other and licensed by Tolkien Enterprises, so they may be included if the information from these films is clearly indicated to be derived from Jackson's work as opposed to Tolkien's work by being placed under the "Portrayal in Adaptations" section. Should some element of an adaptation be unique to that adaptation, however, and not found in Tolkien's works, it is still permitted, but is considered and must clearly be categorised as non-canon, and labeled so with the "NonCanon" template.

Sources

General Public

• The Hobbit (including The Annotated Hobbit and The Hobbit Facsimile First Edition)
• The Lord of the Rings (Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers (novel), and The Return of the King (book))
• The Silmarillion
• Unfinished Tales
• The Children of Hurin
• Beren and Lúthien
• Bilbo's Last Song
• The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (Once upon a Time and An Evening in Tavrobel)

The sources released for mainstream consumption and can be read as stand-alone 'stories' (or short stories) and 'novels' in a linear manner. These are generally considered the most reliable (though they sometimes share 'alternate accounts' of certain events). These are generally meant to be complete stories or to fill in the gaps of the stories (and often from in-universe perspective).

Academic/Scholarly

• The Road Goes Ever On
• The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien
• The Book of Lost Tales Part One
• The Book of Lost Tales Part Two
• The Lays of Beleriand
• The Shaping of Middle-earth
• The Lost Road and Other Writings
• The Return of the Shadow
• The Treason of Isengard
• The War of the Ring (book)
• Sauron Defeated
• Morgoth's Ring
• The War of the Jewels
• The Peoples of Middle-earth
• The History of The Hobbit (Mr. Baggins and Return to Bag-End)
• The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays

Note: These are sources meant more for enthusiasts and those interested in the developmental history of the series. Or saw limited release. It contains a lot of early 'draft' material, or material that hasn't been edited into a more 'consistent' order. Much of this can be considered "Precanon' or "primitive" in the evolution of the series. However, some of the material is from late generation development of ideas either for Silmarillion or the Lord of the Rings, or simply as retellings in 'alternate' styles (poetry vs prose vs. annal/summaries vs essays). Some written a decade or more after the Lord of the Rings. In some cases material from these sources have been re-edited and used for mainstream novels as is the case of the Great Tales (Children of Hurin and Beren and Luthien). As this series represents developmental history stories, adaptations, or drafts are often out of 'order', and it is often nonlinear (with multiple competing 'edits' shown for comparison). But it does offer some interesting additional stories not found anywhere else that expands on the universe as a whole.

To a lesser extent the first too books of the The History of Middle-earth: the Book of Lost Tales (vol 1 and 2) exist as stand alone novels (and without the "HoMe" branding) which can be read in a linear order with a framing story that ties everything together (editorial intrusions limited to end notes). In some cases later books Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit even reference back to them, and treat them as in-universe 'mythologies' (histories changing over time as different story tellers repeat them). This is probably why at least the first two books have seen general mass-market print for general audiences as well.

The Lays of Beleriend, The Shaping of Middle-earth, and the Lost Road and Other Wrings have also received 'stand alone' editions outside of the HoMe series as well.

Occasionally the LOTR development centric middle cycle Return of the Shadow, Treason of Isengard The War of the Ring and Sauron Defeated are sold as its own separate but premium boxed set (larger format and not necessarily general public, in both soft cover and hard cover editions), and renumbered and marketed as its own series The History of The Lord of the Rings, as a kind of companion to the The History of The Hobbit set.

The last three which deal more late stage Silmarillion development (and much materials written after Lord of the Rings) and miscellaneous material have not seen separate rereleases to the general public. Of particular note is beginning chapter of a sequel to Lord of the Rings that never materialized, as well as cultural essays on Dwarves, a few other short story/unfinished tales materials.

Non-canon vs. "Precanon" vs. External Mythologies

If the topic of an article here is non-canonical from the start, it will be categorized and labelled as such. The same goes for few topics of Middle-earth lore that are here considered not non-canonical but precanonical - for example, any topics indigenous to the story of Eriol, a character who originates from a real location (England) and is thus only semi-invented (he is partially reintroduced as a framing character in Beren and Lúthien (2017), and was reused by Tolkien in some fashion in some of his later generation works, or such as the villain Tevildo, the forerunning character to Sauron; however Beren and Luthien (2017) reintroduces Tevildo back into the 'complete story' as a separate minion of Morgoth, separate to Thu/Sauron, or such as Kullervo, a character who originates from Finnish Mythology and yet in the publication summary to The Story of Kullervo is referred to as "..the darkest and most tragic of all Tolkien's characters."

Unlike the case of the English and Finnish mythological elements mentioned above, the book Finn and Hengest is not here considered precanonical, nor is it associated with non-canon. It is merely a study, narration, and interpretation by Tolkien of two characters who appear in two different Old English poems. The same goes for The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, another work published under Tolkien's name that contains narrative directly originating from Norse Mythology.

Most but not all lore discussed on articles in a section labeled "Earlier Versions of the Legendarium" concern precanonical events, story-lines, or events. As signified by that section heading used, topics that are precanonical do still fall under the umbrella of the "Legendarium", or mythology of Tolkien. Non-canonical topics that do not, as they by definition are invented outside of any version of legendarium. Relative to canon and precanon, non-canonical topics can be described as truly "fictional".

In History of the Middle-earth and Unfinished Tales, Christopher Tolkien apologizes for some editorial choices he made with the help of Guy Gavriel Kay, in which he admits in hindsight that several chapters of Silmarillion were is or Guy's inventions and not wholey J.R.R. Tolkien's ideas. He occasionally discusses some things he would have done different if he was to edit the book again. Certain materials he 'ignored' or tossed out he realized in hindsight would have been fairly easy to manage.

He also comments on materials he discovered later after Silmarillion was already published would have influenced the direction he took with certain chapters.

In some instances he admits that Silmarillion's accounts in chapters were just plane wrong. As is the case of the Sack of Doriath, as one of his biggest examples.

In some cases he has been able to incorporate materials he overlooked or ignored in later books such as Unfinished Tales, and his Great Tales editions: The Children of Húrin and Beren and Lúthien.

Wiki Categories

The root categories of all articles that fall under the qualifiers precanon or non-canon are Precanonical Topics and Non-canonical Topics.

On this wiki, there is no category exclusively for all things that are canon, for those make up the main space of the encyclopedia. With the three exceptions of Wiki policies, all writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, and all other Real World topics (Real people, books, websites, games, etc.), informative articles on this Wiki that have no categories with the word "canon" in them are canonical, and pertain to the predominant and "true" (or final) version of the legendarium of Middle-earth.