Cultus Dispatches: Who Gets to Say? Canon and Authority

If you write Tolkien-based fanfiction, you've probably thought about and likely discussed questions about canon and authority. Do you give preference to the Silmarillion or the History of Middle-earth version when they differ? Do you go with Tolkien's "final word" or the version he appeared to have thought through and developed most carefully? And where do the various adaptations—the film trilogies, the new show, the decades-worth of Tolkien-inspired games—fit in?

Over the next several months, our Cultus Dispatches column will be looking at issues of how Tolkien fans define and use canon. This month's column by Dawn Felagund looks at Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data around five possible canon authorities: Tolkien himself, other fans, scholars and experts, Christopher Tolkien, and Peter Jackson and other filmmakers. What emerges from looking at these five survey items is that the matter of canon and authority is complex. Fans vary—and widely—in who they regard as an authority and how that impacts their practice, but a few trends emerge, which Dawn looks into in some detail.

You can read the column "Who Gets to Say? Canon and Authority" here.

We are also collecting responses on the question "How do you define Tolkien's canon?" for our Fandom Voices project. You can learn more about the project and contribute your response here.

Posted on 26 March 2023 (updated 22 April 2023) by SWG Moderators