World Facts

This article discusses the concept of literary ‘canon’ as it might be applied to J. R. R. Tolkien’s fictional Middle-earth legendarium.

Definition

Originally a term applied to questions of ecclesial law (and to questions of textual legitimacy with respect to books of the Bible on which those laws rest), ‘canon’ has also come to generally signify a body of writings or beliefs that are taken to be authoritative with respect to the questions or themes they address. In literature, the term often applies to the legitimate publication (both in the sense of ‘copyright’ and ‘final author-approved content’) of a given work, as well as to a body of ‘core’ materials that capture the essence of a given culture (e. Highest lowest biggest smallest tallest deepest oldest youngest Continents Countries Cities Dependencies Deserts. g. , the Canon of Western Civilization Literature) or subculture (e. g. , the Geek canon).

As a derivative of the last two senses of the term given above, and as applied to fictional secondary worlds, ‘canon’ can also be a label attached to the entire universe of ‘secondary world facts’ that a reader or community of readers believes to be ‘true’ (or accurate, or internally consistent) with respect to the themes, events, characters and other literary objects of that fictional world.