Oxonmoot 2024

The publication of The Fall of Númenor (2022) raises an issue often-overlooked, i.e., the matter of the canonicity of the posthumous works that constitute the legendarium considering the editing practices and literary products resulted from the use of Tolkien's manuscripts. The book is composed of a bricolage of pieces from different sources: some published while Tolkien was alive, some later edited by Cristopher Tolkien through on a series of choices of his own, being some of them conflicting, extracts from Tolkien's personal letters, along with parts of The Nature of Middle-earth (2021), also conceived in a similar fashion. However, as Genette (1997) states, manuscripts, correspondence, interviews, etc. may all be considered unofficial sources since they lack a final agreement between authors and editors. Thus, inspired by works such as Kane's Arda Reconstructed (2009), oner proposes a discussion on authorial and editorial boundaries regarding Tolkien's works.