Tolkien Fandom

The Tolkien Fandom is the fandom surrounding the books written by JRR Tolkien. It is known for being made up of some extremely hardcore fans; this may be why many Plot Protection Initiatives have been started by Tolkien fans.

The canon itself is extremely complex. "The Lord of the Rings" is probably the only book that is (mostly) unquestionably canon. "The Hobbit" was not originally meant to really take place in Arda, so, while the events of it are canon, some things mentioned in it might not be. The others:--"The Silmarillion," "Unfinished Tales," and the "History of Middle-earth" series--were all published post-humously and were edited by Christopher Tolkien. This is not to imply that Christopher Tolkien somehow "taints" the canon--on the contrary, Tolkien fans are indebted to him for all his hard work--just that there are some questions that he can't answer about contradictions within the canon because he isn't his father. One example of this the identity of Gil-galad's father. Originally, he was a descendant of Fëanor, but JRRT decided against that, so that isn't a problem. However, no one knows for sure whether Gil-galad's father was Fingon or Orodreth. Even if it is Orodreth, Orodreth could be the son of Finarfin and the brother of Angrod, or the son of Angrod and the grandson of Finarfin. This is only one of a number of issues.

The movies, however, have caused more problems than anything else. They are the cause of the hordes of fangirls writing terrible fanfic. They also created or spread quite a few misconceptions: Sauron as a giant eye, for example. Almost all horrible Arda fanfiction follows the movies, regardless of whether or not the typist has read the books.