Help:References

References are the cornerstone of any serious encyclopedia. Though much of our old content remains without inline references, Tolkien Gateway wishes to properly credit its statements. This way, fanon and overinterpretation can be properly identified and omitted, and valid statements can be properly attributed to reliable sources.

Referencing

How to

Tolkien Gateway uses, like most wiki-based encyclopedia's, the Cite/Cite extension. A short how-to:

With this method, sources are cited within the text. The full citations appear wherever you type "{{references}}", which should generally be at the bottom of the page just above the categories.

This is the text you type.<ref>And this is the source</ref>

The text in between the <ref>-tags appears in the References section. These tags can be named for reuse:

This is the text you type.<ref name=One>And this is source number one</ref>

Then, you use something with another source,<ref>Like this one</ref>, before returning 
to the first one.<ref name=One/>

Shortcuts

See also Category:Citation templates

The most common sources have templates that can be used to write out references automatically. Generally, the format to use them is:

<ref>{{T|chapter#}}</ref>

But there will sometimes be additional options for sources with more complex structures. For detailed instructions on how to use an individual template, click on that template's link below.

Main works

• {{H}} = The Hobbit

• The Lord of the Rings
  • {{FR}} = The Fellowship of the Ring
  • {{TT}} = The Two Towers
  • {{RK}} = The Return of the King
  • {{App}} = Appendices

• {{S}} = The Silmarillion

• {{UT}} = Unfinished Tales

• {{CH}} = The Children of Húrin

• {{BL}} = Beren and Lúthien

• {{FG}} = The Fall of Gondolin

• The History of Middle-earth
  • {{LT1}} = The Book of Lost Tales Part One
  • {{LT2}} = The Book of Lost Tales Part Two
  • {{LB}} = The Lays of Beleriand
  • {{SM}} = The Shaping of Middle-earth
  • {{LR}} = The Lost Road and Other Writings
  • {{RS}} = The Return of the Shadow
  • {{TI}} = The Treason of Isengard
  • {{WR}} = The War of the Ring
  • {{SD}} = Sauron Defeated
  • {{MR}} = Morgoth's Ring
    • {{AA}} = "The Annals of Aman"
  • {{WJ}} = The War of the Jewels
    • {{GA}} = "The Grey Annals"
  • {{PM}} = The Peoples of Middle-earth

• {{NM}} = The Nature of Middle-earth

• {{HH}} = The History of The Hobbit

• {{L}} = The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

• {{B}} = J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

• {{CG}} = The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide

Other works

• {{AB}} = The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book
• {{Arthur}} = The Fall of Arthur
• {{Beowulf}} = Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary
• {{HB}} = The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son
• {{LFC}} = Letters from Father Christmas
• {{MC}} = The Monsters and the Critics
• {{RGEO}} = The Road Goes Ever On
• {{SG}} = The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún

• {{PE}} = Parma Eldalamberon
• {{VT}} = Vinyar Tengwar

Note: {{HM}} is the old 'general-purpose' template, but it has been mostly superseded by the above templates, which offer more flexibility.

Internet sources

Additionally, the {{Webcite}} template can be used to cite web sources. See the template page for instructions on how to use it.

Page numbers

The purpose of a citation is to direct a reader to the source of a statement made in an article. Tolkien Gateway encourages editors to make the most precise citations possible, but we recognize that there are many editions of Tolkien's works available throughout the world. Many editors and readers do not have access to any given edition of a work.

For editors who do not have access to the specific editions listed below, Tolkien Gateway accepts citations to the most specific available subdivision within the text, be it chapter or other type of heading. For the most part, the shortcut templates linked to above represent the minimum necessary precision for a good citation (e.g. "{{App|A1iii}}").

We encourage editors who have access to the following editions of the following works to include page numbers in their citations:

• The Lord of the Rings - Include page numbers in citations from 50th Anniversary Edition (which is the edition favoured for citations in scholarly works).
• Unfinished Tales - Include page numbers in citations from editions published by George Allen & Unwin, Unwin Paperbacks or Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, that follow the same pagination as the first edition (472 pages). Editions published after 1992 do not usually follow this pagination.
• The History of Middle-earth series - Include page numbers in citations from editions published by HarperCollins or Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (all of which have the same pagination).
• The Children of Húrin - Include page numbers in citations from editions published by HarperCollins or Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
• Beren and Lúthien - Include page numbers in citations from editions published by HarperCollins or Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

The following works should not have page numbers included in citations because Tolkien Gateway does not endorse any specific edition due to the many editions:

• The Hobbit - Do not include page numbers in citations.
• The Silmarillion - Do not include page numbers in citations.

Standards

The following standards should be applied when writing references using "<ref>...</ref>":

• Avoid adding a period/full stop at the end of the tag line (Example: "<ref>{{HM|RC}}, p. 20</ref>")
• Place the tag line after the punctuation mark. However, an exception could be if you want to give a reference for a certain linguistic form of a word (or something similar).
• Use "p." instead of "page" and "pp." instead of "pages" (Example: "pp. 20-2")
• Leave a space between "p." (or "pp.") and the page number (Example: "p. 20")

Footnoting

An explanatory footnote (i.e., a footnote used for some reason other than purely to provide a citation, such as to provide additional information or clarification) can be added to an article by using a <ref> tag with the "note" parameter:

This is the text.<ref group=note>This is the explanatory footnote. See citation.</ref>

When placing the {{references}} template near the bottom of the article, it must include a "notes" parameter for these footnotes to appear on the page; to do so, use the code {{references|notes}} (instead of the usual "{{references}}" code).

Note that <ref> tags cannot be nested, meaning that you cannot include an inline citation within an explanatory footnote itself. In other words, placing <ref>...</ref> code inside of <ref group=note> ...</ref> code will not work. Therefore, to include a citation in an explanatory footnote, provide the citation in the text of the footnote itself (following whichever part of the footnote text that the citation supports), as indicated in the example above.

Questionable statements

Questionable statements can be challenged with the {{fact}} template. Fanon, conjecture, and overinterpretation that is unreferenced can be deleted on sight.

See also

• Tolkien Gateway:Manual of Style
• Tolkien Gateway:Canon policy