[camle]

if you view LOTR as a parallel for WW-II, Bombadil is Prince Phillip(?) the one who gave up the throne, then played games with both sides in the hope of regaining power.

I might have the name wrong...

[JameRetief]

Tolkien himself states in the prologue of the novel that he was not drawing a parallel to the World War. But it is interesting how it does seem to do so.

[Skywalk]

Actually, wasn't most of LotR written before the war began? I've heard it would have been more modelled on Tolkien's experiences in the Great War, which is where he got some of his ideas about power, control and industrialization vs. agrarian life.

I had a good number of discussions with various liberts/conservatives/anarcho-capitalist libertarians about how some fans of things like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings have no clue about the real themes in these works, because if they did, they would not be socialist totalitarians.

I've noticed there's a lot bigger LotR contingent on FR than any political site(namely our Dem counterpart) Frankly, that's probably because the themes appeal more to us, who are not interested in power(except the Drug Warriors ;) over others, whereas the left tends to be of the Vader/Sauron/Saruman variety.