[infidel29]

The word I heard about it is that it is much darker than the LOTR and much more sexually explicit, including incest.

A slight turnoff to a LOTR fan, but I'll still give it a chance.

[Old Sarge]

Well, to make a long story short, the incest was not intentional or forethought. Without posting a plot spoiler, let me just say it's a tragic story, already in the Silmarillion - and well worth reading. The Professor thought it was worth telling, as it is easily the longest part of the book.

[Cicero]

The word I heard about it is that it is much darker than the LOTR and much more sexually explicit, including incest. Tolkien was a professor of linguistics and Old English. He also knew the Scandinavian mythology. I would guess that some of this would be based on mythic materials that Wagner adopted in Der Ring Des Niebelungen. Siegmund and Sieglinde committed incest, and the whole tale revolves around a stolen ring that ends up with the Gotterdammerung--the War of the Gods and the End of the World.

Tolkien made use of this mythology--and other tales of dragons, dwarfs, and so on--but I am sure he would do so in a way that should not offend his readers.