[tarawa]

Tolkien absolutely despised allegory, and I think he would have been severely disappointed in how we have chosen to interpret his stories. That being said, once the work is out in the public, it will always be up to the individual reader to interpret it however he or she sees fit, and truly can or should sway that.

[CyberCowboy777]

Tolkien loved mythology and believed that hints of truth were hidden in much of it. He used this line of thinking in some known discussions with C.S. Lewis.

I may be wrong here but I think he felt most mythology was a allegory at some level or another.

[CyberCowboy777]

"Tolkien once wrote to a Jesuit friend, is a "fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first but consciously in the revision.""