Good point, a Saint Anthony the Abbot, of sorts, or the Celtic equivalent. One can’t see St. Anthony giggling over nonsense rhymes. That’s what brought to mind Chesterton’s biography of St. Francis, because he placed St. Francis in a new heremitical class, with some important distinctions from the earlier penitential hermitage of the Desert Fathers.
Tolkien can be a little hard to place, culturally, for an American. We don’t have the natural sense of where he fits among British types.
True, and it can’t be assumed that every part in his books has a Christian equivalent. Certainly unique, though. I’ve only read the trilogy and The Silmarillion (without which the trilogy makes much less sense); I definitely have to look at some of his other writings. I know his son put out unfinished works as well.