[Lhundulinwen]

I agree with Hookbill the Goomba. Tolkien was deeply religous and I believe that he wrote LOTR to teach the world certain truths and ideas. Of course, he was also out to make a genuinely wonderful novel, which he succeeded, but he also put intertwining themes that run throughout the book. Many people have commented that each time they read LOTR, they learn something new. I believe this is because LOTR has layers and layers and each scene and character has something much deeper to it. It just takes time to get there. Mybe Tolkien didn't mean to put the layers there, but I believe to a certain extent they are there and we are not seeing things that are not there.

Of course people's views will change over the years. When LOTR was published for the first time, most people scratched their heads, and went back and studied it more. They wrote Tolkien letters. They asked fellow LOTR nuts what they thought. And as time went on, I assume we come to what we all believe now about LOTR, each of us adding our own 'seasonings' and ideas to it.