Very interesting topic. I agree that Tolkien did not conciously make LotR allegorical. He scoffed at the notion. Especially when people started saying that the Scaouring of the Shire was an allegory for WWII. He thought it was absolutely absurd. And as for the spiders, I do know that Tolkien had a very close encounter with a tarantula when he lived in Africa. He was pretty young, but he heard lots of stories about it. That might have given him an idea about the spiders. Just a thought.
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Such lissom limbs no more shall run
on the green earth beneath the sun;
so fair a maid no more shall be
from dawn to dusk, from sun to sea.
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