[Halfir]

One point I failed to mention in my criticism of Lewis is really one that belongs to Tolkien, who, as has been posted, was not a fan of the Narnia series.

In the Forewood to the FOTR - in talking about his dislike of allegory - Tolkien says:"But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied apllicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author."

That last point: "the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author", seems to me to sum up the crucial difference between Lewis and Tolkien. The freedom of the reader as opposed to the purposed domination of the author. Indeed, it is that freedom , as opposed to domination, which has made LOTR the universal work that it is, unbounded by religious shackles, although I do not dispute that religious belief abides in it.

As Yeats wrote:"How can we tell the dancer from the dance?"With Lewis, quite easily in the Narnia chronicles, with Tolkien not at all in LOTR. That is why one will disappear into the graveyard of literary history, and the other will endure beyond the circles of the world.