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A couple of things struck me the more I thought about Tolkien's 'Faery'. One is the way so many of his readers (& so many of the fantasy writers who have followed him - ie ripped him off) have accepted the 'objective' existence of his created Faery - his Elves & Dwarves & Goblins have been accepted by others, not simply Tolkien himself as existing 'out there', but more importantly so has his morality - the moral value system he imposed.
The other thing is the way in the essay he rejects out of hand any allegorical interpretation of Faery (only allowing it to be a 'symbol' - though where the exact dividing line between symbol & allegory is to be found is another question) as it appears in the story, but himself provides an allegorical interpretation of the 'human' world in the story.
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