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I'm not necessarily arguing that his aim was to create anything other than a work of Art. Though I would argue that the desire to inspire a moral regeneration was in his mind at the start. It is clear that he felt he had an obligation to set out the ideals of the TCBS in his fiction.
It also seems clear that in his desire to create a mythology for England (or perhaps we should say a mythology which he could dedicate to England) he was not just inspired by what Lonrot had done in bringing together the legends of Finland into the Kalevala, but in a way hoping to achieve a similar efffect through his art on the English people - a strengthening of English identity.
What we have to say as regards 'source hunting' is that, as you say (& as I've argued myself) the whole is greater than the sum of the parts - ie in writing the Legendarium Tolkien was not simply collating, amalgamating & re-writing his sources & his own life experiences. He was using those things as raw material to fashion something - even if that was 'only' a work of Art.
So, my purpose in this thread is to focus on what, exactly, his intention was. Its interesting to me that even though his motivation changed over time the stories, as I said, essentially didn't - we're talking about The Silmarillion writings here. They were written with a 'moral' intent (to put it crudely), to point up certain moral values. If the intent or desire changes the moral core of the vision doesn't. Essentially, even when Tolkien no longer wishes to bring about the moral regeneration of England, the moral core of the stories remains - which is ineresting in itself. the underlying moral value system remains even when he no longer wishes to 'moralise' through them.
I suppose the point of this thread is my own feeling that rather than looking at what Tolkien drew on to create what he did, there is more to be gained by focussing on what he actually produced. An oak tree may start out as an acorn, but the oak tree is far more than, & far other, than the acorn.
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