Davem, it seems to me that you are changing the question in mid-argument. Perhaps I simply misunderstood your earlier posts on this thread. But you said:
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Tolkien spent 60 years doing something, & he must have had a reason for devoting such time & energy to it. He wasn't just using 'sources', he was using them for something.
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And:
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Just attempting to understand why he did what he did.
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Now you say:
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When I ask what was it all for I'm attempting to focus on where he ended up, rather than where he started.
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I think it's clear that there are two distinct questions here, but I don't think it's at all clear which you intended to discuss in this thread. Which are we discussing:
1. Why Tolkien wrote - i.e. what his intention was
or
2. What the result was (related to the issue of what
value the work has)?