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Originally Posted by Aiwendil
I do not think that religion is the only viable explanation. Above, Bethberry posited an interesting alternative in philology. ... Perhaps a less controversial way of putting it would be to say that Tolkien liked it better that way (so do I, as it happens, and I imagine so do a great many others). If Tolkien found certain elements of many fairy-stories distasteful or uninteresting, why shouldn't he write stories purged of such elements? We need not follow the likes of Edwin Muir and Edmund Wilson in claiming that any story that isn't about sex is juvenile.
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Your suggestion is based in aesthetics. I have no disagreement with it. Regarding philology, whereas it is true that Tolkien's entire Legendarium used philology as a generative strategy, I don't see how it affects the issue of "purging of the gross". Care to elucidate?