Sorry, I didn't mean to connect the Thirty Years' War with the Dark Ages, though I guess I just flowed right into it from talking about the Dark Ages... And though I do like sticking with the 'old ways' quite a lot.
Really, I suppose whether or not Tolkien's view of history is "romantic" or not is far too relative to talk about. The sort of literature Tolkien wrote is so vastly different from other types, like this
The Last Kingdom that I'm reading, that scaling properly what is "more" or "less romantic" is pretty difficult. I mean, in Cornwell's novel, the English captive of the Danes is conflicted because he starts liking life with the Danes quite a lot more than he liked his life with the English. And the way each is presented, it makes it seem like a toss up. In Tolkien's works, you don't even get that sort of close-up, I think. At least, it's not right there on the page - perhaps everything's there for the reader to take it that step further, but it's not all there.
Is that something we've "lost" in literature perhaps, that we can look back at "romantically" and longingly: subtlety in literature that leaves things to the reader's imagination? Are authors now indulging in their own pleasures more than the possible readers' pleasures? Ooh, sounds like a piece from another familiar endless debate...
(All I have time for...unfortunate Latin exam... An aspiring Classics major should be more excited maybe? Pshaw. An exam is an exam. Work is work. It is blah.)