Maeglin is correct. Take a look at what the author says in Letter 130 from 1950:
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I was from early days aggrieved
by the poverty of my own beloved country; it had no stories of its own (bound up with its tongue and soil), not of the quality that I sought....
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Do not laugh! But once upon a time (my crest has long since fallen) I had a mind to make abody of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic, to the level of romantic fairy-story.....which I would dedicate simply to: England; to my country.
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At one point Tolkien envivisioned the floating isle of Tol Eressea as eventually becoming anchored as England. He also used the framing device of an English mariner as the narrator of the tales; this individual went by different names: Eriol, Aelfwine, etc. What he initially set out to do was to create a series of tales that could be regarded as another Old English text. We know that he actually translated small sections of the Lost Tales into Anglo-Saxon; perhaps he contemplated putting the whole thing into Old English!
Remember that these tales go back all the way to 1916 when Tolkien was just 25 years old. Over the years, his ideas would change and mature and the connection with "England's mythlogy" become less overt. But there are still hints of it, even in the "finished" writings that we have. One one level, the Shire and its inhabitants are obviously an idealized piece of England, perhaps Edwardian or Victorian. You can still see the city of Avalonne, an obvious allusion to Avalon of the Arthurian tales. And we still have the device of the narrator: this time loosely filled by the hobbits Bilbo and Frodo rather than ancient mariners.
So, yes! It's definitely a bit different than the later writings and simply shows the evolution of some of his themes and ideas.
sharon
[ October 27, 2003: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]