[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

Actually Tolkien's intent to write a mythology that he could dedicate to England was only the starting point. He said himself "my crest has long since fallen".

The intention was always to write a mythology for England. Not for the Anglo-Saxons, but for modern England, which thanks to the advent of Christianity and the Norman conquest has lost all of its Germanic legends. Tolkien wanted an alternative to the Celtic legends of the Britons, since those are rightly the heritage of Wales.

I would argue that invasion and displacement are never right, although they are an historical reality. We can lament the usurpation of someone's land whilst still admitting that our own cultures have grown out of such displacement. Certainly Tolkien was averse to imperialism per se. In letter #77, he wrote: "I should have hated the Roman Empire in its day (as I do), and remained a patriotic Roman citizen, while preferring a free Gaul and seeing good in Carthaginians."

He was no less disapproving of the British Empire. In Letter #53 he wrote: "I love England (not Great Britain and certainly not the British Commonwealth)".

It seems likely to me that the anti-imperial themes in Tolkien's works, particularly as they relate to Númenor, are therefore quite deliberate; which would make a foreword that criticises cultural expansionism reasonably appropriate. Unfortunately many of the great explorers have been motivated by profit and have done a great deal of damage, but we shouldn't forget that but for them the world would be a different and more divided place. Perhaps this is what Tolkien meant when he wrote: "And thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined." Perhaps this is an insight into Tolkien's view of God.