Of course when Tolkien began writing lotr he didn't know where he was going with it. He just planned the story as far as Rivendell. No doubt some of the similarities were deliberate, such as the "there and back again" structure, but otheres like the mountain at the end and the journey underground I'd say just hapened as such with no higher purpose.
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"Come away, O human child!/ To the waters and the wild/With a faery hand in hand,/ For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand."
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