First off I just want to give props to
mark12_30 for an excellent mill-metaphor.
Anyway.
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Yet, of course, Middle Earth mustn't be an allegory, mustn't exist simply as a means to supply what's lacking here, it mustn't exist for this world. It must exist for itself, & the characters do what they do for their own reasons, which relate solely to their own world, so we can choose to take from that world what we will. But we have to ask ourselves honestly what we are responding to in that world, what needs it is supplying, & why we respond as we do it, & why we choose to take what we do from it.
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In response to what I have read here and elsewhere on this thread, my opinion is that Tolkien's works have Truth in them. This elusive, mysteriously capitalized noun is different for everyone, and no one person will find or see it in the same way, for the obvious reason that everyone is different themselves.
If one has a depressing outlook on life, one will see sadness and destruction in
The Lord of the Rings. It becomes something of a tragedy, when you look at the disparity of the elves to leave Middle-Earth, Arwen's immortal choice, the deaths of so many characters who may have lived in peace, and Sam's torn heart.
But if one reads it in a more chipper attidude, one sees growth, new replacing old, rest for those who have long since grown weary, and sacrifice for others.
Take this for example:
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Yet the lies that Melkor, the mighty and accursed, Morgoth Bauglir, the Power of Terror and of Hate, sowed in the Hearts of Elves and Men are a seed that does not die and cannot be destroyed; and ever and anon it sprouts anew, and will bear dark fruit even unto the latest days.
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That's from the Silmarillion, the Voyage of Earendil. The truth I see in it is that every person has a seed inside that spreads hate and fear through our minds. We cannot get rid of it, and we must struggle with it in order to quell it. The 'dark fruit' it refers to is what happens when that seed grows and multiplies, infecting those around it with fear, hate, ect.
Perhaps no one else sees this the way I do. Or perhaps you all do. Or perhaps I'm grossly misinformed and I've wasted my time.