WWII Parallels - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Selmo · 04-01-2003, 04:24 AM

I believe that Tolkien used the words "allegory" to mean something that is in the mind of the author and "applicabillity" to mean something that happens in the readers mind.
Lord of the Rings isn't an allegory of WWII. Many of the plot ideas were conceived before the war and all of them were in place long before the war ended.

We can all play games with "applicabillity".
My list of LoTR groups and WWII nations would be very different from Son of Fire's list.
I would equate Rohan with USA, who listened to the whispers of isolationism (=Wormtongue) and did nothing to help UK and France (=Gondor) against Germany (=Mordor) until their own interests were threatened by Mordor's ally Isengard (=Japan).

04-01-2003, 04:24 AM	#4
Selmo Shade of Carn Dûm Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: The Shire (Staffordshire), United Kingdom Posts: 273	I believe that Tolkien used the words "allegory" to mean something that is in the mind of the author and "applicabillity" to mean something that happens in the readers mind. Lord of the Rings isn't an allegory of WWII. Many of the plot ideas were conceived before the war and all of them were in place long before the war ended. We can all play games with "applicabillity". My list of LoTR groups and WWII nations would be very different from Son of Fire's list. I would equate Rohan with USA, who listened to the whispers of isolationism (=Wormtongue) and did nothing to help UK and France (=Gondor) against Germany (=Mordor) until their own interests were threatened by Mordor's ally Isengard (=Japan).