‘Canonicity’: the Book or the Reader?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by davem

But in order for the book to be taken as an allegory of WW2 (or WW1) there would have to be a one-to one correspondence between the events of the story & the events in the real world

Not necessarily, as an allegory can have slight and subtle correspondences. The text does not even have to be wholly correspond. But it does have to work on more than one level, so it would be quite easy for someone determined enough to find the evidence that LotR was an allegory. It is simple to go from applicability to being able to read the text as an allegory. Which brings it round again to what SpM says:

He tells us that it is not his intended meaning. But can it not still be the readers perceived meaning?

So we have been told that it is not allegory, yet we can read it in that way if we wish. If we do, then that is the reader's perceived meaning, but it is not Tolkien's. So which is right? Do we ignore what the Author has told us, ignore the limits he has imposed?