WWII and LOTR..Compare/Contrast

[Bêthberry]

I forgot to thank Gurthang for providing that link to the earlier discussion of this topic. Good work! That thread contains HI's very useful quotation of Tolkien's letter, dated 31 July 1947, about this issue. Tolkien's letters are a wonderful read, full of shrewd perception, subtle analysis, and great wit. Even when I disagree with him!

I want to go back to Tolkien's hypothesis in the Forword, because I think it is a fascinating observation on the victors in WWII.

Originally Posted by Tolkien, Forword to the Second Edition

The real war does not resemble the legendary war in its process or its conclusion. If it [ie, the real war] had inspired or directed the development of the legend, then certainly the Ring would have been seized and used against Sauron; he would not have been annihilated but enslaved, and Barad-dûr would not have been destroyed but occupied. Saruman, failing to get possession of the Ring, would in the confusion and treacheries of the time have found in Mordor the missing links in his own researches into Ring-lore, and before long he would have made a Great Ring of his own with which to challenge the self-styled Ruler of Middle-earth. In that conflict both sides would have held hobbits in hatred and contempt: they would not long have survived even as slaves.

Hmm. Hmmm.