OT: Politics

[Gandalf Parker]

Thats interesting. I had always heard that the series was bedtime stories for his kids that just kept getting more and more elaborate as they grew older. And that trying to read hidden meanings into it was like looking for real world connotations in Dr Seuss.

[Morkilus]

Gandalf Parker said:
And that trying to read hidden meanings into it was like looking for real world connotations in Dr Seuss.

Yeah, The Lorax and the Horton books were completely just silly little books.

[thejeff]

The Hobbit was a bedtime story for his kids that wound up tying itself into the mythology he'd been working on for years.
The mythology grew, at least partly, as background for the languages he invented, being primarily a linguist.

I wouldn't say hidden messages, he despised allegory and such things, but that doesn't mean there isn't meaning behind the surface. The Lord of the Rings is deeply informed by his Catholic faith, without being overtly religious, a trick not that often pulled off.

Even more so in the Silmarillion mythology. For example, the origin of the orcs is left unclear because he kept debating with himself whether they had free will and were thus redeemable.