Tolkien specifically stated that it wasn’t an allegory because his bff CS Lewis (whose Narnia books were explicitly supposed to be read as christian allegory with Alan = Jesus) tried to pressure him to do the same. Tolkien was Catholic and Lewis was Protestant, but they were both very religious. Tolkien felt that the approach Lewis took was too ham-fisted.
However, what Tolkien specifically objected to was the interpretation of his work as allegorical to the world wars. He would go on and on about how the ring was not the atomic bomb. He was, however, an unapologetic romanticist and he made sure his readers knew that. Saruman was the bad guy in that respect - he served evil out of greed and cut down forests and destroyed the land to serve his own ambition, the allegory with which he’s bashing readers over the head in the last bit with the Scouring of the Shire. He really liked the idea of jolly peasant farmers, the reality of actual peasant farmers not being relevant.
I think his work was colored by his war experiences, but wasn’t intended as allegorical in that respect. On the other hand, hobbits, Treebeard, Tom Bombadil, Lothlorien, and the rest were very deliberate.
iirc he did make sure to respect the reader's right to see it as applicable though right? Or maybe I'm mixing Tolkein up with another author who denied allegorical intent.
Tolkien specifically stated that it wasn’t an allegory because his bff CS Lewis (whose Narnia books were explicitly supposed to be read as christian allegory with Alan = Jesus) tried to pressure him to do the same. Tolkien was Catholic and Lewis was Protestant, but they were both very religious. Tolkien felt that the approach Lewis took was too ham-fisted.
However, what Tolkien specifically objected to was the interpretation of his work as allegorical to the world wars. He would go on and on about how the ring was not the atomic bomb. He was, however, an unapologetic romanticist and he made sure his readers knew that. Saruman was the bad guy in that respect - he served evil out of greed and cut down forests and destroyed the land to serve his own ambition, the allegory with which he’s bashing readers over the head in the last bit with the Scouring of the Shire. He really liked the idea of jolly peasant farmers, the reality of actual peasant farmers not being relevant.
I think his work was colored by his war experiences, but wasn’t intended as allegorical in that respect. On the other hand, hobbits, Treebeard, Tom Bombadil, Lothlorien, and the rest were very deliberate.
iirc he did make sure to respect the reader's right to see it as applicable though right? Or maybe I'm mixing Tolkein up with another author who denied allegorical intent.