OK, allegory was a bad choice of word. It was a shorthand. What I meant was, an attempt to communicate a specific viewpoint on religion/philosophy, or explore specific themes - love, sacrifice, time, mortality, etc.
Was the visitor implying more than that?, That somehow Tolkien had tapped into 'something' else? And was Tolkien resonding to that, ie, saying yes, you're right, I didn't invent it, cobble it together, from bits & pieces, I was in touch with something else. One problem I have is that the whole world of Middle Earth is too 'coherent', it doesn't feel 'made up'. That, it seems to me, was what the visitor was saying.
What Tolkien himself was saying seems to me even more curious, that he was 'alarmed' by the idea. For that reason, I don't think Tolkien was implying that he considered it was just a 'rehash' of the myths & legends he was so familiar with.
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