[Halfir]

Silver-Shod Muse, Kalessin: Your respective points are well taken.

I particularly agree with the comment that Lewis would tend to spill-out the joy he had found whereas Tolkien would be more reflective. I also accept that whether blatant or balanced, allegorical usage at the end is secondary to the quality of the created product.

But I am afraid that is just the point I wished to make. I don't think the quality of creativity of Lewis as exampled in the Narnia series even begins to come near the genius of Tolkien in LOTR. And the main reason for this, in my view, is that Lewis's beliefs intruded so much into the storyline that they devalued the creative act of storytelling whereas with Tolkien it was exactly the opposite.

Oscar Wilde said that there was no such thing as moral or immoral art, just good art or bad art (Or words to that effect, I can't remember the actual quote). I doubt if either Tolkien or Lewis would have agreed with him,the one being a devoutly Catholic Christian, the other a devoutly Anglican one. However, it is a sentiment that strikes a chord with me, and I am afraid to say that on Wilde's criterion I think Lewis is bad art and Tolkien good art.