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Its something I've wondered myself -whether at soem point in the future, say a post apocalyptic world - only Tolkien's books were to be found - all other religions have been forgotten - would people latch onto them & take them as 'fact'?
Tolkien kind of plays with the idea of them being discovered to be 'real' historical accounts in his time travel stories - Lost Road & Notion Club Papers. What he didn't explore was the effect that would have had on the world. If the historical account were proven to be true, wouldn't that have given more weight to the mythical & religious accounts in the stories? What I'm asking is whether (in the 'secondary world' of those stories wouldn't he have ended up with his characters coming into conflict with established religions like Christianity?
For obvious reasons (few people have read those stories) this question hasn't arisen, but I think its interesting to speculate on the effect of tying in the mythology to the primary world - what would have been the result of the English actually adopting teh mythology he wanted to provide them with - would they have taken it as a challenge to Christianity, & if not, how would they have tied it in with Christianity?
The other interesting area of exploration is Tolkien's own use of his mythology & the way he related it to the primary world - in the letters he refers to certain people as 'Orcs' & seems to use 'Sauron' interchangeably with Satan. Its as if his mythology became conflated in his mind with his Catholicism. Did that affect his understanding of his religion, or did his religion affect his understanding of his mythology?
Of course, the latter is assumed to be the case, but was there some kind of 'feedback' loop, so that, in fact he had produced a 'third' belief for himself, made up of a combination of his own creation & his avowed religion? And would that 'Third Way' work for anyone else?
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