I risk dearly by doing what I am - posting without reading more than a few of the posts already explaining , probobly , the same I am about to try to call my opinion in this most interesting debate aswell as many honourable opinions and thoughts I will simply call 'other'
Where is the meaning of Lord of the Rings to be found ? Writers get inspiration and see visions that they understand and begin to love . The writer wants to share with this vision with others but the only tool he has is the word and the letter , ink on paper . The writer clads his thought in words carefully but generously for the tekst that consists of these words has only one main mission - explain the vision , the though of the writer to the reader . How simple . But the writer has no power over the interpretation of the text in the readers mind . He isn't able to do so , that everybody understands it the way he wants it to . He can only direct the reader's thought in the right direction . All else then depends on the state of the readers mind , his fantasy and anything that can be called an effecting facktor .
But then is the reader that the writer can't predict . A child may read Lord of the Rings or hear it as a bedside story and what he will read or hear is this description of a journey , strange people , strange lands and of a great victory which light has over the darkness in the end . Never and not once will the child on his own think that story holds within it some references to a religion or displays some sort of discrimination to a minority or what not else (I apologize if the two possible meanings mentionet displeases someone) . Indeed he won't . But then again an adult (and not even neceseraly an adult) will never not once say that the book was simply a story of a hobbit who did great deeds (by this I do not mean that nobody and not a single person won't find it a plain story of hobbits , elves and orcs, don't get me wrong , I mean 3 people , not to count me , did pick the 4th option in the poll
) . He will find this deeper thought in the book for what else do you expect from a person who is looking for it ? Yes , the person might say that he isn't actually looking for any meaning or a deeper thought but that is what people do . Most of the people just won't admit that there was no thought unwritten directly in the book . A live proof to that is this thread - you are trying to understand where to find the meaning . A deeper one , I dare say . To that I say : who looks for something , finds it . That is where I must agree that the finding of the meaning of the book lies within the experience of the reader .
Ofcourse there are countless deeper meanings or messages hidden in the book that is Lord of the Rings and not just few have been found by me myself , but I choose now not to spoil a great story with pondering on things uncertain and ideas of which we'll never know how true they are . I beg you only not to misunderstand me for this is only my opinion and sight of the topic . But then again , I can never be sure of how you'll interpret my thoughts , if you choose to seek for a deeper meaning of what's written here
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-Ophelia-