[Azaelia of Willowbottom]

I voted for the one about reader's interpretation collaborating with athor's intent. For me, that about sums it up.

About the entertainment thing, I think that if the only purpose of LOTR was merely to be entertaining, I doubt I would have read LOTR as many times as I have and here is why: There are so many layers, so many characters and themes to consider at once. If the book was written to just be entertaining would it have wound up being such a deep, powerful, and moving story? Of course, that's what I get out of it. The next reader might see it totally differently. That's just one reader's interpretation.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I find a lot of meaning in LOTR, and for me, it is more than just an entertaining story. I think Tolkien meant it to be more than just a simple novel...but who knows. He's certainly not around to ask. So we don't really know the true author's intent of what we should get out of the book. But because of the themes and style and events and characters, we can get a pretty good idea what he might have meant, what messages he wanted to convey.

So I think that "meaning" is a fairly flexible term. I walked away from LOTR with messages of hope and friendship and courage in my mind. Someone else may have left with ideas about fate and destiny. Another person might have seen it as about the dark road society is taking. Certainly Tolkien put all those elements and more in there. But the reader is free to choose which themes, which meanings to carry away with them.