I want to reply to
LMP properly later, but just for now
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Originally Posted by H-I
It is not explained what are those Evils. Now, vague impression I have that Lesser is Vanity, and gifted person is rarely vain, but the Greater should be Pride/Arrogance, and here gifted person is in greater peril. Yes? No?
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What interested me in this comment was that it interprets the evils allegorically - which, given Tolkien's clear statement in the LotR foreword, Tolkien 'cordially disliked'.
But in the Smith essay he writes:
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The Great Hall is evidently in a way an 'allegory' of the village church;
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So he acknowledges that allegory may well be present. So, did he consciously write it as an allegory, or did he only realise he'd written an allegory 'after the fact'?