[Hookbill the Goomba]

Originally Posted by Mansun

I for one believe that were it not for his experiences of the World Wars, as well as his interest in Christianity, the LOTR would not have been as it is today.

I think Tolkien says in the forward to The Lord of the Rings, something along the lines of

Originally Posted by The Professor

"An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience, but the ways in which a story-germ uses the soil of experience are extremely complex, and attempts to define the process are at best guesses from evidence that is inadequate and ambiguous."

Elsewhere in the forward he explains how the story would have differed if it had been an allegory of the world wars. Also, I am of the opinion that, as a Christian, it is very difficult to leave God or anything there related, out of a work so vast and involving so much of a 'creation'. I cannot, of course, speak for Tolkien, but only from my own experiences in story writing that lead me onto that train of through.