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Originally Posted by davem
Tolkien may use imagery, or take inspiration, from say Jerusalem, Rome, Alexandria, for his descriptions of Minas Tirith, but his purpose is to get the reader to think of Minas Tirith as a Great City, not to make them put down LotR & pick up their Bible or a history of Rome. In the same way, he may use images & language in his account of Gandalf's fall which bring to mind everything from Christ's sacrifice to Ragnarok, but again his intention is not to get you to put down LotR at that point & pick up your Bible or your copy of the Eddas - it is to emphasise the significance of the event within the secondary world, because that event is the point - Gandalf's fall is not a 'parable', or a re-write of something else. Exactly as the Beowulf poet did in bringing in references to Finn or the Bible - those references are meant to point up, intensify, the incidents in the poem for the aid of the reader.
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This is an excellent point.
As we've found out, Tolkien took his influences from far and wide. He was catholic (small c), meaning his influences were diverse. He was also extremely well read and intelligent, knowing that to put all your references in one basket would a. not be satisfactory for all readers, and b. would risk missing out on some wonderful image or icon from another time or culture.
What Tolkien uses are cultural touchstones. So Minas Tirith makes one person think of Jerusalem, it makes me think of something else quite grand (I often think of York or indeed Oxford). Tolkien is subtle, far too subtle to be finding x, y or z in his work and sitting back and saying "ah, so that's what it is" with certainty. I think he does this for a very good reason. He was creating a secondary world. Not our world. Not even our past world. But another one. And how often have we read rubbish fantasy with overly contrived places, names and natural landscapes. Tolkien instead takes things we all recognise (call them universal, archetypal, cultural touchstones, what you will) and weaves them into the fabric of that world to create something we will all recognise.
As an example, the Shire is on one level rural England in 1900, but it might also be rural England now, or in 1700, or it might be New England, or just a village somewhere that we remember from childhood. The point of The Shire is not that it is Sarehole in 1900, but a blue remembered hill as t'were, a place of comfort from deep in our memories.