[Boromir88]

Hey, here we go morm, this is what I'm looking for.

Also it is well known and documented that his work is not an allegory.

Tolkien does deny using allegories several times, but what he does accept is that there can be allegories found in his stories. This does seem a bit contradictory on the surface, but I don't think so.

Here's some things I've found interesting:

I think that many confuse ’applicability’ with ’allegory’; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author."~Interview with BBC Radio, 1971

Tolkien does come to admit that if you are looking for an allegory (which most readers are) you can definitely find them...and also that allegory and story converge into 'truth.' And as C.S. Lewis says in Tolkien's obituary:

’There is no allegory. These things were not devised to reflect any particular situation in the real world. It was the other way round; real events began, horribly, to conform to the pattern he had freely invented.’

You'll find this to be a case for a lot of stories of this era. Indeed the 'minds' behind the nukes and other inventions were avid sci-fi and fantasy readers that read the stories of people like Asimov.

Literature has always had a strong effect on society. It reflects upon the thoughts and feelings of the time period. Maybe one of the most recent examples is the growth the Industrial Revolution caused and the growing fear that soon the world would be run by 'mechanics and robots.' People often forget that early writers is what inspired these ideas. It wasn't always necessarily (though is the case at times) that writers were going off events that were taking place at that time in the history. Sometimes as CS Lewis remarks, the writers get their ideas out long before the actual events, and readers of these authors became inspired by the stories they wrote.

While Tolkien does go on to accept that allegory can be found to the times surrounding England and the World at this period, he actually wrote about things either long before, or events that would later shape around and come to be from the books. As Tolkien remarks about the assumption that the Ring is a representation of the 'Nuclear Bombs.' The story of the Ring came out long before the invention of the H-bomb.

Going back to the first quote on Tolkien talking about applicability and allegory, which I think is very important in this matter. He wanted his readers to have applicability, he wanted his readers to have freedom. Coming out and saying 'my story is an allegory' greatly limits this as that would be the purposed domination of the author as Tolkien felt...and I don't think he wanted that. I find this comment by Donald Swann interesting...

"I used to feel that the Tolkien dimension was almost a danger. I then went against this, and decided I would enter it at any time I chose, but with this golden rule...that I must be able to emerge, shut the book, and get up from the chair. If I can't, I will earn the disappproval of the author. He was an upright man in the real world, and had no intention of casting a spell on anyone. I told him once of a young man who thought he was Frodo. "I've ruined their lives," he said disconsolately."~Donald Swann, co-author with Tolkien of The Road goes Ever On

Now I think this delves into a seperate topic alltogether but can be of some use here. Tolkien wrote these books for our own enjoyment, for the enjoyment of the reader. To sit down for a while and go into 'another world' (and it goes into another discussion as 'staying in that world to where it's an obsession...the inability to walk away' is just unhealthy...) Anyway, these stories were meant for the readers enjoyment, and expresses that he felt the enjoyment would be ruined if it was broken down and dissected to find 'allegory.' Therefor, I don't think Tolkien was lying when he expressed dislike for allegory...he would just be more of a favorite of applicability of the readers to apply their own allegories if they so desired.