[Boromir88]

Might Middle-earth be nothing more or less than the sister Tolkien spent a lifetime singing into existence?

If you ask if Tolkien intentionally created these 3 characters to kind of 'represent' a sister that he never had; I would have to give you a profound 'no.' I think Middle-earth was something different than to give a reflection/representation of his life. Tolkien created Middle-earth I think for an entirely different reason. In Letters there is the 'Thompson draft' to which he starts off:

"Thank you very much for your kind and encouraging letter. Having set myself a task, the arrogance of which I fully recognized and trembled at: being precisely to restore to the English an epic tradition and present them with a mythology of their own: it is a wonderful thing to be told that I have succeeded, at least with those who have still the undarkened heart and mind."

I think one important thing to remember is the characters in Tolkien's story are their own person. They have their own actions, motivations, even their own 'sub-story,' and I don't think they should be broken down into people/thoughts of Tolkien's personal life.

Now, I do say intentionally, because honestly based upon what Tolkien talked about...Middle-earth did not represent the 'real world,' therefor I don't think he purposefully meant for Galadriel, Eowyn, and Arwen to be seen as such. However, subconsciously is a whole different thing and I don't think we have a clue what Tolkien was thinking, there is only what he wrote down and told . Many authors (either intentionally or subconsciously) write about their personal life (Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald are two that come to mind). To a certain extent I think every author is influenced by what is going on during their lifetime, and what Tolkien was thinking subconsciously I don't think anyone knows.

I do agree with Farael here...I think it's an interesting coincidence more than anything else. I say it's interesting because I never noticed that either until now ...but I think the connection is too weak and that makes it look coincidental.