[NyteSky]

Artistic type people are 4x more likely to suffer from depression than "normal" people. Nontheless, I don't think Tolkien was depressed. LotR is somewhat similar to Arthurian legend in style, or so it seems to me, and those types of tales were often filled with death and really pretty depressing to read. Compared to those Tolkien's works are happily ever afters. Essentially they do end well and none of the truly major characters in LotR die. (though there's Thorin in the Hobbit and I haven't yet read the Sil or any of those) So, I think he was just trying to make it realistic and not cheapen it by ignoring death.