[Child of the 7th Age]

.......Child comes dragging in from vacation with her copy of the Letters in one hand and Canterbury Tales in the other

Bethberry,

I'll take a shot at this. There is a letter dated 10 April 1958 (lots of nice showers then!) that was sent to C. Ouboter, a Rotterdam bookseller whom Tolkien had just visited. In this letter, Tolkien first says this:

As for 'message', I have none really, if by that is meant the conscious purpose in writing The Lord of the Rings of preaching, or of delivering myself of a vision of truth esepcially revealed to me!

But he then goes on to admit that , in rereading the book, he became "aware of the dominence of the theme of Death". He observes:

But certainly Death is not an Enemy! I said, or meant to say, that the 'message' was the hideous peril of confusing true 'immortality' with limitless serial longevity. Freedom from Time, and clinging to Time. The confusion is the work of the Enemy, and one of the chief causes of human disaster.

Is this what you had in mind?

~Child