Supposedly, yes. (ask
Child of Seventh Age about it
)
Tolkien's world, taken from philological point of view, is a reconstruction, 'what it might have been back than' kind of world. Tolkien's creative process may be watered down, IMO, to state that 'if there is a word, and if the word is the same for many related languages, there must be, or must have been at one time, some concept hidden behind it'. So, of word for dwarf is the same for all Germanic languages, and wood-woses are remembered in place names, and world 'holbytla' has a genuine taste of reality to it, and wood's ability to walk is remebered even in Shakespear's time, than it may all have been true once, and it may be
reconstructed.
Besides:
Quote:
from Letter 183 (Notes on W. H. Auden's review of The Return of the King)
I am historically minded. Middle-earth is not an imaginary world. The name is the modern form (appearing in the 13th century and still in use) of midden-erd > middel-erd, an ancient name for the oikoumenē, the abiding place of Men, the objectively real world, in use specifically opposed to imaginary worlds (as Fairyland) or unseen worlds (as Heaven or Hell). The theatre of my tale is this earth, the one in which we now live, but the historical period is imaginary.
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We never left ME - it is our home. The stories of Tolkien might have happened, or might have not, though
.
Bet you a dollar?