[Child of the 7th Age]

Davem,

You've said this so very well. I do agree with what both you and Esty have said.
It makes me wonder what harsh dreams and distortions of reality Tolkien himself suffered after his return from the war. There must have been a lot that was never publicly expressed: both his own personal response and the suffering that he could see other veterans going through.

Do his diary contains any entries for the immediate post-war period, or was that writing done at a later date? I don't have Garth handy right now, but I suspect that even he could only dig out so much. Certainly the letters exchanged after the deaths of Tolkien's friends were suggestive. Still, there is so much in any individual's life that we don't know: things that are kept private and only hinted at in rare personal conversations. I have a feeling we are seeing only the tip of an iceberg here.