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Originally Posted by Formendacil
For example, with regards to this quotes on Eagles et al, Tolkien was looking for a viable way of explaining their apparent sentience. There is no conclusive proof (which I would define as multiple texts from later or contemporary dates giving the same opinion) that he ultimately decided that this new idea of his was correct. As I recall from that particular passage, there is a very clear air of SUGGESTION to all the texts in that section of Morgoth's Ring.
In other words, although Tolkien puts forward this as an idea, I would say that to quote it as definitively decided by him would be rather foolhardy.
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We're clearly dealing with two Tolkiens - the 'translator' & the 'commentator'. The 'translator' gives us the texts, the 'commentator' attempts to understand them (for himself as much as for any potential readers). The texts are primary the comments are secondary.
Unfortunately, the 'texts' do contradict each other, so that doesn't take us much further forward.
CT comments (in the documentary JRRT: A Film Portrait) that towards the end of his life his father had become somewhat 'detatched' from the Legendarium & approached it in the same way as he would have approached any ancient mythology. It had taken on a life of its own & he was free to analyse it & attempt to understand its meaning & implications. He did this as an Orthodox Catholic & his analysis was not free from bias. In Catholicism animals do not have 'souls', they are not 'sentient' in the human sense. Hence Tolkien the commentator attempts to rationalise the Legendarium in line with his own worldview.
The next serious problem we have is that he still claimed ownership of the Legendarium. Eventually his 'analysis' confronted him with a major difficulty - it was not 'Catholic'. Or at least it was not sufficiently Catholic for his own comfort. One has only to read the letters from correspondents which question such things as the apparent display of pity on the part of the Trolls in TH. Tolkien's initial response was to claim it was only an 'impression' the reader had picked up & that the truth was different (he proceeds to construct a very convoluted & not very convincing theory as to how the reader is mistaken in this 'impression'). So far the translator & the commentator are obeying the rules & sticking to the strict dividing line between them. Then it all starts to go snafu. He starts his project of rewriting the Legendarium & we get the 'Myths Transformed' mess, which, if he'd pursued it, would have unravelled the whole thing. Luckily, he didn't get very far.