The Autobiographical Tolkien - 'Leaf by Niggle'...

[littlemanpoet]

I'm not really happy with calling the Inspector 'the Law' either. He is the one who informs Niggle of what ought to be, though; yet, whereas he's technically right, we sense that he's on the side of Parish and not at all on Niggle's. He sees no value in Niggle's art. So to me the Inspector represents a small-minded aspect of society that supports the professional, immediately productive side and is, if not opposed to then at least cares nothing for, the creative. There's something proletarian about that in my mind, socialist in the worst sense. I don't know that I'm getting to the bottom of it, just thinking out loud.

But here's a further twist on the autobiographical, and here I march blithely into open heresy:

It isn't difficult to perceive Tolkien as torn, desiring to be whole (much as Sam at the end of LotR?).

Indeed! Might we then say that perhaps the ending, about which there has been so much inconclusive discussion on this board, reflects something very personal about Tolkien's bifurcation? Frodo, symbolic of the creative, passes over sea to be healed while Sam, symbolic of the productive, must remain behind? Did Tolkien perhaps write Leaf by Niggle as a means of resolving for himself the bittersweet (un)ending of LotR?