Symbolic Representations in The Lord of the Rings

[Glirdan]

As the title said, I'm very interested in know how many symbolic representations Tolkien used in The Lord of the Rings.

What brought this sudden bought of curiosity? Why, "The Chroncicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" is the cause of the question (which I will get to in a few minutes). Last night, at the end of my Christmas Concert at school, two people who are in the band with me were talking about how Narnia is a symbollic representation (somewhat) of the Bible. I'm sure some of you already knew this, but I'm posting this to explain to others and to help me get to the point. The Lion is a symbollic representation of Jesus Christ and The Witch (I'm sure this one is pretty obvious) is a symbol of the Devil. Now you are still probably saying to yourself "What has Narnia got to do with this?" right? Well, I was thinking earlier "I know there are a few symbollic represtations in 'The Lord of the Rings' but exactly what?"

Now that is my main question but another thought occured to me as well. We all know that Eru (this is argued) is (most likely) a representation of God where as Melkor is the Devil, yes? Well, seeing as Melkor and Eru don't really have (in the case of Eru, this is not true, but Eru isn't mentioned a whole lot in "The Lord of the Rings") a big role in The Lord of the Rings. Now, is it possible that Tolkien decided to use Gandalf and Sauron to represent them?

What are your thoughts? Are there any other symollic representations that Toliken used? If there are any threads where this topic was discussed, please feel free to post the link.