What did Tolkien really mean ....

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Fordim Hedgethistle

OK -- being terribly reductive and probably simplistic here...but couldn't Tolkien simply have been acknowledging the difference between the creating-writer who pens a first draft and the editing-writer who takes that great shambles and renders it "finished" insofar as he makes sure that it "makes sense" (i.e. is internally coherent, presents a unified story and vision of its characters and action).

The creating-writer (in this model) simply goes with the story and gets it down. The editing-writer is one who shapes that material -- and given that Tolkien was Catholic and his work engages with moral issues it makes sense that this act of re-vision would be undertaken from that perspective.

Maybe the Professor was just being honest: "As I was revising the story I was conscious of the fact that I was a Catholic man who was reshaping it and rendering it coherent."

Bearing in mind his dislike of allegory and 'message' Literature, you're probably correct. It likely does boil down to something as simple as the following: Tolkien taking up his text in the editing process and making sure references to Earthly religions were excised, and him making sure that the story itself was sympathetic to his own moral systems (e.g. you can imagine him making sure Aragorn behaved with perfect manners towards Eowyn, who obviously fancied him, a 'taken' man. And Love to Tolkien was a lifelong choice, something most definitely influenced by his Catholicism - though it might have also been personal!).