Do we live in Middle-earth?

New to this board, I was drawn here after Niphredil Baggins posted a link to my site http://alt-tolkien.com saying "here is a page based on the question: what if it all really happened?"

Well, thanks first to Niphredil, and yes I would say that is a good summary in a few words of what we are about at Middle-earth Reunion, "the alternative tolkien society".

Certainly it is my personal "quest" to explore that question, "What if JRRT just was telling the truth when he said he was translating, rather than 'making it all up'?"

That's it for now -- as I say I am new here so maybe I'll just "lurk" a bit and find my feet, but I wanted to say thanks and add my tuppence to the conversation!