Tolkien and Catholic Saints

[doug*platypus]

Applicability is, to me, in many ways a far more acceptable term than allegory.

I haven't called the (possible) similarities between Radagast and St. Francis allegory, and I don't believe anyone else on this thread has, either. I don't think Tolkien naming or even describing characters after Saints makes it allegorical. Besides, if Radagast was supposed to be St. Francis it would be a shockingly plain allegory, probably not deserving of the term. One Ring = Atom Bomb would (theoretically) be an example of allegory, being symbolic but not identical.

I think that Tolkien could have put a lot of similarities into his work to real figures, that might not go against his (supposed) anti-allegory stance.