LotR - Foreword

[Bêthberry]

I think it would be helpful here if we recall Child's excellent post from the Canonicity thread where she argued cogently that Tolkien rejected allegory in the manner of C.S. Lewis.

Also, perhaps we should recall that "Allegory" is a specific literary genre, such as Spenser's The Faerie Queen or Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, a definition with which Tolkien would have been very familiar. The tower story about Beowulf and other things which davem refers to as allegorical would perhaps more fittingly be referred to as symbolic, in order to distinguish it from the genre.

Another difficulty I think with conflating 'allegorise' with 'mythologise' is that, philologically, the two words and their cognates are not related at all. Also, definitions of allegory usually mention some form of figurative style or representation, a style which mythology eschews with its specific names for characters. However much we can understand Frodo and Aragorn as acting with moral virtues, they are still depicted in the style of specific characters, one a more realistic style and the other a heroic style from old epics, but nonetheless they are embody more than just one character or moral trait, a case which does not pertain to the characters in Spenser and Bunyan. Using allegory in Leaf by Niggle does not in and of itself suggest that Tolkien was employing it in LOTR. Their styles are very different.

And at the risk of inciting yet another off topical discussion, I would suggest, too, but very politely so of course, that davem has not proven this point, but taken it as axiomatic, a point which several of us have previously disagreed with.

Indeed, I think he wants us to read it on that level, or he would not have advised that it shouldn't be read by children, only by adults who, hopefully, would be able to read it in the way he wanted it to be read & understood in the way he wanted it to be understood.

From the witty and self-possessed way in which Tolkien acknowledges the displeasure of even those who like the tale--and includes his own as well-- I venture to suggest yet again that he abjures "the purposed domination of the author."