Mordor inspired by Nazi Germany?

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Originally Posted by alatar

Out came the hose. Whatever it was with the ants, they - the living and the dead - were washed away, and now that we're into Fall, are long forgotten.

This, and Bethberry's quote from the Appendices about Arwen's passing, remind me of a poem by Carl Sandburg:

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work—
I am the grass; I cover all.

And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?

I am the grass.
Let me work.

The atrocities of war -- and the tendency of people to forget them over time -- is nothing new. I never felt that Tolkien was thinking of any one specific war in his depictions of it -- although most certainly, his experiences in WWI were a huge influence on some aspects of it -- but rather, the horror that war has been from the first. I think that it is often a mistake to believe than any authorial voice reflects a single influence or opinion (unless of course the author has said it does), and like any person, Tolkien's views of war would have been formed by the many things -- his personal experiences, his studies, his religious beliefs, etc. -- that formed him. The Nazis are probably in there somewhere, but by influence, not intent, I believe.