Tolkien actually denied LOTR was an allegory for any modern event. The story is so universal and contains so many human architypes that it resonates with human events of many eras. I suppose that when it was published in the 1950s it would have been hard not to see parallels to WWII, that being the latest human catastrophe/drama at the time….
Tolkien said in his writings that LoTR was an allegory on the evils or power.
“You can make the Ring into an allegory of our own time, if you like: and allegory of the inevitable fate that waits for all attempts to defeat evil power by power” (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 1995, p. 121.)
“Power is an ominous and sinister word in all these tales” (p. 152.)
“The story is cast in terms of a good side, and a bad side, beauty against ruthless ugliness, tyranny against kingship, moderated freedom with consent against compulsion that has long lost any object save mere power, and so on” (pp. 178-179.)
“In my story Sauron represents as near an approach to the wholly evil will as is possible. He had gone the way of all tyrants: beginning well, at least on the level that while desiring to order all things according to his own wisdom he still at first considered the (economic) well-being of other inhabitants of Earth. But he went further than human tyrants in pride and the lust for domination, being in origin an immortal (angelic) spirit” (p. 243.)
“Of course my story is not an allegory of Atomic power, but of Power (exerted for domination)” (p. 246.)
Tolkien actually denied LOTR was an allegory for any modern event. The story is so universal and contains so many human architypes that it resonates with human events of many eras. I suppose that when it was published in the 1950s it would have been hard not to see parallels to WWII, that being the latest human catastrophe/drama at the time….
Tolkien said in his writings that LoTR was an allegory on the evils or power.
“You can make the Ring into an allegory of our own time, if you like: and allegory of the inevitable fate that waits for all attempts to defeat evil power by power” (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 1995, p. 121.)
“Power is an ominous and sinister word in all these tales” (p. 152.)
“The story is cast in terms of a good side, and a bad side, beauty against ruthless ugliness, tyranny against kingship, moderated freedom with consent against compulsion that has long lost any object save mere power, and so on” (pp. 178-179.)
“In my story Sauron represents as near an approach to the wholly evil will as is possible. He had gone the way of all tyrants: beginning well, at least on the level that while desiring to order all things according to his own wisdom he still at first considered the (economic) well-being of other inhabitants of Earth. But he went further than human tyrants in pride and the lust for domination, being in origin an immortal (angelic) spirit” (p. 243.)
“Of course my story is not an allegory of Atomic power, but of Power (exerted for domination)” (p. 246.)
https://mises.org/mises-daily/tolkien-v-power