Here I go...wish me luck. I am not terribly good at expressing my views on this subject.
Allegory. Alright, we know that Tolkien hated it. But he also said this:
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An Author cannot of course remain wholly unnafected by his experience, but the ways in which a story-germ uses the soil of experience are extremely complex, and attempts to define the process are at best guesses from evidence that is inadiquate and ambiguous
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In this lovely sentence, Tolkien admits that his own personal experiences are imbued into what he writes, as it is with everyone who takes up a pen. He also says that it is impossible to find where and how a specific bit in the story correlates with the specific bit in the memory, be it him or anyone else trying.
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I much prefer history, true or feined, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers
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It is here that he gives us, the readers, free reign over what we make of the story. We don't read this book, this book reads us. It touches the parts in our mind, the thoughts and emotions and memories that are unique to everyone, and gives everyone a different perception on what things mean that are read, even though we read the same words.