Aiwendil Not wanting to re-hash the old Canonicity debate either, I do think we have to ask whether Tolkien really was simply attempting to entertain.
SpM has stated:
'And the Ring really does signify the essence of the story: the conflict between good and evil, between the corrupting influence of power and the ennoblement of the humble, between Sauron’s desire to control and the Elvish wish to maintain and preserve. Practically every “sub-theme” within the story revolves around that which the Ring represents and that which opposes everything that it stands for.
Thinking about it, it seems that Tolkien does give a further clue in the passage explaining how the story would have gone had it in fact been intended as an allegory of the “real war”. In suggesting that that the use of the Ring against Sauron and Saruman’s creation of his own Great Ring would have led to both sides holding Hobbits in hatred and contempt, he is indicating that the Ring is a corrupting influence and that the qualities displayed by those who seek to oppose what it represents are ones which should be valued. Sadly, but perhaps realistically, he impliedly concludes that they are qualities which are woefully lacking in the “real world”, at least among those with power.'
which I agree with as regards the 'meaning' of the story. Tolkien clearly felt that his story, while it should entertain, should at least reflect his moral values, so that, one assumes, he would have excluded anything which, while it might 'entertain' would conflict with them.
In the George Sayer essay I quoted from there is the following sentence:
' All of life for him was part of a cosmic conflict between the forces of good & evil, God & the devil'
Further on the author reveals:
' Once he spoke to me of Ireland after he had spent part of summer vacation working there as an examiner: 'It is as if the earth there is cursed. It exudes an evil that is held in check only by Christian practice & the power of prayer.' Even the soil, the earth, played a part in the cosmic struggle between forces of good & evil.'
I think we must take this into account when we try to understand Tolkien's motives in writing - if the universe was a battleground between the forces of good & evil, then every person, & every decision & act of every person, every thought, perhaps, will aid one side or the other. Tolkien saw himself as a 'warrior' in a 'holy war'. And the methods of the enemy must not be studied. Evil must be stated to be evil, it must not be examined, even in an attempt to discover its weaknesses (hence his disapproval of the Screwtape Letters). LotR is as much an attempt at producing a 'weapon' for use in that battle as anything else - probably more than anything else.
Which is not to say we can't read it as simple entertainment. We just have to recognise that it wasn't written as that. And at the time Tolkien was writing such an attitude, such a way of seeing the world, was not popular - just the opposite.
On the subject of personal experience entering into the story - well during one of the major breaks in writing LotR he did write Notion Club Papers, which grows out of his personal experiences - Inklings meetings - but draws in the mythology with the breaking in of 'Numenor', which perhaps shows how his personal life & his imaginative life were deeply intertwined, & how the mythology couldn't be excluded from his writing. The mythology even crops up in Roverandom.
Oh, & as for him not having time to devote to writing - it wasn't just academic pressures that stopped him - Sayer recounts visits across a period of weeks after he's retired, & finding him sitting at his desk wit the Silmarillion manuscript at the same page with nothing done - apparently he'd been spending most of his time reading detective stories (Lord Peter Wimsey, perhaps
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