: So are there parallels between the World Wars and War in Middle Earth? I tend to think so, but only on a global scale. It seems to me to be impossible to distance onesself from your environment completely and thus Tolkien's work had to have been influenced at least somewhat by the turmoil around him, much of which was racially based.

: anyway, two more cents into the fray.

I think that the history of Gondor (ignoring the direct input of Sauron) has much in common with that of the Byzantine Empire. The parallels are fairly close, both states were culturally superior to most of their neighbours and were virtually continually embattled on two fronts. It isn't a great leap of the imagination to equate the Haradrim with the Saracens and the Balchoth, Wainriders with the Huns, Avars, Mongols or any other Asiatic steppe-nomad group. Both also accepted aid from the north - Rohirrim and Varangians.