: : : : Gentleman, Tolkien himself said, he did not want any parallels to our world, except for the shire!!
: : : : If you guys do think there are parallels, it is because you want to see them!!!!!! If Iīm trying to, Iīll always be able to see some of them.
: : : : And just btw, Tolkien refused to authorize a German version of the Hobbit before WWII, because he didnīt want it to be misinterpreted or abused by the NAZIS.
: : : : Dr. Ennig

: : : I don't know if it true, but I think Tolkien said ME is our world, but the historical period in which his story take place is imaginary. I don't understand why Tolkien has said that. It is just nonsense. If I remenber well, the end of the Third Age was just a several thousand years ago. But It cannot be possible. The lanscape cannot change so quickly.
: : : I think ME had to be an completely separate world from ours.

: : Tolkien also said that technology was bad too.Just because he wrote perhaps the greatest fantasy story doesn't mean he's completely sane.Few great writers are.

: Tolkien wasn't insane. He was completely sane. But, like all humans, he make mistakes.
: I think that what he said about the imaginary period of hsi story is one mistake.

: Mordan

Did you guys ever read Tolkiens statements????
ME is in a real world, in a fictitious past!!!!!!!!!!!
His utterance about the past therefore was not nonsense!!
And if somebody says technology has its bad siedes, Iīd say this is a sign of a totally functioning mind, and I supprot this statement.
And, btw, he was not a racist, maybe a Catholic chauvinist, but not a racist!Donīt forget, the LotR is a book written by the victors of a war, tolkien is simply the translator.(if you look at it in this aspect, several things appear different)
Dr. Ennig