No, not really. People put way too much emphasis on the fact that Tolkien was a professor of Anglo-Saxon studies. He was well-versed in other languages, and loved the Greek and Roman classics (he often made allusions to them). He was something of a Biblical scholar as well, although he was quite modest about that part of his life (and nonetheless wrote long and profound discussions of his faith for his family).

But Middle-earth is an entire world, not just a country. Tolkien developed many different cultures for that world, and none of them are rooted in Anglo-Saxon England. He chose to use the Anglo-Saxon language to represent Rohan's native language, but the similarities stop there (since the Rohirrim are generic northmen, they resemble many ancient Germanic peoples equally, and some more than the Anglo-Saxons).

: ...But that did not exist for very long, and there is no trace
: of a fallen roman empire in ME (unless you count Numenor, and
: equate Aragorn to a pagan Charlemaigne recreating the 'holy
: roman empire' in the shadow of what once was)...

The Eldar and Edain were monotheists, and it would not be improper to view them as proto JudeoChristians, for their Iluvatar is the God of the Bible, as much as Tolkien could make such an identification. But the Eldar and Edain came before the covenants. They would not be pagans, but are neither Jews nor Christians.

:...If you want to go back to a really prolonged period of pagan
: rule you would have to go back to pre-roman tribalism. This
: covered most of northern Europe right until the Romans came.
: Tolkien's linguistic knowledge would not be quite out of depth
: here, as the ancient Britons must have spoken a language
: related to modern Welsh, and he may have traded this for
: English in his 'translation'. In other areas of Europe, related
: languages were spoken. The ancient Britons, however, seem a
: shade too ferocious for most of the peoples of ME to me...

Tolkien's peoples were not simply modelled on northern Europe's people. He drew on the Egyptians for Dunadan culture, for instance, and many people identify an Arabic or Indian feel in some of the Haradrim.

: ...Making a ME movie in this setting would thus also be a
: little out of place. So, whatever Jackson does, and whatever
: design of saddles, architechture, clothing, weaponry etc he
: decides to adopt, it will be historically wrong. Faced with
: this dilemma, I don't see why he shouldn't pick late mediaevil.

[snip]

Because there is really nothing of the late medieval period in Tolkien. It's simply misleading to show Middle-earth as a medieval world. Bree's houses weren't made of wattle and daub. They were made of stone. And they weren't all clustered together in a medieval village-like fashion, either. The main road ran past the houses, not through them.

I have yet to see what Minas Tirith will look like, but if the outer walls are not massive and black (and smooth), but rather seem to be made of simple stone like some medieval castle, I'm going to gag. And I hope the carts and wagons aren't drawn by horses -- Tolkien said the people of the city were amazed at Shadowfax, for they had very few horses of their own and seldom saw any in the city itself.
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