Posted: May 10, 2000 at 12:32:28: by Gungnir
: I see a lot of people saying things like Tolkien wrote the story to create a mythos for England or other reasons. I have a copy of the Fellowship if the Ring right here and he says. "I wanted to write a really long story that would hold the readers interest all the way through." He didn't have anything more in mind than entertainment. Tolkiens own words.I think the statement about the mythology for England really refers to his very earliest writings - BoLT. However, you cannot logically exclude the possibility of him having two intents behind writing LotR on the basis of that single statement. Yes, he did want to write a long story etc, but that statement alone doesn't preclude/exclude the possibility of him wanting it to be a mythology as well.
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