Tolkien's Intent
George W.

Tolkien had it right in the first place.  He wrote a series of books that have an intertwining theme of good and evil, beauty and horror, serenity and chaos that reverberates for all time.  It is not too long nor too short.   When rereading the books, I was struck by the fact that you are drawn into his fabricated world and believe that it actually existed every time.  Or, at least, want it to have existed.  He wrote it as much for his own entertainment as for our entertainment.  It delves into the joyous nobility just as deeply as it delves into the darkest malevolence the human mind and resolves it in a way that is uplifting and thought provoking.