Board Thread:General Mod Discussion/@comment-26322120-20151231185738/@comment-27723099-20160113230114

707Mithrandir wrote:

Like Thorin said, Tolkien himself said that he included many Christian themes in his books. I was not trying to start up a religious argument, but my point was that if we want a true lore understanding we need the author's intent. I was not assuming anything about Tolkien's basing this on Christainity: He made it clear on his own (he would say it is not an allegory because, save for a few characters including Eru, the symbolic roles are not always a perfect parallel). However this does not mean that you must be a Christian to enjoy Tolkien's works or even gain insight from them, but you need to keep those things in mind when looking for the author's intent LOTR contains ideas of Christianity, names of Nordic mythology, and who knows what else. Tolkien's wokrs are completely made up from other works plus Tolkien's own life experience, as are all good books. There is one saying:

"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."

- Unknown

All works are based on real life and/or other works. Nothing can be completely made up.