Maybe this is why I love LoTR so much. It’s just a story!
"I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence."
He very much did not want to talk about it and presumably intentionally avoided writing it.
"Other arrangements could be devised according to the tastes or views of those who like allegory or topical reference. But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.
Elsewhere:
"... the only perfectly consistent allegory is a real life; and the only fully intelligible story is an allegory. And one finds, even in imperfect human 'literature', that the better and more consistent an allegory is the more easily it can be read 'just as a story'; and the better and more closely woven a story is the more easily can those so minded find allegory in it ..."
What is the basis of that? It doesn't match what I've read Tolkien saying. Tolkien knew exactly what he was doing, was a leading scholar in the field of myth, and thought very deeply about it. If you want to understand, read his essay On Fairy-stories.
> no good postmodernist would object to modern readers finding meanings in literature that weren't consciously in the author's mind.
What does that means specifically? Who are you referring to? What is the basis of that? What does it have to do with this discussion?
All that said, no good postmodernist would object to modern readers finding meanings in literature that weren't consciously in the author's mind.