Tolkien's richly detailed history of Middle-Earth, much of the detail of which never made it into his Lord of the Rings, nonetheless provides a depth of background and setting that has continued to resonate with readers for decades. Although Tolkien himself consistently denied that the work was intended to be allegorical, the work has received numerous allegorical readings by critics, in part to attempt to render the work somehow more relevant to "real life." Perhaps such relevance must come from the reader, rather than the writer, applying the perceived meanings and themes of the text to his or her own social situation. The abil ity of Tolkien's readers to apply his work to social settings in a variety of cultural contexts over time may account, at least in part, for the enormous popularity of the novel......
