[Ntrails]

I'm gonna be honest and say that despite reading the books god knows how many times I never even considered the parallel. Now you point it out I can't disagree that there are some similarities and it feels like you are probably right. At the same time there are differences. He's more reborn than ressurected, he has changed, his memory and status and so on have all been heavily impacted. He, like a tool, has been fixed because it is still required. There are some tonal differences which seem non trivial.

I guess my question is this. In some ways storytellers are trapped in that if you want to do good vs evil - you're going to reuse themes. Whether it's a single "abrahamic" God/Devil, or pantheons and aspects, you're going to step on some toes and parallels can be drawn. If you try and avoid that you're warping the story you want to tell for the fear of readers assuming intent etc and that strikes me as far worse than accepting that mythology is always going to have got there first.

I don't know, I've never really thought about this before or seen the allegory arguments he made.

[posterboy]

Simply put, Jesus is not an abstract concept, so by the definition I find at wiktionary, there can't be no allegory of the Jesus. It's not "the jesus". Abstract nouns require the definite articles, I learned in school.

So back to Tolkin. He was a linguist, so I guess he preferred to say things directly. If there are nebulous, abstract allegories to be seen, then because the concepts were intentionally not defined.

Rebirth is not an allegory for rebirth. What would the allegory be. Being chosen? Well, yeah, by the author.

[olavk]

By that definition, not even Animal Farm is an allegory since Stalin and Trotsky are not abstract concepts.

[posterboy]

Indeed it isn't, it's an "alternative retelling" of communism. It's the wording I take issue with.

[olavk]

Even Encyclopædia Brittanica uses Animal Farm as an example of Allegory: https://www.britannica.com/art/allegory-art-and-literature.

[posterboy]

Yes, I meant "Indeed, they are not; It is not (the case that ...)". They being Stalin etc. The Stalin is not an abstract concept, communism is. And to liken communists to pigs is a metaphor.