> Another way to look at the differences here is to look at what is behind the writing. The Chronicles of Narnia are heavily allegorical (take a look at the BAM condensations for A Horse and His Boy, The Silver Chair, and The Last Battle--obviously, Sam and Dave have an understanding of the allegory here) and to some extent, there is an allegorical aspect to The Lord of the Rings, as well.

No. No. There is no allegory to LotR. None. Tolkien was quite clear on this. I was just going through my copy of Fellowship, and in his preface to my edition he rants about how much he despises allegory.

It may so happen that LotR contains ideals that are *applicable* (Tolkien's term) to life, such as the importance of sacrifice, strength of character and the triumph of good over evil, but it was not intended to be read as an allegory of any sorts.

Funny though. I just finished reading through the fourth Potter book, and I think that all those same ideals are lauded in Rowlings' series.

Stephen