I find it very amusing that in his foreword of the edition of Lord of the Rings that I have (a three volume set published by Ballantine Books, which according also to the foreword is one of the only legitimate reissuings of the books and that all people who believe in courtesy should buy it and no other, since apparently there were other reissues done without his knowledge and/or consent ^^;), Tolkien writes at length about how the book is not related to any of the events of his time and is not 'allegorical or topical.' This is amusing to me because my A.P. English teacher always stresses finding out the historical events surrounding the writing of a book, for obviously they must have surely had an impact on the story.