J.R.R.Tolkien was a devout Catholic. I couldn't help feeling there was a lot of religious symbolgy in his story. As a disclaimer, I'm not catholic and I do not necessarily subscribe to the ideals of Tolkien, I'm merely stating that it may be what Tolkien was trying to say. Please keep this in mind when you read the Jewish references!

Here are my thoughts about what symbolizes what:

Sauron, The Great Eye, "wreathed in flame" = Satan/The Antichrist/The Beast as the all-seeing eye (as ever-present in the symbology of the Egyptian Gods, the Illuminati and Freemasonry).

Gandalf the Grey = Jesus Christ.
Gandalf the Grey sacrifices himself to save the rest of the Fellowship, who themselves represent various aspects of humankind, as Jesus sacrificed himself to save mankind.

Gandalf the White = The second coming; Jesus Christ upon his return to Earth for the final battle and the destruction of Satan's hold on the Earth.
"I come back to you now, at the turning of the tide." As "the Grey", Gandalf is relatively weak. The forces of evil destroy him.. He is resurrected as Gandalf the White with enhanced powers and comes to lead the fight against evil in the final battle. Jesus died on the cross and was seen to be defeated by evil, but returns to destroy the Antichrist and the Beast.

Saruman = The Antichrist.
He looks like Gandalf (Jesus) and has similar powers, but he is not as strong. He uses the voice of deception to raise the masses in service of Sauron. Also Saruman's attempt to turn Gandalf to his cause could represent the temptation of Christ by Satan where he tempted Jesus with all the kingdoms of the Earth.

Gondor, The White City = Jerusalem.
The final battle for Jerusalem where the armies of the Antichrist attack the great city is represented by the final battle for Gondor. Gandalf (Jesus) is there to defend it from the forces of Sauron (The Antichrist/Satan).

Denethor, Steward of Gondor = The rulers of modern-day Isael and the Jews who claim that they are the chosen ones and that Jesus was merely a prophet (remember Tolkien was Catholic).
Denethor (misguided Jews) will not relinquish his hold over the city and holds contempt for Gandalf (Jesus) as a mere trickster. Gandalf reminds Denethor that he is a steward of Gondor and not the true King. In the end, Gandalf casts Denethor into the fire (represents the Lake of Fire in Revelation). In the book Denethor had one of the seeing stones and was manipulated by Sauron (Satan) just as Saruman was.

Elves = Christians who are taken up to heaven in the Rapture.
The Elves escape in boats to the magical land before the final battle begins. The land that they escape to (I forget the name) represents heaven.

Galadriel = Mother Mary.
Galadriel appears as if an angel, bathed in light, similar to the depiction and deification of Mary in the Catholic doctrine. She gives them Lembas bread to strengthen them, just as Catholics eat bread during mass to represent the body of Christ.

Orcs = The faithful who are corrupted by the Antichrist's false religion.
The orcs.were once Elves, but were corrupted and turned into beasts by Sauron, and they constitute the armies which attack the great city. Saruman's orcs have the mark of the white hand on their helmets and foreheads. This represents the Mark of the Beast.

Nazgul = Leaders who have been corrupted by Satan.
The Nazgul/Ringwraiths were once great "Kings of Men", corrupted and deceived by their lust for power. There were nine Nazguls. There were 10 kings (horns) in Revelation. Clutching at straws here, unless someone can think of another to make it ten. (Saruman?)

Sauron's Tower which was destroyed then rebuilt = The Tower of Babel and New Babylon.
Sauron's tower was destroyed. He rebuilds the tower for the final battle against the Earth and the holy city. The tower of Babel, purported to have been in Babylon, was destroyed by God for challenging him. New Babylon (USA? EU?) will rise to challenge God again.

Hobbits = The (later to be) faithful that are not taken up in the Rapture, the martyrs.
Tolkien: "The time is coming when the smallest of all creatures will determine the fate of all." Bible: "And the meek shall inherit the Earth." In the beginning the hobbits do not believe much in the outside world and the concept of evil, but the truth is shown to them only in the lead-up to the final battle. Sam and Frodo go through trials and tribulation to reach their goal, but they never lose faith. Frodo struggles with the temptation of the Ring and the deceptive power that it provides. The power of the ring represents the (falsely) spiritual power of the Antichrist's world religion. By accepting this power, one gives oneself to Sauron/Satan and will become his vassal, just as the Ringwraiths did. The ring may also represent the Mark of the Beast (which many fear wil be GPS/NSA -tracked chips). Whenever Frodo puts it on, Sauron can see him wherever he is.

Gollum/Smeagol = Those who deny God and succumb to the Beast.
Smeagol was once like the Hobbits, but he is tempted by the power of the Ring (Mark of the Beast/ Antichrist's false religion) and becomes an unwitting servant of Sauron (Satan). He struggles with his good nature (faith in God) and his dark nature (temptation of the Antichrist). In the end, he is cast into the fires of Mt.Doom (hell/the abyss/the Pit/ the Lake of Fire) as a result of taking the ring (Mark of the Beast).

Rohirrim & Theoden = Couldn't think of anything for these. Anyone got any ideas?

Aragorn = The King of Kings, earthly aspect of Jesus. He rules the (holy) city through the golden ages after Satan has been defeated (New Jerusalem of Revelation).

The Ages of Middle Earth, First thru Fourth = The four ages of the Earth: 1. Genesis, 2. After the Flood (Noah), 3. After Jesus's first coming and sacrifice, and 4. the golden age after armageddon and Jesus' Second Coming.

I admit I may very well just be seeing what I want to see, and you can relate almost anything to Biblical apocolyptic events in some way, but there seems to be a lot of connections. Any thoughts? Anyone see any other allegories?

Tolkien also included Norse mythology in the books. The use or runes and elves come straight from that. Also the Norse version of Armageddon ended with a battle of Light versus Dark and was called Ragnarok. The character of Galdalf is somewhat similar to the Norse god Woden with both dying and being resurrected, plus their appearances are similar. Galdalf was known as Mithrandir (Grey Pilgrim) and Woden 'Grey wanderer'

That's just my two pieces of mithril silver, you understand

[Edited on 13-11-2004 by Ravenna]

I think that the ring represents sin all our lusts, temtations greed etc put in to on ring in this case sin.

Grima Wormtongue could well be the false prophet, corrupting Theoden and his people until Gandalf defeats him.

Tolkien himself stated that the One Ring represented machinery. And that the orcs and their ilk were the industrial revolution. Think about it, the first thing the orcs did at Sarumans' tower was remove all the trees and build a large factory-like habitat.

The whole story is about unchecked industrialization destroying the natural world.

Remember when Tolkien was writing, post WW1. He'd gone to France and experienced the Western Front.

The deserted marshes Frodo and Sam cross are the Somme, Pascheandaelle, Ypres etc.

People believed that without the industrial revolution WW1 wouldn't have been possible. Look at the art that came out in France after 1920. A massive, thought-changing event we've been fortunate not to experience...

I like the original list. When we were at uni we did a similar thing for Bab5.