From a warlike standpoint.

[Mippin]

Must bring this section back to life here...

Do you think that the war affected the tone of LotR? If so, in what ways? Do you think that the tone of which Tolkien wrote LotR would have changed if it were written before the war, or in a time of peace?

[Arafangwen]

Of course it did, it's almost the whole book, planning and carrying out skirmishes, battles, and war! I don't think half as many guys would have read the book if it was any different. But that's just a guy for you, I doubt I would have loved it half as much if it hadn't had those awesome fight sequences! It kept up the suspence and overall atmosphere of the trillogy, after all, what's a good book without a little adverserial conflict? Not much to look at, that's what! ;D

[Marigold Gamgee]

I think it's WWI that really affected Tolkien, rather more than WWII- remember he said he had quite a bit of it planned before WWII ever came about. And of course he didn't finish it until far afterwards. But during WWI, he lost three (or was it four?) of the closest friends he'd ever had, and survived the Battle of the Somme (one of the most violent battles with the most casualties). So I think seeing the awfullness of WWI really inspired and affected him much more than WWII, although no doubt one could hardly fail to be affected by either. I can't imagine it- living during two world wars. It would be weird, and sad, and frightening.

[Eladain]

It would have been a really lame book, if they had just marched up to Mt Doom, and tossed the ring in without a fight. also, I think the books are sort of to show that even one man (or hobbit) can change the outcome of a war.

[Eowyn Skywalker]

Well, think, if Frodo and them had just hopped all the way to Mordor without any trouble, what would be the point of the books?

The books show all the strife in Middle-earth at that time... and are really well done. The wars were esential parts of the book: without the War of the Ring, or the Battle of Helms Deep, would Pippin have became the same Hobbit in the end? Or think of the Ents... they would've stayed as they were... without Helms Deep, Saruman would've continued to create Urak-hai, and with all his delving into the Dark Side, he may've discovered how to make the Rings, and became the next Dark Lord.

That was only speculation, but it may've happened if there were none of the wars.

If the ring had been destroyed peacefully, it would be obvious that something was wrong. Sauron probably had something up his sleeve then... and the story would've went so much differently.

This is only my opinion though, so yeah. I'm not Tolkien, so we'll never know his reasons behind anything...

-Eowyn Skywalker

[Arwen]

I think Tolkien realized the how horrible war was. He also showed in the LOTR that sometimes war was necessary, but that it was still a horrible thing.