J-Rog is exactly right.

When I first read that Tolkien vehemently denied that LOTR was any sort of allegory for WWII, I was dubious, as odd as it seems to doubt the author at his word. LOTR seemed like it exactly fit that conflict in so many ways, no? Was Tolkien denying it for some alterior reason?

I eventually realized what J-Rog so neatly states. LOTR is an much deeper expression of the nature of human existence, the joys and darkness, good and evil it encompasses.

Sauron is not Hitler in drag, because Hitler was not the be all and end all of evil, as noxious an example as he was. Just look at his partner in crime/then mortal enemy Stalin to realize there are more Sauron walking the earth.

The War of the Ring has been played out many times in our world, writ small and large through the millennia. It expresses the perpetual struggle mankind has faced to battle the darkness within himself with the light that also dwells there.

The names of the warriors, kings, and dark princes change, and the nations and landscapes evolve over time, but it is the same struggle played over and over again.

I think the most powerful concept Tolkien expressed was the concept of the passing ages of Middle Earth, where an entire eras and entire races fade into history to be replaced by another. Even in victory with the Allied forces against Sauron, for example, the age of the Elves ends, to be replaced by the Age of Men.

It was THAT concept that had me so convinced that LOTR was WWII, in that Great Britain and perhaps Europe were the ancient Elves and other Fey, and America was the emerging nation of man.

Again, I think that DOES fit neatly for WWII, but it has been the same over the ages, and perhaps it will be again. Perhaps the United States as we know it will end, hopefully to leave behind something even in its stead. As Mark Steyn puts it, its what you leave behind that ultimately matters.

So, I would submit LOTR is allegory, but one meant to encompass the entire poignant, bittersweet experience of all mankind.