Tolkiens portrayal of nature in Middle-earth has been
interpreted in a variety of ways, often depending on the
context of the reading. Some have seen Middle-earth
and its potential destroyer, the Ring, as an allegory of
the European continent under the threat of the atomic
bomb, while others have embraced it as an artistic
expression of the Green movements agenda in the face
of industrial abuse. Some have read nature in Tolkiens
work in terms of myth and religion; yet others take the
exhaustive descriptions of the physical environment as
a sign that Middle-earth itself is the central...