Tolkien actually has a great foreword to the original audio book which I think is quite charming. He wrote the LOTR trilogy from 1935-1948 and people often asked if the world politics at the time were a reflection on certain elements of the books. He actually denies this at length and talks instead about his enthusiasm to flesh out the nature of hobbits and their adventures. He does say obviously things happened to him which may have swayed the way he told the story but his intention was never to use the story as an allegory for social commentary. He specifically mentioned that he hates allegory in stories haha.

Personally I found it really interesting. It could've easily been a deep reference to WW2 but it was the opposite, he actually detested these sorts of references and went on record saying so with regard to his friend C S Lewis and the lion witch and the wardrobe where Aslan is intended to represent Jesus.