yoel-
Actually, a very good analogy since Tolkien wrote the books as if they were
a true history of the world, translated from ancient lost works. He
actually invented defunct languages, races, mythologies, gods, etc. Because
of this... there were some strange people who insist that the stories are
true.. that they all took place when the world was young. I knew some of
these when I was in high school.
This kind of fantasy is common now, but it was the first of its kind. There
simply were some people whose lives were empty enough that they "just
wanted to believe".