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In a letter to Cotton Minchin in 1956, Tolkien wrote: My “Samwise” is indeed (as you note) largely a reflexion of the English soldier — grafted on the village-boys of early days, the memory of the privates and my batmen that I knew in the 1914 War, and recognized as so far superior to myself.

It is a powerful thing to sit down in our current moment and read literature written by people facing the collapse of their own worlds and times. The words take on a clarity and immediacy of meaning they lack in calmer times. Tolkien knew what he was about.

And the corollary - feeling like butter spread over too much bread, but never having the words to explain it.