I recently re-read it and think it holds up. I read it with a mind to what it said of the world that Tolkien was born into, a Victorian world of Empire, Industry and Change, a world at a peak and on the cusp of great calamity, but also of quiet beauty and optimism.

I agree with you on the Council of Elrond. Passages like this: “This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.’” 👌

Also this from The Return of the King, The Last Debate: “Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.” 👍

I listened to a good little podcast about the author and the ‘history’ of the novel. I didn’t pick up on all of the references to old Norse and Saxon stories. I’ll put a link below. The Rest is History, J R R Tolkien: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-rest-is-history/id1537788786?i=1000577613968