J.R.R. Tolkien probably wouldn't have enjoyed all the acclaim that goes with the highly anticipated release of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" this weekend.

"I think it would have made him uncomfortable, actually," Dr. Jeffery Long, a professor of religious studies at Elizabethtown College, said.

"Toward the end of his life, he did not enjoy the amount of attention he was getting," agreed English professor Dr. David Downing, also at E-town.

In fact, he said, Tolkien moved from Cambridge to get away from fans who were showing up at his door.

"He was a rather reclusive figure," Downing said. "He would not want to be J.K. Rowling, going around on book tours in a special train."

Both professors know their Tolkien — Long teaches a class examining cross-cultural religious themes and archetypes through the author's work, while Downing researched him thoroughly for his novel, "Looking for the King," which features Tolkien and C.S. Lewis as characters.

Tolkien and Lewis, though close friends and great influences on each other, were very different in their approaches to writing.

Tolkien was surprised at the success of "The Hobbit," which started out as a series of stories for his children and was published only after Lewis urged him to write them down, Downing said.

But, while Tolkien was a devout Catholic whose faith influenced his writing, Long says he didn't try to proselytize through his construction of a new mythology.

"Lewis was really trying to communicate religious ideas to the public through his stories. Tolkien didn't want to do that," he said.

"The paradox is, his works are actually more profound because of it."

Tolkien also didn't like using allegories, Long said, and he wasn't fond of Lewis' blatant use of religious themes in his Narnia tales.

Tolkien preferred to leave the business of interpretation to his readers, Long said.

However, he said, Tolkien did not want to write anything to contradict the teachings of the church.

Frodo's journey in "The Lord of the Rings" — and, to a lesser extent, Bilbo's journey in "The Hobbit" — typifies both the Christian and Hindu concepts of self-sacrifice, for instance.

"We only find our true selves when we put aside the ego and work for others, sacrificing selfish desires for the good of all," Long explained.

Tolkien wrote about "very traditional values of heroism and community," Downing added.

"He believed that we live in a moral universe."

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In devising the history, culture and languages of his Middle-earth, Tolkien crafted a grand fantasy that remains popular because it "taps into very deep themes — universal spiritual themes," Long said.

Similar themes are found in many religions and mythologies — even in the original "Star Wars" trilogy, he said.

"They aren't unique to one time or one culture," he said. "As the world gets more complicated, we long for the connection those themes give us.

"I can't see Tolkien ever getting dated. I can imagine people enjoying him hundreds of years from now," he said. "There's a level of richness, of depth and realism to his writing that you don't often find. He set the bar — it's what fantasy authors aspire to."

"At the time that Tolkien was writing, epic fantasy was a lonely genre," Downing said.

It was a period of modernism, and "he got a lot of very insulting reviews, saying it was a children's fairy tale that got out of hand."

But as an author, Downing said, Tolkien endures because "he himself took it so seriously."

"He didn't consider himself as inventing Middle-earth so much as chronicling it," Downing said. "It gives the world more depth than we see in other fantasies. He had such attention to detail — for him, it was much more than a writing project.

"In many ways, his life was more immersed in Middle-earth than it was in his life as a professor."

He also gave careful thought to the sound of his prose, Downing said — most of the words he used are derived from Old English or Anglo-Saxon roots.

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The professors have few criticisms of Peter Jackson's "Rings" trilogy.

"It was done with such obvious love and care. They were brilliant films," Long said. "I've been a fan of the books since I was a child, so finally seeing it on the big screen was a treat."

Downing points out a few inconsistencies in Jackson's portrayal of Faramir, Boromir's more studious, less warlike brother.

Long mourns the deletion of the Tom Bombadil character.

Bombadil, he said, "was a very philosophically important character. He represents the fact that what gives the ring its power is people's desire for power. Bombadil has no desire for power, so it has no power over him."

Both have high hopes for "The Hobbit" — primarily with Jackson back at the helm.

They, like many Middle-earth devotees, are cautiously optimistic about Jackson's decision to lengthen the book into a trilogy by drawing extra scenes from Tolkien's notes and appendices.

"Some of those things weren't very well fleshed out by Tolkien, so there's some nervousness among fans about how they'll be handled," Long said.

"But I love Tolkien enough that I'll probably end up thinking there's isn't enough."