I mentioned this at work a few years ago. It went over as well as you would imagine.
They made a webcomic about this, but it was not as awesome as you'd think
Lord of the Rings is more or less the foundation of modern D&D. The latter rose from the former, although the two are now so estranged that to reunite them would be an act of savage madness. Imagine a gaggle of modern hack-n-slash roleplayers who had somehow never been exposed to the original Tolkien mythos, and then imagine taking those players and trying to introduce them to Tolkien via a D&D campaign.
But be honest... it was worth it! hahahaI mentioned this at work a few years ago. It went over as well as you would imagine.