Irrespective of Tolkien’s own personal views about ethnicity and race, etc., remember that in the Middle-earth stories he was deliberately attempting to invent an “ancient mythic history” for English-speaking peoples to parallel the role of the old Norse sagas for Nordic-language speakers.
Part of that task was “shrinking” some of the story’s narrative perceptions to fit into that pre-modern worldview. Hence the squabbles of a bunch of tribal chieftains over a territory maybe one-quarter the size of Europe took on the soaring grandeur of a contest between good and evil for the mastery of the whole world.
I think Tolkien handled that balance of myth and (fictional) mundane history very astutely, as for example when he has the post-Sauron King Elessar still going out year after year to fight low-level border wars against unnamed riffraff in the south and east. (“Not like the old days, eh boss?” ;)) Tolkien’s very subtle lampshading of such contrasts IMO really captures the slight disconnect we moderns feel when we read genuine old heroic legends and realize “sheesh, this whole kingdom they’re talking about is smaller than New Jersey” or “an army of ten thousand knights, whoop-de-fricking-doo”.
Similarly, IMO, his negative depictions of the southern and eastern peoples of Middle-earth were not naive racism but deliberately pitched to the tone of the xenophobia of the ancient mythographers who supposedly originated these legends.
Mind you, I’m not arguing that Tolkien himself was any kind of 21st-century liberal egalitarian before his time; he may well have shared all the typical prejudices of his class and era. I just think that the particular type of ethnic prejudice shown in the Middle-earth stories was consciously constructed to reflect not Tolkien’s own views, but those of the putative sources.
The narrative worldview that perceives “swarthy Easterners” and black-skinned men “like apes in the southern forests” as frighteningly alien is the same one that thinks a hundred miles is a long distance and a sword is a mighty weapon. It’s racist, yes, but it’s not Tolkien’s own racism.
Smallish stuff maybe, in the light of Kimstu’s – pertinent – post; but I always greatly liked Ghan-buri-Ghan & Co. I admire the approach taken by Aragorn, when he is king; his proclamation, “The Forest of Druadan [the King] gives to Ghan-buri-Ghan and to his folk, to be their own for ever; and hereafter let no man enter it without their leave !”
Aragorn does likewise by – in the light of the nastiness done, described in the “Scouring of the Shire” episode – forbidding humans henceforth, to set foot in the Shire (though they may come to the border, with friendly dealings there with hobbits). Aragorn’s ideas here, are at any rate defensible – letting peaceable minorities alone in their own territories, with access forbidden to hom. sap. sap. with his regrettably greedy / exploitative / aggressive tendencies. Some would no doubt take a dim view of such policies, seeing them as analogous to shutting up Darwinianly-disadvantaged minorities in artificial “nature reserves” – when their only hope for ultimate survival and flourishing would be, to integrate with mainstream society. For sure, you can’t please everybody.
I wish I had! This is something I’d not known of before! Molto cool! Thank you! Exclamation points!
Agreed. I think Tolkien’s own humanity shows in the scene where Frodo and Sam see the battle, and sympathize with the poor black Southrons who, they perceive, are just people, not all that dissimilar to them. As vontisra notes, Tolkien makes the effort to show that the Southrons aren’t innately evil (as Orcs, apparently, are) but are merely deluded into an alliance in war with Mordor. Mordor bribed them or threatened them, but didn’t formally corrupt them.
There’s a letter that Tolkien wrote but didn’t send. It was to a German publisher who was considering publishing a German-language edition of The Hobbit just after the book was published in the U.K. They wanted to first know if Tolkien was Aryan (i.e., if he wasn’t Jewish). Tolkien showed in this letter how ridiculous their questions and their whole philosophy were. Apparently Tolkien’s British publishers persuade him not to sent the letter. Tolkien thought the Nazis were idiots.
I gather that an aspect of the Nazis which enraged Tolkien was their crude perverting of the Norse myths, which he loved, for their own crass and ugly ends.
I would consider those policies as very post WWI. He was a creature of his time and place, and the place was the Western Front.
Those ideas, with the redrawing of the European map, were intended to prevent a repeat of WWI, but they also lead directly to the idea that the Germans should have a country of their own. And then to the formation of a physical zionist state.