Racism in LOTR?

[Olorin_TLA]

That article whihc was quoted in full was rubbish. Everything about it.

Right, now onto my points:

Tolkien was making a mythology for England. (Which happens to be an island surrounded by Sea, but I don't tink that's a basis for saying Great Sea originated form England's geography).

Now, the lands of Beleriand are under the sea. They were the Western most, because that meant there was the Great Sea between them and Valinor, so they couldn't just run home to the Valar in danger.
And so...oh for god's sake, I don't ahve time to waste AGAIN coutnering people like that Shapiro who think Dwarves = Scots... http://forum.barrowdowns.com/cgi-bin...c&f=1&t=002648

expalins well many points of why that shapiro man's an idiot.

I'm going out.

And for those who want to say Rhun = Asia, so Tolkien hated Asians, etc, remember that Valinor was the wwestern continent...and Tokien didn't go round worshipping Americans as gods or guardians of the planet.

[Lotessa]

I’ve thought about this and frankly, I don’t think Tolkien meant there to be any racism between Elves and Dwarves. Maybe some of jealously and rivalry, though, as Elves were the chosen races and Aule went and created powerful Dwarves, which became a strong race. The Elves felt threatened by their rivals and so have had an intense dislike for Dwarves.

Elves don't really "hate" humans and dwarves

No, I don’t think they did at all. Elves were quite proud, being the chosen race and all, and felt they were better than Men and envious of Dwarves.

LOTR actually calls the black people from Far Harad who fought against Gondor at the battle of the Pellanor Fields troll-men

As far as I know, the Haradrim were only compared to Trolls in strength and size, not meaning they were ‘trolls’.

…….and out of Far Harad black men like half-trolls with white eyes and red tongues

And Orcs, well, they were a foul black colour and pitch black would normally signify evil, which they were, so I wouldn’t call that racism.

Just an observation, the Istari were also named by colour e.g. Gandalf the Grey, Radagast the Brown, Saruman the White.

And also, as others have said, Middle-earth was principally a Western setting, sporting more European kinds of races.

Being from South Africa, I’ve been exposed to a lot of racism and have seen the attitudes of other with people who are from the era when the white South African government was corrupted, against black people.

My conclusion, I don’t believe a respectable professor like Tolkien would be a racist at all, let alone publicize it in is books.

Thanks, and it’s been great voicing my opinions with you.

~Lotessa

Tolkein wrote "The Lord of the Rings" and his other works because of one reason. Tolkein was British and mourned the fact that any trace of British mythology was wiped out by the Saxtons when they invaded Britain. He wrote his works to replace those myths and legends that were lost. He did not have any apparent racial prejudices, he was just trying to convey what Britain's point of view was at that time into "Lord of the Rings" and his other books and letters.