So Tolkien's elves are drawn from the Celtic Tuatha de Danaan (sp?);
his dwarves from Icelandic/Scandinavian stock;
his hobbits from westmidland English;
his Rohirrim from Anglo-Saxons;
his Gondorians from the Germanic peoples;
his Men of Westernesse from the legend of Atlantis;
his ghan-buri-ghan people from the indigenous dwellers throughout Europe who barely exist anymore outside of the Pirenees, etc.;
his goblins and orcs from lios alfar?
his trolls from Nordic;
his nazgul from his own genius;
the Haradrim from middle-eastern culture;
Easterlings from the Mongols;
have I covered it all?
And so what? Oh, I don't know, it just seemed like a fun exercise to raise the hackles of all purists and detail oriented scribes and hunchbacks. [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]
|