[Halfir]

Baran : I don't doubt the genuiness of your questions- indeed your follow-up points make it clear that this is a subject that has caused you some concern. It is, however, together with "Was Tolkien Sexist?" a very old chestnut that has been picked over again and again.

In assessing a work of literature one looks to see the intent of the author. If you read LOTR there is no way that you can conclude that the intent of JRR was to write a racist tract anymore than you can conclude that he set out to write a sexist work.The fact that passing references and characterizations might be deemed to be one or the other is irrelevant - one would have to warp the text out of all proportion to conclude that either of the racist/sexist claims were true.

Oscar Wilde held that there was no such thing as a moral or immoral work - only a good work of art or a bad work of art. I don't think Tolkien - a devout Catholic - would have agreed with him, but Wilde's cooment is a useful antidote to some of the more 'politically correct' approaches adopted by some readers. And, indeed, what is politically correct today, won't be so tomorrow, and wasn't yesterday.