Co-incidentally, I just came across a piece in the latest Tolkien Studies. In the 1920's Tolkien translated a section of Gerald of Wales 'Description of Wales' (circa 1191) into Anglo-Saxon for a colleague at Leeds University. Just prior to that section are these words of Gerald's:
Quote:
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The English, I say, want to drive the Welsh out of the Island & capture it all for themselves. The Welsh, who for so long ruled over the whole kingdom, want only to find refuge together in the least attractive corner of it, the woods, the mountains & the marshes, to which they have been banished for their sins, so that there for a given time they may in want & poverty do penance for the excesses which they committed when they were prosperous.
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I can't help wondering if Tolkien had this in the back of his mind...