Good posts by Inderjit and Mr Saucepan,
I'd always thought of the Druedain as more like Neanderthals (I've aways seen Neanderthals represented as 'white' but why so? Hmmmm)
Its worth noting that before the advent of mass tourism, a tan was viewed as a marker of low social class (in Europe at least) as only the people who worked out-doors would be tanned. Unlike, presumably, hobbits of independent means and luxurious holes!
I'm not too clear on the significance of 'swarthy' - can this also mean unshaven?
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Rumil of Coedhirion
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