[The Saucepan Man]

Excellent topic, if I may say so Inderjit, and a subject which I have previously contemplated myself.

My initial reaction, when I first read the book many years ago, was that there were racist overtones in LotR. After all, on casual reading, all of the "baddies" seem to come from the south and the east and are described as swarthy or squint-eyed.

One of the travellers from the south in the Prancing Pony, for example, is described as a "squint-eyed ill-favoured fellow". When Frodo uses the Ring he follows a "swarthy Bree-lander" out of the door (presumably to alert the Ringwraiths).

When the Southerlings arrive at the Black Gate, Gollum describes them to Frodo and Sam thus:

Dark faces ... They are fierce. They have black eyes, and long black hair, and gold rings in their ears. And some have red paint on their cheeks, and red cloaks ... Not nice; very cruel wicked Men they look. Almost as bad as Orcs but much bigger ... Smeagol thinks they have come out of the South beyond the Great River's end.

The Southrons who are ambushed by Faramir's men are described as "swarthy men in red" and the Southron who falls close to Sam has "black plaits of hair braided with gold" and a "brown hand" still clutching the broken hilt of his sword.

In the Battle of Pelennor Fields, Sauron's forces include Southrons with scimitars, Easterlings with axes, Variags of Khand and "out of Far Harad black men like half-trolls with white eyes and red tongues".

References such as these did lead me intially to think that dark-skinned Men were portrayed as the "baddies" lined up against the good ol' white folk of the North West.

But, on re-reading the book again recently (for the first time in adulthood), and particularly since learning more of JRRT's other writings, I have come to reconsider my initial view and my thinking is now much more in line with the fine analysis that you have presented, Inderjit.

It is, I think, important firstly to bear in mind that JRRT was an Englishman writing a book in the first half of the twentieth century, when attitudes towards those of different colour was very different from those today. Great Britain was still an (albeit diminished) Empire and still had colonies in far flung parts of the world. My imprssion is that British society in general at that time still viewed dark skinned people, if not as inferior, either as exotic and perhaps slightly dangerous, or as the "servant classes". While racism still unfortunately exists today, society in general has become much more enlightened on this issue.

Now, that is not to say that JRRT was a racist. Far from it. However, his writings are bound to reflect the attitudes of the time in which he was writing.

But that is not the whole story by any means.

Firstly, the fact that the evil powers (Melkor and Sauron) are associated with blackness does not indicate racism. It may be trite to say this, but I believe that this point has been used to justify theories of racism in JRRT's writings. Clearly, however, the colour black (not black skin) has always been associated with evil.

As for the squint-eyed fellow and the swarthy Bree-lander, the first (as I recall) turns out to be a half-orc, while the description "swarthy" does not necessarily imply a different racial stock from other peoples of the north. It may simply mean that their skin is tanned from exposure to the elements. Strider, for example, is first introduced to us as a "strange-looking weather-beaten man". It is likely that he was heavily tanned (hence, possibly, the representation of him in the animated film).

The Southrons, Easterlings, Haradrim and Variags are from the south and the east. As has been pointed out, the story is set in a location with which JRRT felt comfortable, ie the north west (representative of Europe). To the extent that Men come to Sauron's aid from "off the map", they are bound to come from the south and the east. There was only sea to the west and nothing much further north. The Southrons, with their scimitars, red cloaks and gold earrings have a Turkish or Middle Eastern flavour to them. Taking ME as representative of Europe, this makes geographical sense. On the same basis Far Harad can be seen as representative of Africa (hence the black men of Far Harad, although their likening to half-trolls is perhaps unfortunate). The Easterlings and the Variags of Khand (of whom I think little description is given) may have been of similar stock, or oriental. But they may just as easily have been from the region that would represent Russia, in which case they need not be dark-skinned at all.

And in any event, we only hear of those who have joined forces with Sauron. They are not necessarily representative of the peoples of these regions as a whole. What of those who remained behind? They are likely to have been just as "good" as the people of Rohan and Gondor. Furthermore, once Sauron was defeated, it is quite likely that many of those Men who fought on his side would have seen the error of their ways, just as the Dunlendings did. They were not necessarily intrinsically evil (as, say, orcs).

And, as others on this thread have said, Melkor and Sauron did not recruit solely from the south and the east. Men from the north allied themselves with these dark powers at various times. Also, noble Men like Boromir, and those who were not so noble, such as Wormtongue, were seduced into evil ways (although Boromir, of course realises his error and repents).

Inderjit, you have also pointed out that there are dark-skinned people amongst the "good" people in the tale. Although, as I have said, I do not think that the description "swarthy" necessarily implies naturally dark skin, it is of course quite capable of bearing that meaning. I never imagined the Dunlendings as dark skinned, but there is nothing to suggest that they were not. The various migrations of Men would, as you note, inevitably have led to dark complexions amongst the peoples of Eriador and the other realms of north western ME. The Harfoots are also a good example, being browner of skin than the other types of Hobbit.

Which brings us to the Woses. I had always imagined them as dark-skinned, but now I read the description of Ghan-buri-ghan again, I see that this is not necessarily so. Perhaps my initial view was coloured (no pun intended) by the fact that our only experience today of simple-living and reclusive people is remote tribes in places such as Papua New Guinea, Ecuatorial Africa and the Amazonian rainforest. It will be interesting to see how they are portrayed in RotK.

So, I agree with you. The presence of dark-skinned people in Sauron's army makes geographical sense and would also have resonated with English readers of the 1930s and 1940s, who would have seen them as exotic and perhaps rather scary. But that does not make JRRT a racist, and I think that there is sufficient evidence on a closer examination of his works to show that he was not. And it is this which allows the books to stand up to scrutiny in a much more multi-cultural society than that prevailing at the time that they were written.