Losing sight of the basics......

[Rimbaud]

Certainly, this is true for modern British history, perhaps going back as far as the early modern era (?). But the same is definitely not true for the medieval era.

Child, greatly though I admire your erudition and knowledge on the subject, I disagree with you on this point. In a most amicable way, of course. The medieval period in England (and, as I argued previously, all prior recorded periods) are dominated by race and class. There were gradations of Jutes and Angles and Saxons and there were distinct hierachies between and within them.

These aggressive settlers felt themselves greatly superior to the indigenous hunter-gatherers, and certainly considered themselves superior to the neighbouring Celts, on whom was waged ceaseless war, and subsequently oppression. Positions were reversed in later Viking and Norman invasions and greater levels of class/race awareness were created. I concur that assimilation occurred, yet this was not a swift and/or painless osmosis.

There were definite class and race boundaries between these early settlers - these do not go ignored by Tolkien and I would argue that his mismatch of races is a model of that early uncomfortable relationship. Note, of course, that the culminatively eminent race, Men in ME and the race known as the English IRL, are seen in a less than flattering light, throughout the writings.

Child, I meant not to deny the Legendarium's Anglic heritage, rather to distance landscape and caricature from the true marks of that heritage.

Edit - further, on the question on language. Subsequent use of French, then Latin, then a reversion to French, by the ruling classes in early England made for even greater class/race distinctions, a point also noted and acted upon by Tolkien.

[ October 02, 2002: Message edited by: Rimbaud ]