Scimitar?

[The Saucepan Man]

Bill, I largely agree with what you have said. But I do not think that, just because JRRT had his marauding Men come (largely) from the East and the South East, it follows that he was prejudiced against the Arabic world.

As you say:

Ever since the eighth century the western world has been embroiled in an off-and-on-again struggle with the Arab/Muslim world.

So surely it follows that, if JRRT was seeking to build a mythology for England and on the assumption that the ME of the War of the Ring is analagous to (or the forerunner of) Europe, he would have his enemies come from the traditional direction. He recognises as much himself in the quote from the Letter given by Mister Underhill:

In any case if you want to write a tale of this sort you must consult your roots, and a man of the North-west of the Old World will set his heart and the action of his tale in an imaginary world of that air, and that situation : with the Shoreless Sea of his innumerable ancestors to the West, and the endless lands (out of which enemies mostly come) to the East.

It does not follow from the fact that JRRT had his enemies come from the traditional direction that he was racially prejudiced. Indeed, Sam's observations on the dead Southron in Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbits indicates, for me, a very enlightened view:

He was glad that he could not see the dead man's face. He wondered what the man's name was and where he came from: and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home; and if he would not really rather have stayed there in peace ...

JRRT, through Sam, recognises that, just because this man was an enemy, he was not necessarily intrinsically evil. Quite possibly, he was just doing what he believed, or had been persuaded to believe, was his duty.

I am not seeking to be a Tolkien apologist here. I just don't think that the presence of the Variags and Haradrim in Sauron's armies or the attacks of the Wainriders of the early Third Age, or indeed the presence of a scimitar in goblin hands, indicates a prejudice against the Arab world on his part. I am sure that he, just as many in the West do today, recognised that, in reality, there have been faults present, and attrocities committed, on both sides of the centuries old, on-off struggle between the Arab and the Western worlds which you describe.

And finally, to momentarily stray with you off the Tolkien-related path, there is much truth in your final point:

... attempting to rebuild a country whose culture we are not only prejudiced against, but are no longer capable of understanding, could very well end in disaster.

I am not sure that prejudice is necessarily the worst of our worries (although it is clearly present to some degree on both sides), but lack of understanding (again, on both sides) is undoubtedly a major concern. I nevertheless endeavour to remain optimistic that some good can come out of what has happened. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]