Lord of the Rings labelled racist

[Maédhros]

I don't think that has anything to do with the skin colour of the Elves. Honestly can't imagine eg. a black person reading the book and throwing it to the waste paper basket because s/he discovers the elves are white... Of course we must admit the fact that LotR is more entwined with western cultural tradition than for example chinese or north african cultural tradition and thus it's more widely known and loved in western countries (in which most people are caucasian).

And I agree with that. Yet, that doesn't answer the question. If both Men and Elves were created in the same theme, how come men end up being Multi-racial, while Elves are all white?

[Saurreg]

Originally Posted by Maédhros

And I agree with that. Yet, that doesn't answer the question. If both Men and Elves were created in the same theme, how come men end up being Multi-racial, while Elves are all white?

You know, I have always thought of tolkien writing in the elves as mere custodians of Middle-Earth and guide to some of the men who would inturn influence others (think the Egyptians, Babylonians and Greeks etc). Hence the elves were not the lords of Middle-earth; men were. That together with the facts that they were not widely spreaded throughout the world and their time on Middle-earth was short could most probably explain their percieved "caucasian" features.

Men on the other hand would spread out and settle in many parts of that world and hence they would evolve physically to their environments over the ages.

That stated, I submit the possibility that when Tolkien wrote on the physical appearances of elves, he might have a totally distinctibe racial look for them that could be very different from Caucasians. After all in this world we live in, many people other the caucasoid have grey eyes, fair skin and height. Whose to say the great one had actually a combination of the best features of each racial stock for the elves - making them very similar to everyone that sees them, yet quite alien.

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

We could add to that argument the fact that elves and, for that matter, dwarfs, don't appear in myth, folklore or literature outside the Celtic and Germanic languages. Even fairly local Romance languages, such as Spanish and Italian, don't share the idea, and this has been a major obstacle for translators throughout the history of Tolkien's fiction. If he wanted to tie in his myths with the real world, he may have taken account of their Northern European origins when writing about the Eldar. Not only is there not a dark-skinned elf in Tolkien's writing, but there is no such thing anywhere in literature. I wonder why it's considered a problem only in his fiction.

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by The Squatter of Amon Rûdh

We could add to that argument the fact that elves and, for that matter, dwarfs, don't appear in myth, folklore or literature outside the Celtic and Germanic languages. . . . Not only is there not a dark-skinned elf in Tolkien's writing, but there is no such thing anywhere in literature. . . .

There are no dark-skinned dwarves either, or are there? Very interesting. So maybe Tolkien wanted to give the dwarves and the elves the "usual" form and bind them more strongly to the follore and tradition they came from by giving them a fair complexion?

[doom_hammer]

I read the attachment and i thought it was #@*!^#. in all fantasy books and movies i have seen it is always the good vs the evil not so smart horde so how is just this one thing racists. shouldent it make all fantasy books that have elves and evil hordes racists???