Not having access to Paxman, I can reply only within the context of discussions of national identity in my own multi-cultural country, a former colony of yours.
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It is more difficult to pin down a concept of what it means to be English. Certainly, it is harder than for our immediate neighbours, in Wales, Scotland and Ireland. England has an unfortunately checquered history .... and a very confused notion of itself....
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I would be tempted to consider that its identify inheres in the very nature of this confused notion of itself, of a country which (mis)appropriates others. The model might be the Norman invasion of England, which imposed Norman French rule but not Norman French culture. This form of multicultural amalgamation, of assimilation and rejection, prepared England to be a more flexible colonizer than other European nations (note I am not saying kinder, gentler).
To return to Anglic elements in Tolkien, it would be less the rural idyll or even the class model which you identify and more the way in which Tolkien has all the races--hobbit, dwarf, man, ent, elf--play significant roles in overcoming Sauron.
10-01-2002, 01:16 PM
Hybrid Mode
