"An Impenetrable Darkness", Michael Cunningham

[shadowfax]

Good post Formendacil.

I believe that the "emenies" or "bad guys" in Tolkien are not specific to any culture or manifestation of any culture but are a mixed bunch drawing on all the types of enemies Tolkien could imagine. Going back to the mindset of mediaevil Europe we find different enemies (I'm not talking allegory here, more cultural influnece). There were enemies from the South, such as Arabs and Turks, and such tales as El Cid and Roland, or closer to Tolkien's own sory, the Gates of Vienna, are depply ingrained in European storytelling. In Tolkien we recognise these most of all in the peoples of Harad and Rhun. They are not all evil, in fact Tolkien portrays them with some respect, but they are enemies nevertheless.

Then going back further in time we have enemies from the East. The Huns and Goths and other barbarians that attacked the Roman Empire. We think of the hordes of Jhengis Khan and on this one Tolkien is more subtle. The people of Rohan are fierce horsemen, barbarians by the standards of Gondor, but they have been pacified and are now on the "good" side.

The Vikings of course were also enemies of old Europe but Tolkien, being a fan of everything Nordic, couldn't put it that way. So they get away with a mixed treatment. The dwarves for example are not wholly good nor wholly evil (as indeed they are in Nordic myth with red and black dwarves)

And then we have the inner enemy. Superstitious belief in evil being dwelling in mountains and forests, some of whom actually turn out to be good (Ents for example) whereas other are not.

Sauron has managed to dfo the worst thing possible and unite all these enemies into a common army. Enter the Orcs who combine the worst attributes of all these groups into a new fighting force, and the the Uruk Hai who are one up on even the Orcs.

So whereas sympathising with say, the men of Rhun, because the reader is maybe a Muslim, is legitimate IMHO, sympathising with the Orcs, who are not from a single culture but are a mix of all the different ones makes less sense. The enemy of my enemy is also my enemy. I don't think the people of Rhun like Orcs for example. They had to put up with them because Sauron made them do it. But the Orcs are not friends of anybody and neither do they represent any positive cultural traits (in contrast to say, dark dwarves). This makes it difficult for me to follow why anybody would like them to the extent of wanting to claim they were in the right and the others were wrong.