Racism and Tolkien. - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

William Cloud Hicklin · 01-12-2013, 09:34 PM

....are described as swarthy or squint-eyed.

One of the travellers from the south in the Prancing Pony, for example, is described as a "squint-eyed ill-favoured fellow".

Errrr, in British English, a "squint" means cross-eyed, or one or both eyes having a sideways aspect; sometimes the connotation is "sidelong" or "shifty." The American usage meaning "partially closed" or even "slanted" was completely alien to JRRT-- even Christopher Tolkien, just a few years ago, was quite surprised and nonplussed to learn that to Americans the word means something so different.

01-12-2013, 09:34 PM	#11
William Cloud Hicklin Loremaster of Annúminas Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 2,301	....are described as swarthy or squint-eyed. One of the travellers from the south in the Prancing Pony, for example, is described as a "squint-eyed ill-favoured fellow". Errrr, in British English, a "squint" means cross-eyed, or one or both eyes having a sideways aspect; sometimes the connotation is "sidelong" or "shifty." The American usage meaning "partially closed" or even "slanted" was completely alien to JRRT-- even Christopher Tolkien, just a few years ago, was quite surprised and nonplussed to learn that to Americans the word means something so different. __________________ The entire plot of The Lord of the Rings could be said to turn on what Sauron didn’t know, and when he didn’t know it.