RACISM AND

MIDDLE EARTH
ASKMIDDLEARTH.TUMBLR.COM
DISCLAIMER AND INTRODUCTION

In case you’re new, what you’re reading is really the revised/ I also, early on, made it clear that my goals for this series were three-
complete version of a series of posts I published on Tumblr between fold:
August and October 2014. It was originally in response to this mes-
1. Point out the most problematic parts of Tolkien’s writings (as writ-
sage from Tumblr user apolodorus (apolodorus.tumblr.com), who
ten in the source material, and also as emphasized by Peter
said: “Both black, gay, and a Tolkien fan. Being a Tolkien fan was ac-
Jackson’s adaptations.)
tually harder for my family to understand than being gay, because of
what they perceive to be Tolkien’s race issue. What are your 2. Point out the most promising parts of Tolkien’s writings, ie: the
thoughts on that, if any?” non-evil POCs in Middle Earth (which were definitely not empha-
sized by Peter Jackson’s adaptations.)
My first response included an outline for the (then) upcoming series
of posts regarding Tolkien, Middle Earth, and racism. It also in- 3. Combining the first two points to highlight where I think the most
cluded this disclaimer, which of course remains relevant: potential is for restorative fanworks (mainly canon POCs that
should be portrayed more accurately in fanart, fic, etc.)
“Disclaimer: I am white. Super white. Like, my family tree is com-
posed of every European country that doesn’t tan. Swear to Eru.
On top of that, I’ve spent my whole life in the US. So, no matter
how much research and dedicated thought I put into the issue
of racism, even in such a specific set of circumstances, I fully
acknowledge that I will never be a voice of authority on the sub-
ject. (I also, obviously, acknowledge that I have no right at all to
tell anybody how they should or shouldn’t react to perceived ra- Okay, now that I’ve caught you up, we can move on to the actual
cism, and that’s not what these posts would be at all.)” content of this series!

i
RACISM AND MIDDLE EARTH: I

PEOPLE OF COLOR
IN MIDDLE EARTH
So many discussions of racism in Middle Earth begin
and end with a complaint that there aren’t enough Peo-
ple of Color in Middle Earth. But the fact of the matter
is that there are actually plenty. The problem is that Tolk-
ien either didn’t make that clear, or even when he did it
was ignored by adaptations, artists, and (frankly) most
of his readers. So let’s start things off by identifying -
and celebrating - the many POCs of Middle Earth.
SO, WHAT COLOR IS EVERYONE, ANYWAY?
Tolkien could go on for ages describing the history of a place, the
legacy of a people, or the origins of a single word. He even did a
pretty great job describing locations and battles. But when it came
to people... let’s just say Tolkien left a lot to the imagination. Which
means that the vast majority of his characters actually aren’t as-
signed a skin color. We can make some educated assumptions
based on the descriptions of the larger cultural groups that each
character belongs to - but even those groups aren’t usually clearly
described by Tolkien.
Focusing just on the Race of Men, though, after searching through
Tolkien’s works (including the much more obscure ones that most
fans don’t read at all), I think I’ve got a fairly complete picture of the
racial makeup of Middle Earth. (I’ll talk a little bit about the elves and
dwarves later, but honestly there’s so much less information on them
in this subject that I don’t have a lot to say about them. Also, keep in
mind that the simplicity of Tolkien’s descriptions mean that every-
thing’s basically a question of white or less white, which means that
the existence of light-skinned People of Color, for example real-
world East Asians, are entirely up to reader interpretation.)
The Haradrim and the Easterlings
Let’s start with the simplest, and most well-known People of Color in
Middle Earth: The Southerners and Easterlings (shown on the map
as Red and Purple.) We don’t really meet any of these people on
any sort of personal level - they basically just make up the “evil” men
in Sauron’s armies, which is an issue I’ll be talking about specifically
in a later segment of this series. For now, I’m just going to list their
descriptions and move on to another group.
The Haradrim, the people living to the South of Middle Earth proper,
are consistently described as “swarthy”, meaning “dark-
complexioned.” The only man of Harad that we ever see up close
was in Two Towers (when the rangers of Ithilien fight a group of Ha-
radrim after capturing Frodo and Sam.) Sam notes that the man he
sees had a “brown hand” and “black plaits of hair braided with
gold.” The implication is that the further south one went in Harad the
darker the skin got, since we get a specific description later on of
men from Far Harad that were “black men like half-trolls with white
eyes and red tongues.” So that’s what we know of the Haradrim.
To the east lies a huge territory that Tolkien tells us almost nothing
about (it’s very frustrating.) He describes the people of this region
even less than he does the Haradrim. In fact, the best description
we have of Easterlings is thousands and thousands of years out-
dated. During the First Age it’s said that “Swarthy Men” come out of
the east and enter Beleriand. Whether these are the same groups
that still live to the east during the Third Age is, to my knowledge, un-
known.
But, since it’s all we’ve got, here are the descriptions of the Easter-
lings of the First Age: In the published Silmarillion Tolkien says that
“These men were short and broad, long and strong in the arm; their
skins were swart or sallow, and their hair was dark as were their
eyes.” According to the Oxford Dictionary “sallow” means “an un-
healthy yellow or pale brown color”, when referring to complexion.
3
MAP KEY
Red: The Haradrim
and the Easterlings

Orange: Hobbits
Yellow: Rohirrim/
Éothéod

Green: Southern
“indigenous people”
of Middle Earth

Blue: Northern “indige-

nous people” of Middle
Earth

Purple: The Dunedain

(descendants of Núme-
nor)

Turquoise: The Drúe-

dain


4
And “swart” is just another form of “swarthy.” The two different
descriptors is interesting, especially when viewed in another
version of the text, “The Grey Annals”, in which we get the
added sentence, “But they were not all of one kind, in looks or
in temper, or in tongue.” So at least Tolkien acknowledged that
the huge eastern territory would include some racial diversity.
The most positive version of the introduction of the Easterlings
comes from The Shaping of Middle Earth, where Tolkien says
they “were short and broad, long and strong in the arm; their
hair was black, and grew much also upon their face and
breast; their skins were swart or sallow, and their eyes brown;
yet their countenances were for the most part not uncomely,
though some were grim and fierce.” other essay, “Of Dwarves and Men”, Tolkien gives a more detailed
description, saying “For the most part they were tall people, with
The Éothéod
flaxen or golden hair and blue-grey eyes... all were fair-skinned.”
The Éothéod (from whom we later get the men of Rohan) are the Fair-skinned, of course, meaning to have “pale or relatively pale
next most clearly and consistently described group in Middle Earth. skin.”
When we meet the first men of Rohan in the Two Towers, Tolkien de-
So, with this added information about the relatives of the Éothéod, I
scribes them as “Tall and long-limbed; their hair, flaxen-pale, flowed
think we can safely add the descriptor of “fair skinned” to the people
under their light helms, and streamed in long braids behind them,
of Rohan. And remember what we know about the House of Hador -
their faces were stern and keen.” To be flaxen-haired, by the way,
they’ll come up again in the next section.
means to have “pale yellow hair.” So Tolkien makes it pretty clear
that at least most of the Rohirrim are blonde. The Northern Indigenous People of Middle Earth
But later on, and in other texts, we learn that the Rohirrim/Éothéod So we’ve already talked about one of the houses of the Edain. Now
are very closely related to the House of Hador, one of the three it’s time to talk about another - the House of Bëor. In The Silmarillion
houses of the Edain. And while many of the Edain that we meet in they’re described as “dark or brown of hair, with grey eyes.” Again,
the later ages come from a more mixed heritage, Tolkien connects we have to go to “Of Dwarves and Men” for a better description,
the Éothéod solely to the House of Hador. So what do we know where Tolkien says that “There were fair-haired men and women
about these ancestral cousins? In The Silmarillion he says only that among the Folk of Bëor, but most of them had brown hair (going usu-
“Yellow-haired they were for the most part, and blue-eyed.” But in an-
5
ally with brown eyes) and many were less fair in skin, some indeed
being swarthy.”
Here we see a contradiction when it comes to eye color - I tend to
lean towards The Silmarillion, since it was the version chosen for
publication (also, many of the characters from the House of Bëor are
later described as having grey eyes.) But, since The Silmarillion
made no mention of skin color, I see no reason to disregard the de-
scription of these people as “less fair in skin, some indeed being
swarthy.” Since it seems to run on a sort of spectrum between “less
fair” and “swarthy”, I personally picture the House of Bëor as having
lighter coloring than the Haradrim, but that’s just me.
(Also, in “The Grey Annals” it’s mentioned that they were “fair of
face.” However, “fair” meant “beautiful” long before it meant “light”.
Since Tolkien tends to lean towards such archaic words, and since
he specifies in other cases when he means “fair-skinned” or “fair-
haired”, I think in this case he’s merely saying that the people had
handsome or beautiful faces, and not that they were lighter than pre-
viously described.
Now, what does this have to do with the indigenous people of north-
ern Middle Earth? Tolkien describes that, during the First Age, the
three houses of the Edain traveled westward across Middle Earth.
And the two groups that traveled primarily in the north were the
Houses of Hador and Bëor. And while the Éothéod were specifically
attributed to the House of Hador, the rest of the people of this region
are assumed to be, by the later ages, a mixture of the two groups -
also likely with contributions from the Easterlings, who also at times
lived among them, though this isn’t as clear.
So, the men of Dale and Laketown, the Woodsmen of Mirkwood, the
other Northmen of Rhovanion, the Beornings (if you assume that Be-
orn married a regular woman), and the non-Númenorean people of
former Arnor (especially Cardolan, where the Barrow-downs were
built by such men) would all be a mixture of these two groups.
Whether some regions were predominantly one type, or if all the
men of the north were a somewhat even mixture of the two is un-
known. Whichever version you prefer, the fact of the matter is that
the “less fair in skin” folk of Bëor were definitely part of the picture.
Now, remember all of this as we move on to the third house of the
Edain.
The Southern Indigenous People of Middle Earth
While the Houses of Hador and Bëor traveled along the north of Mid-
dle Earth, the third house, the House of Haleth, traveled along the
southern regions. So, of course, the indigenous men of this region
are related more closely to them. Now, Tolkien’s description of these
people is a little bit murkier, and reliant on the descriptions of the pre-
vious two houses. In The Silmarillion, after describing the men of
Bëor, Tolkien says that “Like to them were the woodland folk of Ha-
leth, but they were of less stature.” Nearly the same description is
used in “The Grey Annals”, however it comes right after his descrip-
tion of the House of Hador, not Bëor. So were the people of Haleth
short blonde and pale, or short swarthy brunettes? Again, I tend to
trust The Silmarillion on this one. Especially since one of the known
descendants of these people, the Dunlendings, are later described
as “swarthy”, which definitely sounds more like the people of Bëor.
So, the indigenous people of the south were basically a shorter (and
broader) version of the House of Bëor, about which Tolkien said (in
case you forgot): “most of them had brown hair (going usually with
6
brown eyes) and many were less fair in skin, some indeed being
swarthy.” Again, allowing for some contribution from the Easterlings,
this description could therefore be applied to the people of Minhiri-
ath and Enedwaith, the non-Númenorean people of Gondor, and (be-
cause of later migration) the men of Rhudaur and Bree in the north.
The Dunedain, Descendants of Numenor
So, we’re pretty clear on what the three Houses of the Edain looked
like. When the First Age ended and the remaining Edain moved to
Numenor, though, it was really more like the two Houses of the Edain
(the House of Haleth had been almost completely wiped out during
the wars of the First Age.) So Numenor was inhabited primarily by
he people of Hador and Bëor (and even then, the people of Hador
outnumbered those of Bëor.) However, it’s not clear how much these
genealogical differences would have been visible by this point,
since Tolkien says that the “two peoples became much mingled by
intermarriage and by the disasters of war.” Beyond that, we again
have to assume some level of contribution from the Easterlings, es-
pecially since a group of Easterlings had ruled over a majority of the
people of Hador for a time, and Tolkien mentions that they “wedded
their women by force.”
So, what the Númenoreans actually looked like by this point is, hon-
estly, unknown to us. On the one hand, the Númenorean queen Eren-
dis, who was said to be a more pure descendent of the people of
Bëor than most, had beauty “of a kind seldom seen in Numenor”,
and was said to be “dark-haired and of slender grace, with the clear
grey eyes of her kin.” However, this pretty closely matches the de-
scription of the majority of the Númenoreans - or their descendants,
the Dunedain - that we meet in Tolkien’s other stories (including Ara-
gorn, Boromir, and Faramir.) Granted, Erendis did marry in to the
royal line (which is where most of Tolkien’s characters come from),
so it may be that they inherited their looks from Erendis and were a
rarity among their people, but that doesn’t seem to be the impres-
sion most readers get... So, did most of the Númenoreans look like
the blonde people of Hador? Or was Erendis’s darker beauty not as
rare as Tolkien suggests in her story?
Tolkien may have described the Númenoreans one other time (I say
may because it’s open to some wildly varying interpretations.) In one
of his letters (#211), he says that “The Númenoreans of Gondor were
proud, and peculiar, and archaic, and I think are best pictured in
(say) Egyptian terms. In many ways they resembled ‘Egyptians’ - the
love of, and power to construct, the gigantic and massive.” Now,
Tolkien is specifically referring to Egyptian culture, and not physical
appearance. But words like “picture” and “resemble” could be taken
to mean that he was including a physical description in the mix. If
that’s the case then the Númenoreans definitely showed more of an
influence from the people of Bëor than Erendis’s story suggests.
Now, by the end of the Second Age, Numenor has been destroyed,
and its few survivors move to Middle Earth. Some of them were al-
ready there, manning colonies along the coasts. But the new arrivals
founded the kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor, where (as we’ve estab-
lished) indigenous people were already living. Relations with the in-
digenous people of Arnor were already pretty good, but in the south
things were a little more tense, which led to the long-standing enmity
between the Dunlendings and the people of Gondor and Rohan (a
situation I’ll be talking about in a future segment of this series.) De-
spite this, Tolkien suggests that inter-marriage between the Númeno-
reans and the indigenous people was actually more common in the
south.
7

So, even if you believe that the Númenoreans themselves took more
after the blonde and fair-skinned people of Hador, the Dunedain of
Gondor must have reflected a greater influence from the darker peo-
ple of Haleth. So much so that one region - Lebennin - was known to
be home to “a hardy folk... They were reckoned men of Gondor, yet
their blood was mingled, and there were short and swarthy folk
among them whose sires came from the forgotten men who housed
in the shadow of the hills in the Dark Years ere the coming of the
kings.” Pippin later remarks that the soldiers of Lebennin were
“shorter and somewhat swarthier than any men that Pippin had yet
seen in Gondor”, which definitely resembles the House of Haleth.
The Hobbits
Okay, forget the Houses of the Edain. We’ve moved on. However, in
a continuation of a definite trend, the ancient hobbits were divided
into three groups, and each group is given a spe-
cific physical description by Tolkien. The first
group, the Harfoots, were “brown of skin, smaller
and shorter.” The second, the Stoors, were simply
“broader, heavier in build”, but coming just after
the Harfoots it could be argued that they, too,
were “brown of skin.” The last group, the Fallo-
hides, were “fairer of skin and also of hair, and
they were taller and slimmer than the others.” By
the late Third Age, though, Tolkien admits that in
most parts of the Shire these groups had mingled
into one general Shire hobbit population (with a
few regional concentrations here and there.) So
what did this “melting pot” hobbit look like? Tolk-
ien’s basic description of a hobbit in The Hobbit
says that “Their feet grow natural leathery soles and thick warm
brown hair like the stuff on their heads (which is curly)” and that they
“have long clever brown fingers.” While the detail of the “brown fin-
gers” doesn’t appear in the otherwise identical description in Lord of
the Rings, Sam is specifically described as having “brown hands” in
The Two Towers. And as for those previously mentioned regional con-
centrations: one area that is mentioned as having a high concentra-
tion of Stoor-descended hobbits is Buckland, home to Meriadoc
Brandybuck. So there’s an excellent chance that Merry too inherited
the darker skin of his Stoorish ancestors.
Basically, while a specific hobbit’s skin tone could depend on their
particular family’s ancestry, it’s clear that at least some of the Shire
hobbits had darker skin (and Sam, specifically, is described as non-
white, tell your friends.)
8
The Drúedain (aka the Woses, Púkel Men, or Wild Men) wide faces had deep-set eyes with heavy brows, and flat noses, and
grew no hair below their eyebrows.” The description goes on to men-
Never heard of the Drúedain before? Don’t worry, you aren’t alone. tion their “wide mouths” and “wary eyes... so black that the pupils
This fascinating subculture made a very brief appearance in Lord of could not be distinguished.” The description of Ghan-buri-ghan in
the Rings, represented by Ghan-buri-ghan, who guides the army of Lord of the Rings isn’t as detailed, but mentions that he was “clad
Rohan through the woods to Minas Tirith. And if you’ve got a copy of only with grass about his waist.”
The Unfinished Tales, you can read a whole chapter about their cul-
ture (including an honestly wonderful folk tale about their friendship With no mention of skin color, readers can decide for themselves
with the House of Haleth.) But that’s pretty much the only time the whether the Drúedain were white or not - it’s pretty interesting,
Drúedain are really mentioned, so they’re easy to miss. though, that this is really the only case where the majority of fans as-
sume non-white as the default (and I’ll be touching on a possible ex-
Here’s something interesting, though. While most of this segment planation for this phenomenon in Part III of this series.)
has been about identifying POCs that have traditionally been por-
trayed as white by artists and adapta-
tions, the Drúedain actually fall into
the opposite category (well, sort of.)
While they’re pretty consistently re-
ferred to as non-white, and are often
portrayed as such in artwork, there’s
actually not a single reference to their
skin color in all of Tolkien’s writings
about them. So it could very well be
that this group was white the whole
time. Tolkien actually describes the
Drúedain in impressive detail in his
essay “The Drúedain”, but never men-
tions their skin: “To the eyes of Elves
and other Men they were unlovely in
looks: they were stumpy (some four
foot high) but very broad, with heavy
buttocks and short thick legs; their

9
THE DWARVES AND THE ELVES
I honestly don’t have much to say about these guys. Tolkien gave us very little description
for the dwarves beyond the all-important beards (though it’s worth noting that Fili and Kili
were described as having “yellow” beards, so I feel it’s likely that at least some dwarves
were white (although if you Google “melanesian blondes” you’ll see that it’s not required.)

The elves are a bit trickier - their hair and eye colors are generally laid out (the Vanyar
were almost entirely blonde, the Noldor and Teleri mostly had dark hair and grey eyes,
though some Telerin elves had silver hair, and a few Noldorin elves had red hair), but their
skin color is, as far as I could tell, never described specifically? The word “fair” is tossed
around a lot, but since we’ve already established that that word also meant “beautiful”, we
can’t say for certain that Tolkien was ever talking about their skin.

There are a few elves that are described specifically as being “fair-skinned”, but also a
couple clues suggesting otherwise - in “The Book of Lost Tales” Maeglin is described as
“swart”, or “swarthy” - but in the published Silmarillion it’s said that “his skin was white.”
So do with that what you will. On a larger cultural level, it’s said of the people of Beor that
“they could not easily be distinguished from the Eldar.” This quote comes from “Of
Dwarves and Men”, which is the essay in which it’s said that the people of Beor were
“less fair in skin, some indeed being swarthy.” This is basically suggesting that the elves
themselves were “less fair in skin”, though this isn’t really supported anywhere else in his
writings.

Now, to be honest, I’m pretty sure that Tolkien meant for the elves to be white (that just
seems likely, given his background, as well as the influence Norse mythology had on the
elves.) But, if he didn’t say for certain, who are we to assume, right? (wink wink, nudge
nudge.)

10
RESTORATIVE FANWORKS - HOW CAN YOU HELP?
While there are already some fans who consistently create fanworks
(fanart, fanfiction, etc) portraying the inhabitants of Middle Earth as
People of Color, given the strong evidence that the majority of the in-
habitants were People of Color, this isn’t nearly enough. The fact re-
mains that the majority of readers believe that the characters are al-
most entirely white (of course, it absolutely doesn’t help that most evi-
dence to the contrary didn’t make it into the major published works,
but I’ll be discussing that later.) The “traditional” illustrations and art-
work, and most especially the movie adaptations, have been pretty
damaging in this regard as well by consistently casting all but the
enemies* as White/Caucasian actors. (*with the notable exception of
Desolation of Smaug, which did include a few People of Color as
background extras.)
The good news, though, is that every fan has the power to help
change this. Sam had brown hands, so draw brown Sam. Drop a
line into your Minas Tirith fic about the cute “swarthy” lady across
the street (okay, maybe don’t use the word “swarthy”, but you get
the idea.) Start portraying (and - politely - encouraging other fans to
portray) the canonically POC inhabitants of Middle Earth as People
of Color. We need to stop white-washing our own fandom. And we
can go one step further - we’re not really all that sure what color skin
the elves and dwarves had, and the Ainur/Valar/Maiar could basi-
cally look like anything, so why not portray them as POC too?
Tolkien is dead (God rest his soul) - the power is in your hands now.
11
For the visual
learners, here’s
another very sim-
ple racial/ethnic
map of Middle
Earth - basically
just a reflection of
all the research
already given in
this chapter.

12
RACISM AND MIDDLE EARTH: II

THE NÚMENOREAN
HIERARCHY OF MEN
In Two Towers, Faramir explains to Tolkien’s fans how the men
of Middle Earth were divided into categories by the Númenore-
ans. And, for many readers, this passage is what determines
their idea of Middle Earth’s inhabitants:

“’For so we reckon Men in our lore, calling them the High, or

Men of the West, which were Númenoreans; and the Middle
Peoples, Men of Twilight, such as are the Rohirrim and their
kin that dwell still far in the North; and the Wild, the Men of
Darkness.’”

This section focuses exclusively on this Númenorean ideology

– what the theory behind it was, and how it was put into prac-
tice by the Númenoreans and their descendants in Gondor.
THE GENERAL THEORY
Since it makes more sense to describe the theoretical hierarchy all
together, I’ll just go through that real quick before moving on to the
specific categorizations. The idea of dividing the men of the world
up into three groups was, according to Tolkien “modeled on the clas-
sification… of the elves: the High Elves (or Elves of Light) were the
Noldor who returned in exile out of the Far West; the Middle Elves
were the Sindar, who though near kin of the High Elves had re-
mained in Middle Earth and never seen the light of Aman; and the
Dark Elves were those who had never journeyed to the Western
Shores and did not desire to see Aman.”
The situation was simpler for the elves, but the same idea was ap-
plied to men – the Númenoreans saw men as falling somewhere on
a spectrum with the elves and the Valar and Good on one side, and
Morgoth and Sauron and Evil on the other. The High Men / Men of
Light were those who chose the side of the Valar (the Edain who
fought alongside the elves in the First Age.) The Men of Darkness
were those who served Morgoth or Sauron. And the Middle Men /
Men of Twilight were those who didn’t serve either (literally caught in
the middle.)
To me this sounds very similar to the way the West divide the world’s
countries during the Cold War – the “First World” were those aligned
with the West (ie USA), the “Second World” were those countries
aligned with Communism (ie USSR), and the “Third World” were
those countries who – officially, at least – remained neutral. Here’s
the interesting part. After the Cold War ended the term “Third World”
came to be used to refer to developing countries. This was incor-
rect, though, since some “Third World” countries were already devel-
oped (for example Sweden and Ireland.) So it’s an excellent exam-
ple of a theoretical classification system that worked very differently
in practice than was originally intended.
Back to Middle Earth: while the Númenorean hierarchy was, theoreti-
cally, based on this “Good vs. Evil” alignment, the way these classifi-
cations came to be used in practice was quite different.
14
HIGH MEN
This is the simplest category to define because it’s the category
from which the vast majority of our “point of view” characters
come from, and so there’s much less ambiguity with regard to mo-
tivations, etc.

The Theory
In his essay “Of Dwarves and Men” Tolkien offers quite a bit of
commentary and additional information regarding Faramir’s lec-
ture on the hierarchy of men. In that essay Tolkien defines the
High Men as “Númenoreans (of more or less pure descent.)” So,
during the Second Age when Númenor still existed, the High Men
were very simply the men of Númenor. After Númenor was de-
stroyed, the High Men were those people of Númenorean de-
scent living in Middle Earth (mainly Gondor and Arnor, although
there were a couple small outlying populations.) Because Arnor
basically falls apart earlier in the Third Age, the majority of our in-
formation is coming from Gondor’s point of view (for those track-
ing bias.)

In my opinion, the theory behind the High Men is the most compli-
cated – what made the Númenoreans so much better than every-
one else? A political alliance that their ancestors had held thou-
sands of years ago in a land that no longer exists? Tolkien doesn’t
explain this much in Lord of the Rings, but in The Silmarillion he
says “To the Fathers of Men of the three faithful houses rich re-
15
ward also was given. Eonwe came among
them and taught them; and they were given
wisdom and power and life more enduring
than any others of mortal race have pos-
sessed… Therefore they grew wise and glori-
ous, and in all things more like to the first-
born than any other of the kindreds of men;
and they were tall, taller than the tallest of
the sons of Midd-earth; and the light of their
eyes was like the bright stars.”
In Practice
Faramir himself admits that the High Men of
the late Third Age are quite different from
the people the label was originally given to.
He says that the men of Gondor “can scarce
claim any longer the title High. We are be-
come Middle Men, of the Twilight, but with
memory of other things.” Part of this is be-
cause of the changes the Númenoreans
went through over the years – anyone who’s
read The Silmarillion will be familiar with their
fall from grace, and the atrocities that they
came to commit in their last years before
Númenor was destroyed. And Faramir dis-
cusses some of these changes (specifically
the value placed on warfare over other cul-
tural pursuits, in keeping with his anti-war
theme.) But the changes seen in the High
Men were also caused by actual demo-
graphic changes (unsurprising since me, this seems to be suggesting that these
Faramir is talking three thousand years after areas that were more highly populated by
the fall of Númenor.) indigenous, non-Númenorean people were
basically accepted as full members of Gon-
Tolkien mentions several times that the
dor’s culture. In essence, that they were
Númenoreans had some reproduction prob-
adopted as High Men. (If you remember
lems (especially towards the end of Núme-
from Part 1 of this series, the men of Leben-
nor’s existence, the idea being that the
nin – a coastal region in Gondor – were de-
Númenoreans were so obsessed with avoid-
scribed as “swarthier” than the people of Mi-
ing death that they ignored life.) These prob-
nas Tirith, but Pippin points out that they
lems continued to exist for their descen-
“were reckoned men of Gondor.”) So my
dants in Middle Earth. Either they didn’t
opinion is that, in the face of declining popu-
have enough kids, or they started intermarry-
lations of “true” High Men, the leaders in
ing with the indigenous people of Middle
Gondor started expanding the definition to
Earth, and so their children weren’t “pure”
include the non-Númenorean people al-
Númenoreans anymore. This is why Arnor
ready living under their rule. And if this was
didn’t have enough men to maintain their
true, then it’s just one of several examples of
kingdom (and ultimately defend it from Ang-
the flexible nature of the Númenorean hierar-
mar), and it’s why Gondor’s last king died
chy.
childless. Even in the late Third Age Faramir
says that the Númenorean descendants in So, to re-cap: The High Men were, in theory,
Gondor “are a failing people, a springless the people of Númenor and their “pure” de-
autumn.” scendants, who were so named because of
their loyalty to the Valar and “Good.” In prac-
Faramir also says, however, that once Gon-
tice, though, this term came to be extended
dor’s royal family died out and leadership
to the non-Númenorean inhabitants of the
fell to the stewards, that things improved a
Númenorean-ruled kingdom of Gondor, mak-
bit, because the stewards were “wiser, for
ing it more an issue of politics.
they recruited the strength of our people
from sturdy folk of the sea-coast, and from
the hardy mountaineers of Ered Nimrais.” To
16

MIDDLE MEN
The Númenoreans didn’t have any problems de-
fining themselves. Things got more compli-
cated, however, when they started exploring
Middle Earth (after basically being isolated on
their island for about 600 years) and start meet-
ing other groups of men. This is when the basic
hierarchy system is designed.
The story of this “first contact” is important be-
cause it really affected the way following interac-
tions (and classification) went. Basically, the
Númenoreans started sailing to Middle Earth to
explore, and one of the first things they did was
visit Gil-galad and the elves of Lindon. Gil-
galad decided it would be a good idea to intro-
duce these Númenorean explorers to the indige-
nous people who lived just east of Lindon (near
where the Barrow Downs are in the late Third
Age.) When the two groups meet, the
Númenoreans are astonished at how
similar they are to these “lesser” men
(their languages, while different, clearly
share the same roots, and it’s decided
that these men must be related to the
House of Beor, or perhaps the House of
Hador.) And it was this group of people
(who were friendly, looked similar to the
Númenoreans, and kind of talked like
them too) that were first given the title
Middle Men.
The Theory
As mentioned in the introduction, the basic idea
of the Middle Men was that they didn’t serve the
Valar (Good) or Morgoth/Sauron (Evil.) Tolkien
said that “its chief test was friendliness towards
the West” – the idea being that no culture could
go back in time and decide to fight alongside
the elves in the First Age like the Edain ances-
tors of the Númenoreans did, but any culture
could “fall” in the present by serving Sauron.
But, historically, the term “Middle Men” should
have applied to any of the ancestors of the
Edain who didn’t actually travel all the way to
Beleriand to fight alongside the elves (this
would also match up most accurately with the
elvish inspiration for this category, which was
the Sindarin elves – those who started traveling
west to Valinor, but stopped and settled in Mid-
dle Earth before reaching the end of the jour-
ney.)
In Practice
Very few groups in Middle Earth actually earned
the title Middle Men. In fact, Tolkien says that, in
Faramir’s time, the Rohirrim (the people of Ro-
han) were “the only people of this sort well-
known in Gondor.” Earlier members of this cate-
gory had included the first group given this la-
bel, the men of northern Eriador (but by the late
Third Age that region was largely unpopulated,
and had also been changed by later migration
and the influx of Númenorean descendants in
Arnor), as well as the Northmen of Rhovanion
(whose population had been so drastically re-
duced by disease and war that they apparently
didn’t even show up on Gondor’s radar in
Faramir’s time.)
Based on this, you would think - and Tolkien
largely lets you do so - that all the other people
in Middle Earth were loyal servants of evil. But
this simply wasn’t true. In fact, in “Of Dwarves
and Men” Tolkien admits that “thus it came
about that the Númenorean term Middle Men
was confused in its application... it was actually
applied usually only to Men whose stature and
looks were similar to those of the Númenore-
ans.”
Tolkien was, first and foremost, a linguist, and
so it’s no wonder that language is hugely impor-
tant in his stories. And language was especially
important when the Númenoreans started classi-
fying men. So, if you don’t mind, a very brief lin-
17
guistic history lesson: Remember the three houses of the Edain? The peo-
ple of Beor, Hador, and Haleth? And remember how the first two groups
travelled along the northern part of Middle Earth, and the third group trav-
elled along the southern part? Well, this basic split was reflected in their
language as well. The descendants of the people of Beor and Hador
spoke similar languages. The people of Haleth, however, spoke a lan-
guage from a different family. And since the Númenoreans were de-
scended mainly from the first two houses, they recognized this shared lin-
guistic root with the northern peoples. Thus, as Tolkien said, “a kinship in
language, even if this was only recognizable after close acquaintance,
was felt by the Númenoreans to be one of the marks of ‘Middle Men.’”
So what happened to the southern people, those related to the House of
Haleth, who spoke a different language? They were, with very few excep-
tions, labelled Men of Darkness. And, according to Tolkien, their different
language “may have been one of the reasons why the Númenoreans
failed to recognize the Forest-folk of Minhiriath as ‘kinsmen’, and con-
fused them with Men of Shadow.”
the call.” So the official story among the historians of Gondor was that the
Rohirrim were descendants from the House of Hador itself, made up of
those who, at the end of the First Age, decided to return to Middle Earth
instead of traveling to Númenor - the closest any people could be related
to the Númenoreans without actually being Númenorean themselves.
But in “Of Dwarves and Men” Tolkien again points out a flaw in Faramir’s
understanding of history. Tolkien says that the Rohirrim themselves have
no memory of ever being in Beleriand - he even says in a later note that
the people of Gondor were just plain wrong, and that the Rohirrim were
descended from the same original group of men as the House of Hador,
but had never completed the journey to Beleriand. And even though Gon-
dor’s story doesn’t really track all that logically (why would the Eotheod
travel all the way from Beleriand to the northern vales of the Anduin, any-
way?), everyone just goes along with it - the Rohirrim because it “did
much to strengthen their friendship with Gondor”, and the people of Gon-
dor because it “was held to explain (to the comfort of Númenorean pride)
the surrender of so large a part of the kingdom to the people of Eorl.”

Now, like with the High Men, Gondor did show in the Middle Men cate- Basically, both sides were willing to agree to a version of history that gave
gory was also more flexible than the theory behind it would suggest. Gondor an excuse to be friendlier than usual to the Rohirrim, showing yet
Which brings us to the unusual case of the people of Rohan: again that the Númenorean hierarchy could be bent to fit the current politi-
cal circumstances.
The Rohirrim are descendants of the Eotheod, who lived in the far north-
ern banks of the river Anduin (thus making them closely related to the
Northmen of Rhovanion.) Being similar enough in appearance and lan-
guage, as well as being friendly to the Númenoreans, the Eotheod had
always been labelled Middle Men. However, midway through the Third
Age, when the steward Cirion gave to them the region of Calenardhon
(now called Rohan), their place among the lore-masters of Gondor
changed in an interesting way. Faramir said that the Rohirrim were “from
those same Three Houses of Men as were the Númenoreans in their be-
ginning not from Hador the Goldenhaired, the Elf-friend, maybe, yet from
such of his sons and people as went not over Sea into the West, refusing
18
 MEN OF DARKNESS
(I’ll actually be doing a whole separate segment about the “evil” men in Tolk-
ien’s stories, so if you feel I’m leaving something out, that’s probably why. Just
giving you a heads-up.)

From a First Age perspective, the Men of Darkness would have been any men
not descended from the same original groups of men as the Edain - cousins
on the great Race of Men family tree, if you will. However, by the time the
Númenoreans arrived in Middle Earth in the Second Age, the situation had
changed a bit. Because while the Númenoreans had been busy learning and
growing and becoming “High Men”, the men of Middle Earth were having a
much less pleasant time. Tolkien says that, after the end of the First Age, the
men that had fought for Morgoth fled east from Beleriand to Middle Earth,
where these original Middle Men lived, “and the evil Men came among them,
and cast over them a shadow of fear, and they took them for kings. Then the
Valar forsook for a time the Men of Middle-earth who had refused their sum-
mons and had taken the friends of Morgoth to be their masters, and Men dwelt
in darkness and were troubled by many evil things that Morgoth had devised...
and the lot of men was unhappy.”

It’s extremely important to keep in mind that The Silmarillion is basically written
from the Númenorean perspective, so this is essentially how the Númenoreans
viewed the men of Middle Earth. The fact that so many came to be ruled by
evil servants of Morgoth is their own fault, according to the text. Which means
that you saw a lot of people who, historically, should have been labelled Mid-
dle Men instead being categorized as Men of Darkness. With that in mind,
here’s what we know:

The Theory
Like I said, in theory the Men of Darkness were any men who served Morgoth
and Sauron. Historically these would have been the men not descended from
19
the same group as the Edain (I’ll be getting
much more into this topic in the next seg-
ment of this series.) The the “modern” term
was used to identify enemies of the Númeno-
reans, those who, in “Of Dwarves and Men”
Tolkien stated “were (or appeared in Gondor
to be) moved by something more than hu-
man greed for conquest and plunder, a fa-
natical hatred of the High Men and their al-
lies as enemies of their gods. The term took
no account of differences of race or culture
or language.”
And while the theory of this category is quite
simple, in practice it was the most mis-used
title of them all.
In Practice
Many of the men the Númenoreans encoun-
tered during their travels did, in fact, serve
Sauron (specifically the men of Harad,
which, again, I’ll be talking about in the next
segment.) However, within “Middle Earth
proper” (the lands northwest of Mordor, basi-
cally), most men - even those technically
controlled by Sauron during the Dark Days
of the Second Age - were hardly “active sup-
porters.” So how did so many of them end
up being labelled Men of Darkness?
The Númenoreans were primarily sea-
explorers, so it stands to reason that much
of their contact with the men of Middle Earth
happened along the coast. If you’ll remem-
ber from the first part of this series, the peo-
ple that lived along Middle Earth’s southern
coast were those descended from the folk of
Haleth (who, as we’ve already discussed,
made up a basically non-existent portion of
Númenor’s population, spoke a language
from a different linguistic family, and proba-
bly didn’t look much like them either - at
least, they didn’t look as much like them as
the northern peoples who were named Mid-
dle Men.)
The Númenoreans’ early experiences with
these people were friendly. The Silmarillion
tells how the Númenoreans came to these
people and “taught them many things”, to
the comfort and benefit of the indigenous
people, who apparently “revered the men of
the tall Sea-kings, and when they had de-
parted they called them gods.” However, as
the Númenoreans expanded their influence,
problems arose. The sailers required more
lumber to build more ships - and what better
place to find lumber than the great forests
lining Middle Earths coasts, right? In fact,
the area became so highly utilized by the
Númenoreans that they began building per-
manent forts and settlements in the area.
This often required the indigenous people to
leave the area (an unfinished draft of “Tal-
Elmar” mentions that a Númenorean told
one of these coastal dwellers that “Here the
men of the West have resolved to make their
homes, and the folk of the dark must depart
or be slain” (this directly after the indigenous
character has pointed out that very few of
his people serve the Dark (Sauron.))
And as Númenorean pride grew, their treat-
ment of the indigenous people worsened.
The Silmarillion tells us that they “laid the
Men of Middle-earth under tribute, taking
now rather then giving.” Finally, when most
of the Númenoreans fell under Sauron’s influ-
ence, they “sailed now with power and ar-
mory to Middle-earth, and they came no
longer as bringers of gifts, nor even as rul-
ers, but as fierce men of war. And they
hunted the men of Middle-earth and took
their goods and enslaved them, and many
they slew cruelly upon their altars.” The only
piece Tolkien wrote from the point of view of
these indigenous people, the unfinished nar-
rative “Tal-Elmar”, clearly describes the fear
the indigenous people of the coast had of
the Númenoreans, especially when one char-
acter says “These indeed we may dread as
20
Death. For Death they worship and slay men seem to uphold their ancestor’s faulty label- gories lived (and, if you will, compare it to
cruelly in honor of the Dark.” ing of these indigenous people (even after the map of where confirmed or highly likely
discovering the truth of their own ancestry), POCs lived in Middle Earth. Notice any simi-
Now, given these circumstances, it’s no won-
but they continued to let the indigenous peo- larities? Because I definitely did.
der that southern indigenous people of Mid-
ple’s place in their hierarchy affect pol-
dle Earth became hostile towards the Núme-
icy. After Eorl and the Eotheod (the an-
noreans and their descendants in Gondor.
cestors of the Rohirrim) came to Gon-
But, despite their legitimate historical claims
dor’s aid in battle, the steward Cirion re-
of mistreatment and the fact that Gondor’s
warded them by gifting them the territory
historians later identified as relatives of the
of Calenardhon (now called Rohan.) It
House of Haleth, these people (the forest-
was said that the land was largely un-
dwellers of Minhiriath and Enedwaith, and
populated, but in reality it was only un-
their descendants the Dunlendings) were
populated by men of Gondor. The Dun-
called Men of Shadow.
lendings had lived there for some time,
Tolkien points out the obvious problem with and saw themselves as displaced by the
this categorization in “Of Dwarves and people of Gondor and Rohan. Which is,
Men”, saying “Also it must be said that ‘un- of course, how they came to be allies of
friendliness’ to Númenoreans and their allies Saruman during the War of the Ring.
was not always due to the Shadow, but in
So, as has been the case with every
later days to the actions of the Númenore-
category in the Númenorean hierarchy,
ans themselves. Thus many of the forest-
we see that the Men of Darkness was a
dwellers of the shorelands south of the Ered
title that, in theory, simply meant those
Luin... became bitter enemies of the Núme-
people who served Sauron. However, in
noreans, because of their ruthless treatment
practice, the title was assigned based
and their devastation of the forests, and this
on the current political climate, largely in
hatred remained unappeased in their de-
order to justify the actions of the Núme-
scendants, causing them to join with any
noreans (and, later, Gondor.)
enemies of Númenor.”
Also, take a look at the map showing
Even so, the problems did not end with
where the people of these different cate-
Númenor’s destruction. Not only did Gondor

21
SO WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH RACISM?
So the Númenoreans had a bit of a superiority complex. In their de-
fense, they literally were superior. And while their hierarchical catego-
rization of the men of Middle Earth is an interesting and multi-
faceted example of racism within Middle Earth, what does it have to
do with our overall discussion of racism, Tolkien, and the fans of Mid-
dle Earth?
First of all, the way Tolkien writes about the Númenorean ideology is
probably the best example of his writings on racism in general (even
though the discrimination was entirely fictional, and of his own crea-
tion, he does do a pretty thorough job of covering both sides of the
issue.) This, combined with some personal letters that I’ll be discuss-
ing in a future segment of this series, shows that Tolkien - at least in
theory - understood how flawed racist ideology is.
However, the problem we come to is that a full understanding of the
Númenorean hierarchy - the big picture, if you will - can only be
gained by reading several very obscure essays (namely “Of
Dwarves and Men” and “Tal-Elmar”.) The Silmarillion gives us a
slightly better view of the situation, since it at least covers the Núme-
noreans’ horrible treatment of the men of Middle Earth. But the
places where Tolkien directly debunks the Númenorean hierarchy be
explaining the flaws in their ideology only appear in sources that - as
far as I can tell - Tolkien never intended to publish.
This brings us back to that first passage from Faramir in the Two Tow-
ers. Because that is the only version of the story that the vast major-
ity of Tolkien’s fans are exposed to - which criticizes the Númenore-
ans a little, but provides no insight into the plight of the “lesser” men
of Middle Earth - most fans are led to believe that the Númenorean
hierarchy is a valid way of understanding Middle Earth - with the su-
perior, civilized Númenoreans, their slightly less civilized allies, Ro-
han and the Middle Men, and evil, savage Men of Darkness. (And,
by the way, these categories also line up with the few descriptions of
skin color that Tolkien included in Lord of the Rings - especially the
fair-skinned Rohirrim and their “swarthy” Dunlending enemies.)
But now you know, dear reader. Now you know the whole story of
how these categories were assigned by the Númenoreans (and,
later, men of Gondor) who, like all humans, had their own motiva-
tions. And you can make our fandom an even better place by reflect-
ing this knowledge in your future fanworks. You could draw a Dun-
lending - not as a savage enemy of Rohan, but as a displaced in-
digenous person fighting who they see as their long-time oppres-
sors. You could write a story about a scholar in Minas Tirith lobbying
the new King Elessar to find ways to repair some of the hurts done
to the Men of Darkness. Or write some meta about the politically
savvy leaders of Rohan who navigated the murky waters of Gondor’s
racial hierarchy in order to strengthen their alliance.
Basically, what I’m saying is that Tolkien created a complex relation-
ship between the Númenoreans and the other men of Middle Earth,
but didn’t give it too much attention. So maybe it’s time that we - his
fans - gave it our own attention instead.
22
RACISM AND MIDDLE EARTH: III

TOLKIEN AND THE

MEN OF DARKNESS
Okay, this is the tricky part of the series. We’ve talked
about who was white and who wasn’t, and we’ve talked
about the Númenoreans and their ideology. Now it’s
time to talk about how Tolkien treats the People of Color
in his stories - and the only really clearly identified
POCs just happen to be the servants of Morgoth and
Sauron. What a coincidence, right?
ORIGIN OF THE MEN OF DARKNESS
To really understand the people to the east and
south - those who are so often labelled as evil, or sim-
ply servants of darkness - we need to have a little his-
tory lesson first. We need to go back - way back to
the very beginning of the race of men. We learn in
“The Tale of Adanel” (included in the “Athrabeth Fin-
rod ah Andreth”, a recorded discussion between An-
dreth and Finrod in the First Age), that the earliest
men, when they awoke in Hildorien to the east, actu-
ally worshipped Morgoth (believing that he was their
creator, and that Iluvatar was actually the voice of
darkness.) This was basically Tolkien’s version of
Original Sin for Middle Earth. The following excerpt is
a little long, but since it’s so important for the rest of
this discussion, I hope you’ll allow it. This is Adanel’s
account of what happened when (predictably), wor-
shipping Morgoth got less and less pleasant:
“Then we yearned for our life as it was before our
Master came; and we hated him, but feared him no
less than the Dark. And we did his bidding, and
more than his bidding; for anything that we thought
would please him, however evil, we did, in the hope
that he would lighten our afflictions, and at the least
would not slay us.
24
For most of us this was in vain. But to some he be-
gan to show favor to the strongest and cruelest, and
to those who went most often to the House. He gave
gifts to them, and knowledge that they kept secret;
and they became powerful and proud, and they en-
slaved us, so that we had no rest from labor amidst
our afflictions.
Then there rose some among us who said openly in
their despair: ‘Now we know at last who lied, and
who desired to devour us. Not the first Voice. It is the
Master that we have taken who is the Darkness; and
he did not come forth from it, as he said, but he
dwells in it. We will serve him no longer! He is our En-
emy.’
Then in fear lest he should hear them and punish us
all we slew them, if we could; and those that fled we
hunted; and if any were caught, our masters, his
friends, commanded that they should be taken to the
House and there done to death by fire...
But it is told that there were a few that escaped us,
and went away in far countries, fleeing from the
shadow... And they came at last to the land’s end
and the shores of the impassable water; and behold!
the Enemy was there before them.”
So, to summarize: in order to keep Morgoth
happy, the earliest men followed his instruc-
tions and did many evil acts. In time Mor-
goth came to favor the strongest and cruel-
est among these early men, and they essen-
tially enslaved the less-favored people.
When some men finally spoke up about Mor-
goth’s evil, they were killed by the other peo-
ple in order to avoid angering Morgoth. A
few escaped, though, and these were the
people who eventually became the Edain of
the First Age (as well as the indigenous peo-
ple who populated Middle Earth proper, as
we talked about in Part II of this series.)
Pronouns become very important here, be-
cause it tells us how, culturally, the Edain of
the First Age placed blame during this event
in their past. What’s most interesting is that,
while the Edain are the descendants of
these few who spoke up against Morgoth
and escaped, Adanel continues to use “we”
and “us” when talking about hunting down
and killing these very people. The impres-
sion it leaves the reader is that the Edain
didn’t blame an Other (in this situation, the
people who didn’t speak out against Mor-
goth) for their persecution, but rather carried
the inclusive blame of having followed Mor-
goth from the beginning.
The point is that, at least originally, there
was no idea that the Edain were inherently
good and all other men were inherently evil.
All men were guilty of the same original evil
(worshipping Morgoth), and the Edain were
simply those who chose to escape rather
than adapt to their situation.
However, even by the Second Age we start
to see this basic historical divide reinter-
preted, when Tolkien writes (in “Of Dwarves
and Men”), that “The Atani and their kin
were the descendants of peoples who in the
Dark Ages had resisted Morgoth or had re-
nounced him... they were ever at war with
the vile things that he had bred, and espe-
cially with Men who had made him their God
and believed that they could render him no
more pleasing service than to destroy the
‘renegades’ with every kind of cruelty.” In
this (albeit extremely brief) version of the
story, all mention of the Atani/Edain’s own
guilt is removed. This is actually an idea dis-
cussed in the Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth -
Andreth at first refuses to tell Finrod about
the original sin of her people, since it’s a
dark shame that culturally wasn’t talked
about. So it’s no wonder that, thousands of
years later, that part of their history has been
forgotten. The shame is that Tolkien allows
the reader to forget about it as well (or sim-
ply never informs them of it in the first
place.)
Historically the Men of Darkness were dealt
a pretty short straw. Having never escaped
from Morgoth’s dominion in the beginning,
they quickly fell under his control again
when he returned to Middle Earth from his
captivity in Valinor (this is all coming from a
version of the First Age with a slightly differ-
ent timeline, in case you’re confused.) Some
of them are used to aid Morgoth in the wars
of Beleriand, and even when Morgoth is de-
feated they aren’t free for long. Tolkien says
earlier in the same essay that “Sauron had
acquired dominion over many savage tribes
in the East (of old corrupted by Morgoth),
and he now urged them to seek land and
booty in the west.” The “savage tribes” are
the people of the east and south that are still
living under Sauron’s control during the War
of the Ring.
And that “savage tribes” comment is the per-
fect segue to the next section of this chap-
ter: how does Tolkien present the men of
darkness to the reader?
25
COLOR AND BEAUTY
Besides referring to the men of the east and
south as “savage” or “cruel”, Tolkien’s physi-
cal descriptions of these people are.... inter-
esting. You can read a collection of many of
these descriptions in Part I of this series, but
for the purpose of this discussion I want to
look at another source, “Tal-Elmar.” Keeping
in mind that this was a very unfinished draft,
many of the descriptions in this narrative are
highly questionable. Here’s Tolkien describ-
ing the sons of one of the main characters of
the tale:
“They were indeed much as Hazad himself
had been in the days of his youth: broad,
swarthy, short, tough, harsh-tongued,
heavy-handed, and quick to violence. Save
one only, and he was the youngest. Tal-
elmar Hazad his father named him... He was
tall, and white-skinned, and there was a light
in his grey eyes that would flash to fire if he
were wroth... He would stand often aloof,
when others were chattering, with a look on
his face that men read rightly as pride, yet it
was not the pride of a master, but rather the
pride of one of alien race, whom fate has
cast away among an ignoble people, and
there bound him in servitude.”
The story goes that Hazad’s mother was
spoils of war, taken from a fair-skinned invad-
ing force from the east (the geography of
this story is very very vague and confusing,
so don’t worry too much about it.) This was
meant to explain Tal-elmar’s magical white-
ness. At the end of the story, Tal-elmar
meets a group of Númenoreans, and they
essentially recognize him as one of their
own, believing him to be a hostage of some
sort, and they “rescue” him from his village.
The story, narratively speaking, is a mess
(and, like I said, it was very clearly unfin-
ished, so you kind of have to excuse that),
but it highlights some of the more problem-
atic views Tolkien expressed about People
of Color, and specifically about race and
beauty. Hazad’s mother was beautiful, and
it’s said of Hazad’s father that “having
looked on her he desired no woman of his
own folk.” And later on it’s said of Hazad him-
self that “he took a wife late, for no woman
of his own folk seemed desirable to him now
that he knew what beauty in a woman might
be.” During a discussion between Hazad’s
parents, his mother calls the local people
“base and unlovely”, and Hazad’s father ad-
mits that she does so “truly, maybe.”
The message Tolkien repeatedly delivers
during this story is that beauty is white
(more specifically, white-skinned), and even
the non-white population doesn’t seem to
disagree with him. This idea shows up in
many of Tolkien’s other stories, though proba-
bly never quite as dramatically. Many of Tolk-
ien’s most beautiful women are also some of
the few specifically described as fair-
skinned. And many of the more obviously
non-white characters are described as ugly
(the men of Far Harad are said to look “like
half-trolls”, and the Dunlending Frodo sees
in Bree is described as looking “more than
half like a goblin.”)
26
Now, this brings us to the only discussion I’m planning on having
about the orcs. I’ve seen some fans complain that the orcs them-
selves are racist, since they’re described as having grey or black
skin. But, for the most part, this seems to be to be more a reflection
of the metaphorical Black=Evil, White=Good, which is prevalent in
many cultures, and especially European and Biblical mythology, and
so I don’t think was meant to be representative of real people. But,
skin color aside, the rest of their description is problematic, espe-
cially because of this particular quote from a letter Tolkien wrote to
Forrest J. Ackerman as a response to a proposed movie script from
Morton Grady Zimmerman. Zimmerman
had described the orcs as having beaks
and feathers, which prompted this com-
ment from Tolkien:
Now, I don’t know what to do about the orcs - aside from the horrible
quote listed above, equating orcs with ugliness seems to me to be
mainly a reflection of their evil origins. So I’m not saying that the orcs
should be beautiful or anything. But there is obviously no reason for
today’s fans to buy into Tolkien’s beliefs about beauty (and, if you
aren’t aware of it, it’s so easy to fall into this trap - Tolkien’s system-
atic association of darker skin and ugliness is why so many readers
assume that the Druedain are POCs.) We’ve just got to keep remind
ourselves that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and in this case
the beholder with a pen was half blind.

“The Orcs are definitely stated to be cor-

ruptions of the ‘human’ form seen in Elves
and Men. They are (or were) squat, broad,
flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide
mouths and slant eyes: in fact degraded
and repulsive versions of the (to Europe-
ans) least lovely Mongol-types.”

Ouch, I know. Kind of makes you think that

maybe Zimmerman added the beaks and
feathers because he realized what a more
“faithful” portrayal of the orcs would look
like to viewers, right? The point, for this dis-
cussion, is that Tolkien’s picture of the orcs
is an extreme version of his ongoing
Beauty-Is-(European)Whiteness theme.

27
IS THERE ANY GOOD NEWS HERE? LIKE, AT ALL?
Yes, of course. As I’ve mentioned before, as important as it is to
point out the problematic parts of Tolkien’s writings, it’s just as impor-
tant to point out the more hopeful parts. And when it comes to the
men of the East and South, there are three really great things to
keep in mind:
I: Not All Easterlings Were Evil
The first Easterlings (men of the far east) that we meet in Middle
Earth are those that follow the Edain west to Beleriand. And they’re
famously notorious in that story for betraying the elves during the
great battle Nirnaeth Arnoediad. This presents the idea from the
very beginning of Middle Earth’s history that the men of the east
were evil, and served Morgoth (or, later, Sauron.) However, it’s impor-
tant to recognize that only some of these men served Morgoth. Many
of them were good, and true allies of the elves. And in the “Grey An-
nals” Tolkien adds in his description of these men that “they were not
all of one kind, in looks or in temper, or in tongue. Some were not un-
comely and were fair to deal with.” While it’s unfortunate that Tolk-
ien’s story focuses mainly on the evil-serving people of the east and
south, this tells us that there would have been some cultures in
these regions that had nothing to do with Morgoth. (Whether these
cultures survived the much more all-encompassing control of Sauron
is unclear, but there’s room to hope, at least.)
II: The Men of Darkness Were Not Savage
This should be a no-brainer, but usually when elderly European gen-
tlemen refer to a culture as “savage”, they’re wrong. And it looks like
Tolkien, for all that he created these cultures in the first place, falls
under this rule. He, on multiple occasions, refers to the men of the
east and south as “savage”, but the actual descriptions we have of
these cultures suggest otherwise. During the Second Age Tolkien
says that the men of these regions were basically completely under
Sauron’s control. But he also said that they “grew strong in those
days and built many towns and walls of stone, and they were numer-
28
ous and fierce in war and armed with iron. To them Sauron was both
king and god; and they feared him exceedingly.” Not only does this
quote very importantly point out that there was little love between
Sauron and the men he controlled, but it also described a civilization
that is hardly savage (especially since the indigenous people of Mid-
dle Earth are, in the same time period, described as knowing little
about agriculture, stone-work, and “the ordering of their life.” The
only culture that seems to be more advanced at this point in history
is the Númenoreans. Which brings up an interesting comparison -
the Númenoreans raised to greatness through continued exposure
to the Valar and elves; the indigenous people of Middle Earth, ne-
glected by all “powers” and reduced to a basic hunter-gatherer soci-
ety for a while; and the men of the east and south, dominated by
Sauron but their culture also advanced by their relationship with him.
III: Hope in the Fourth Age
Because of the nature of the story, readers almost always see the
“men of darkness” at their worst - during periods of major conflict be-
tween Sauron and his enemies. But there’s plenty of room in the
Fourth Age for friendly characters from the east and south. After
Sauron’s destruction (and probably after a tumultuous transition pe-
riod as these societies re-learn how to govern themselves), you’d
likely end up with fairly peaceful relations between, for example, Ha-
rad and Gondor (or Rhun and Gondor, etc.) In fact, almost immedi-
ately after Aragorn’s coronation, Tolkien says that he “pardoned the
Easterlings that had given themselves up, and sent them away free,
and he made peace with the peoples of Harad.” Which is pretty im-
pressive, considering Gondor had been fighting with these people
off and on for thousands of years. It’s a very encouraging sign for
the soon-to-come Fourth Age.
Tolkien wrote very little about the Fourth Age, and what he did write
about didn’t include the former servants of Sauron. But I expect we’d
see more merchants and traders from both regions expanding travel
abroad (I think areas like Minas Tirith, Pelargir, and Dale especially -
which already canonically supports a healthy trade with regions to
the east, such as Dorwinion - would attract more merchants and trav-
elers from Harad or Rhun.)
It’s also probable that you’d see improving diplomatic relations be-
tween Gondor and Harad. Not only do the two states share a border,
but there’s already a history of diplomacy between the two cultures
(of course, there’s a much longer history of warfare, but oh well.)
Specifically during the reign of King Hyarmendacil (around the year
1100TA), after a great victory against Harad, Tolkien says that the
sons of the leaders of the Haradrim “lived as hostages in the court of
[Gondor’s] King.” And one of Gondor’s kings even married a Black
Númenorean (not a reference to skin color) from the south - Queen
Beruthiel. And though these were not overly friendly situations, the
fact that the nobility of Gondor and Harad managed to live (and,
most probably, socialize) together suggests that, in the much friend-
lier environment of the Fourth Age, there would be regular diplo-
matic relations (and visits?) between the two societies.
So, beyond the historically inaccurate prejudices of the men of the
west, and Tolkien’s... issues with race and beauty, there is hope.
Hope that Tolkien’s modern fans will remember that the people be-
yond Middle Earth lived for thousands of years under the mastery of
evil and still thrived as a culture, and that they certainly weren’t all
evil themselves, and that - with Sauron out of the picture - relations
between the different regions of Middle Earth had a chance to be-
come much much better.
29
RACISM AND MIDDLE EARTH: IV

OF DWARVES AND
ANTISEMITISM
While the rest of this series has been about Tolkien’s
treatment of the race of men, this section is discussing
very specifically the way that he treats the race of
dwarves - especially with regard to the use of antis-
emitic stereotypes - and how his portrayal of the
dwarves changed over the years.
“DWARVES ARE NOT HEROES”
No other race in Middle Earth goes through quite as dramatic a trayed as evil people.” For example, in the tale of the Nauglafring
transformation as the dwarves do, and we’ll trace that transformation (which would later become the Nauglamir), the dwarves team up
in this chapter. The journey begins with The Book of Lost Tales, the with orcs to attack Doriath. You really don’t join with the orcs in Mid-
earliest of Tolkien’s writings about Middle Earth (written approxi- dle Earth unless you’re incredibly amoral, you know?
mately in 1917.) In this first draft of the Silmarillion, we see a much
Twenty years later, the dwarves reappear in The Hobbit, and their
stronger influence of Norse and Germanic mythology, especially in
portrayal has changed in some interesting ways. They’re no longer
the dwarves. Tolkien’s dwarves are, in fact, incredibly similar to the
the villains, and are certainly no friends on the orcs. But they’re still
dwarves of Norse mythology (which are not uncommonly evil.) So in
not heroes - certainly not like heroic like Elrond, Thranduil, Beorn, or
this earliest book we actually see the dwarves act as villains pretty
Bard. Or even Bilbo. And I’m not just being critical - it says directly
often. Christopher Tolkien writes in one note of The Book of Lost
in the book itself that “dwarves are not heroes, but calculating folk
Tales Part I that “In the early writings the Dwarves are always por-
with a great idea of the value of money; some are tricky and treacher-

31
ous and pretty bad lots; some are not, but
are decent enough people like Thorin and
Company, if you don't expect too much.”
What a glowing testament, right? But so
what, so they’re not your typical fantasy he-
roes. To be honest, that’s actually a little re-
freshing in Middle Earth.
The problem arises when you start looking
at the common dwarvish characteristics de-
scribed in The Hobbit. For example:
• They are basically obsessed with
money, wealth, and gold. The dwarves’
greed is their primary motivation during
the entire quest. And there are dozens of
examples of this coming up in the book,
but the best is probably this line of
Thorin’s: “‘But we have never forgotten our
stolen treasure. And even now, when I will
allow we have a good bit laid by and are
not so badly off’--here Thorin stroked the
gold chain round his neck--’we still mean
to get it back, and to bring our curses
home to Smaug--if we can.’”
• They are calculating, and sometimes
less than honest. For example, when
Thorin finally agrees to pay the ransom for
the Arkenstone, he already knows that
Dain has already arrived, and so has no
real intention of paying.
• They are secretive. Part of this is just
greed - the less people who know about
Erebor’s treasure, the less people the
dwarves have to share it with - and part of
it just Bilbo’s ignorance. But since it’s a
trait that comes up again more in later writ-
ings, it’s worth mentioning it now.
• They all have beards (in fact, this is basi-
cally their defining physical characteristic.)
There are fans that argue that some of these
characteristics are left over from the original
Norse inspirations, but the inescapable fact
is that, when looked at altogether, Tolkien’s
dwarves in The Hobbit fit a very stereotypi-
cal perception of Jewish people.
Tolkien scholars (and the more casual fans)
have argued endlessly about what this all
means - was Tolkien being antisemitic on
purpose? Was he simply ignorant of the hurt-
ful stereotypes he was using? Were the
dwarves knowingly modeled on Jewish peo-
ple, or were they more indirectly modeled on
the stereotypical medieval Jew that Tolkien
would have been familiar with from his own
studies? I can’t answer any of these ques-
tions - all I can tell you for sure is that I
couldn’t find anything in Tolkien’s personal
writings to suggest any hatred or negative
feeling towards the Jewish people he en-
(A Quick Note About The Movies)
If you haven’t actually read The Hobbit re-
cently, then this section was probably a bit
of a surprise. This is because the Peter Jack-
son adaptations’ portrayal of the dwarves is
actually much better than Tolkien’s own. Not
only are they absolutely shown to be heroic,
but their motivation for the quest is primarily
to reclaim a homeland, restore honor, and
get revenge - the treasure is practically an
after-thought. Furthermore, the efforts put
into giving each individual dwarf his own per-
sonality helps to avoid essentialization.
countered in his life. In fact, all I could find
on the subject was his writings on Nazism
(which will be included in the next part of
this series), and the tale of his encounter
with the charming, gentle Jewish Cecil Roth,
who woke him up at their hotel so that Tolk-
ien wouldn’t be late for morning mass.
The point is, no matter Tolkien’s own inten-
tions, The Hobbit’s portrayal of dwarves hit
some decidedly antisemitic notes. But by
the time we meet the dwarves again in Lord
of the Rings, their portrayal has taken an-
other shift - a change that some Tolkien
scholars argue was influenced primarily by
World War II itself.
32
TOLKIEN, HITLER, AND GERMANIC MYTHOLOGY
Many of Tolkien’s personal letters (at least,
many of those that were published) were writ-
ten during World War II, so Hitler comes up
every so often. And, wow, did Tolkien hate Hit-
ler. Granted, he certainly wasn’t alone in that,
but you get some pretty great quotes out of his
descriptions of Hitler (my favorite being “a vul-
gar and ignorant little cad”.)
Anyway, the point is that one of the things Tolk-
ien writes about is how, on top of everything
else, he was infuriated by the way Hitler and
the Nazis misused Germanic myth to sell their
ideology. He communicates this best in a 1941
letter to his son Michael Tolkien:
“I have spent most of my life, since I was your
age, studying Germanic matters (in the gen-
eral sense that includes England and Scandi-
navia). There is a great deal more force (and
truth) than ignorant people imagine in the 'Ger-
manic' ideal. I was much attracted by it as an
undergraduate (when Hitler was, I suppose,
dabbling in paint, and had not heard of it), in
reaction against the 'Classics'... Anyway, I
have in this War a burning private grudge –
which would probably make me a better sol-
dier at 49 than I was at 22: against that ruddy
little ignoramus Adolf Hitler (for the odd thing
33
about demonic inspiration and impetus is that
it in no way enhances the purely intellectual
stature: it chiefly affects the mere will). Ruining,
perverting, misapplying, and making for ever
accursed, that noble northern spirit, a su-
preme contribution to Europe, which I have
ever loved, and tried to present in its true
light.”
Now, as far as I can tell, Tolkien never wrote
about if (or how) this experience affected his
own writings. But the fact is that many of the
more hurtful antisemitic stereotypes seen in
dwarvish characterization no longer appear in
the dwarves written about after the war. So
some scholars argue that, seeing the way Hit-
ler used mythology to such harmful effects,
Tolkien became more aware of the problems in
his own mythology (at least regarding antis-
emitism.) Or perhaps Tolkien just finally took
the time to develop his race of dwarves be-
yond real world stereotypes. Or perhaps it was
for a different reason entirely. The point is that
the reason the dwarves changed is pretty
open to interpretation.
But here’s what we do know:
GIMLI AND HEROIC DWARVES
The Lord of the Rings is made up of a cast of heroes, there’s no doubt
about it. And Gimli the dwarf is hardly the least of them. Throughout the
quest Gimli is a loyal friend, fierce warrior, and devoted to the fellow-
ship’s cause. Aside from the beard, he shares practically none of the
characteristics of the previous generation, as seen in The Hobbit. And
though he is but one dwarf, Tolkien phrases many of his early (and es-
pecially noble) lines so that they reflect dwarvish culture as a whole.
For example, just as the fellowship is about to depart Rivendell, Gimli
and Elrond have this conversation:
“`Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens,' said Gimli.
'Maybe,' said Elrond, `but let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has
not seen the nightfall.'
'Yet sworn word may strengthen quaking heart,' said Gimli.
`Or break it,' said Elrond.”
Both of Gimli’s lines, aside from just being pretty noble on their own,
sound a bit like proverbs, as if they were known sayings among the
dwarves. In this way Gimli’s brave words about loyalty reflect not only
his own character, but that of his culture as a whole.
Some of the old stereotypes from The Hobbit remain in the background
of the dwarves of Lord of the Rings, but the use of these stereotypes is
markedly different. Often, within the context of Legolas and Gimli’s
early rivalry - such negative characteristics would be mentioned by Le-
golas, though more often than not there is no corroborating evidence.
Gimli makes similar unfounded comments about the elves, and the im-
pression the reader is left with is that both sides are clouded by their
bias, and so the truth of the matter is left a mystery (a trend you see
come up several times when it comes to historical events including the
elves and dwarves.)
34
The best example of this is actually after Le-
golas and Gimli have become friends, when
Gimli has seen the Glittering Caves of Ag-
larond at Helm’s Deep. He describes the
great natural beauty of the caves to Lego-
las, who cautions Gimli against telling his
people about the caves, since “one family of
busy dwarves with hammer and chisel might
mar more than they made.” (Suggesting that
the dwarves would mine the caves for their
resources, destroying the natural beauty.)
Gimli protests, saying:
“No, you do not understand.. No dwarf
could be unmoved by such loveliness. None
of Durin's race would mine those caves for
stones or ore, not if diamonds and gold
could be got there. Do you cut down groves
of blossoming trees in the spring-time for fire-
wood? We would tend these glades of flow-
ering stone, not quarry them. With cautious
skill, tap by tap – a small chip of rock and no
more, perhaps, in a whole anxious day – so
we could work, and as the years went by,
we should open up new ways, and display
far chambers that are still dark, glimpsed
only as a void beyond fissures in the rock.”
This is a radical change from the greedy
treasure-obsessed dwarves of The Hobbit.
While Tolkien has retained the underlying
love of minerals and ore, he now portrays
the dwarves as loving such things for their
beauty, and not just their monetary value. In
this and in other changes, Tolkien’s dwarves
in Lord of the Rings become a much more
original, interesting, and developed culture
(and simultaneously become much less of-
fensive.)
This trend continues after Lord of the Rings
was published. The most recent piece writ-
ten on the dwarves that I could find, “Of
Dwarves and Men” (part of which was writ-
ten as late as 1969) is also the one in which
dwarvish culture is at its most complex.
Through Tolkien’s writings on the relationship
between dwarves and men we still see
some of the fundamental traits from The Hob-
bit, but largely softened from their blatantly
stereotypical status through cultural develop-
ment - the dwarves are still secretive (they
refuse to tell non-dwarves their true names,
and generally refuse to teach anyone their
language. However, Tolkien also points out
that their language was highly valued by the
dwarves, since it was given to them by their
creator, Aule.) The dwarves are still sort of
greedy (they worked out a highly profitable
relationship with the local communities of
men, so that the dwarves wouldn’t have to
farm or hunt. However, this relationship is no
worse than other relationships between so-
cieties of varying levels of development
(both in Middle Earth and the real world), so
I’m not sure if this is really evidence of
“greed” on a real cultural level.)
Tolkien’s earliest dwarves were basically cop-
ied from Norse mythology. And in The Hob-
bit whatever traits weren’t Norse were
largely antisemitic stereotypes. But the
longer Tolkien wrote about the dwarves, the
less prominent these real world inspirations
became, and the more developed Middle
Earth’s dwarvish culture became. It’s impos-
sible to tell how much of the antisemitism in
The Hobbit was intentional, and whether
Tolkien’s personal beliefs changed along
with his portrayal of the dwarves. But the
good news for fans is that we still have just
as many positive portrayals of the dwarves
as negative ones (in fact, there’s probably
more positive portrayals if you include the
later, more obscure texts.)
And even better is the fact that the Peter
Jackson adaptations avoided the earlier an-
tisemitism - The Hobbit movies’ dwarves are
clearly more influenced by the characteriza-
tions of The Lord of the Rings than those in
The Hobbit. Which means that there isn’t
much work to be done in the fandom today
(other than to remain aware of the hurtful na-
ture of these earlier portrayals, and if possi-
ble to avoid them.
35
 DWARVES, JEWS, AND NUMENOREANS
When discussing this topic, I’ve seen some peo-
ple argue that, sure, there are some antisemitic
stereotypes in the dwarves (especially in The Hob-
bit.) But it seems like you need to go looking for
those comparisons - maybe Tolkien didn’t connect
the dwarves to Jewish people at all, and this is all
just a case of over-analyzation?
A fair argument, if not for a couple statements
from Tolkien himself that directly link the two peo-
ples. The first is from a letter written in 1955, in
which Tolkien discusses the recent radio adapta-
tion of Lord of the Rings. He mentions Gloin’s “ex-
aggerated” German accent, and says: “I do think
of the 'Dwarves' like Jews: at once native and
alien in their habitations, speaking the languages
of the country, but with an accent due to their own
private tongue.”
Then, in a 1971 interview with BBC, Tolkien dis-
cussed how he characterized his various races in
Middle Earth, saying: “I didn't intend it but when
you've got these people on your hands you've got
to make them different haven't you... Therefore the
Elves are immortal in a sense... The dwarves of
course are quite obviously - wouldn't you say that
in many ways they remind you of the Jews? Their
words are Semitic obviously, constructed to be Se-
mitic. Hobbits are just rustic English people.”
36
In both quotes Tolkien only specifically references
the linguistic similarities between dwarves and
real life Jewish people, but it still proves that, in
his mind, the two groups were linked.
It’s also interesting to note, however, that the
dwarves weren’t the only Middle Earth culture
somewhat inspired by Jewish people! In a 1956
letter to Robert Murray, Tolkien writes “The
Númenóreans thus began a great new good, and
as monotheists; but like the Jews (only more so)
with only one physical centre of 'worship': the sum-
mit of the mountain Meneltarma.” This adds
weight to the general rule that, while Tolkien of
course drew inspiration from real-world cultures
while creating Middle Earth, he did not mean for
any one group to somehow “represent” another -
otherwise “assigning” Jewish culture to two differ-
ent societies doesn’t make sense.
However, there is one very interesting characteris-
tic that all three of these groups - the dwarves, the
Jews, and the Númenoreans - share, and that is
that their cultural history is somewhat dominated
by exile and diaspora. It’s very possible that this
aspect of dwarvish and Númenorean history was
partly why Tolkien consciously connected them to
Jewish culture.
RACISM AND MIDDLE EARTH: V

TOLKIEN AND REAL-

WORLD RACISM
I said from the beginning that I wasn’t planning on get-
ting into any historical/societal context for any racist be-
liefs that Tolkien had. But, since there are some very
relevant quotes in Tolkien’s own letters on some “real-
world” racist institutions, and since such quotes are of-
ten used by some fans to dismiss any racist aspects in
Tolkien’s works, I’m including this section on Tolkien’s
own words on real-world racism.
TOLKIEN AND ORCS
While Tolkien’s physical inspiration for the orcs is undeniably racist motley alliance of orcs, beasts, demons, plain naturally honest men,
(see Part 3 of this series), it’s worth noting that his philosophical in- and angels.”
spiration for them was decidedly less so. Tolkien mentions “real
(Many of Tolkien’s war-time letters reflect this general idea about the
world orcs” in several of his letters, but the best quote is from a 1944
good and evil on both sides of the battlefront, by the way. If you’re
letter to Christopher Tolkien:
the type of reader that places emphasis on such things, they can of-
“Yes, I think the orcs as real a creation as anything in 'realistic' fic- fer some interesting insight into what Tolkien probably envisioned for
tion: your vigorous words well describe the tribe; only in real life they the “enemy men” of Middle Earth.)
are on both sides, of course. For 'romance' has grown out of 'alle-
gory', and its wars are still derived from the 'inner war' of allegory in
which good is on one side and various modes of badness on the
other. In real (exterior) life men are on both sides: which means a

38
TOLKIEN AND NAZISM
Fortunately for the Tolkien scholar, many of
his published letters were actually written
during World War II, and so there are actu-
ally several mentions of Nazism, Hitler, and
Germany during the war that make for (I
think) a pretty fascinating read. But there are
a few that come up most often in discus-
sions of Tolkien and racism.
The first is an incident in 1938 when The
Hobbit was in the process of being trans-
lated into German. (Only a year before
World War II started, but several years after
Hitler and Nazism had risen to power in Ger-
many.) Apparently the German publisher
sent a letter to Tolkien inquiring as to his heri-
tage, and Tolkien sent the following note to
his own English publisher:
“I must say the enclosed letter from Rütten
and Loening is a bit stiff. Do I suffer this im-
pertinence because of the possession of a
German name, or do their lunatic laws re-
quire a certificate of 'arisch' origin from all
persons of all countries?
Personally I should be inclined to refuse to
give any Bestätigung (although it happens
that I can), and let a German translation go
hang. In any case I should object strongly to reply that I regret that I appear to have no
any such declaration appearing in print. I do ancestors of that gifted people.”
not regard the (probable) absence of all Jew-
and
ish blood as necessarily honourable; and I
have many Jewish friends, and should re- “I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to
gret giving any colour to the notion that I regard my German name with pride, and
subscribed to the wholly pernicious and un- continued to do so throughout the period of
scientific race-doctrine. the late regrettable war, in which I served in
the English army. I cannot, however, forbear
You are primarily concerned, and I cannot
to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant
jeopardize the chance of a German publica-
inquiries of this sort are to become the rule
tion without your approval. So I submit two
in matters of literature, then the time is not
drafts of possible answers.”
far distant when a German name will no
Only one of these two drafts was saved by longer be a source of pride.”
Allen & Unwin, so it’s assumed that this isn’t
So, if nothing else, it’s stated very clearly
the letter that was ultimately sent to Ger-
that Tolkien did not agree with Nazi doctrine.
many. But even so, it was still written by Tolk-
And Tolkien’s frustration with the way Hitler
ien with the intention of being sent, so it still
and Nazism portrayed Germanic mythology
counts as a sincere reaction, I’d say, and in-
and culture only increased when World War
cludes a few very interesting quotes:
II actually started (a subject that I touched
“I regret that I am not clear as to what you on a bit more in the previous section on
intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extrac- dwarves and Jewish stereotypes.)
tion: that is Indo-iranian; as far as I am
aware none of my ancestors spoke Flindus-
tani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects.
But if I am to understand that you are enquir-
ing whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only
39
TOLKIEN AND APARTHEID
Tolkien was actually born in South Africa, and lived there until he
was three. The only time he mentions apartheid, though, is in a
letter written to his son in 1944. Christopher Tolkien was, at the
time, undergoing military training in South Africa. We don’t know
what Christopher’s letter said, but Tolkien’s reply included this
quote:

“As for what you say or hint of 'local' conditions: I knew of them. I
don't think they have much changed (even for the worse). I used
to hear them discussed by my mother; and have ever since taken
a special interest in that part of the world. The treatment of colour
nearly always horrifies anyone going out from Britain, & not only
in South Africa. Unfort. not many retain that generous sentiment
for long.”

So, again, at the very least we know that he wasn’t a supporter of

apartheid. Though many historians would argue that he appar-
ently held a rather inaccurate - though charming - view of his own
countrymen’s historical “treatment of colour.”

Anyway, the point of this section is to basically point out that,

when it comes to discussing racism, it’s never just “Is This Rac-
ist? Check Yes or No.” Tolkien could disagree with apartheid and
Nazism and still be influenced by racism, just as some can disap-
prove of rape or female circumcision and still be influenced by
sexism. These traits aren’t all-or-nothing, and acknowledging that
Tolkien could have been worse doesn’t mean that he couldn’t
have been better.
40
RACISM AND MIDDLE EARTH: VI

IN CONCLUSION
Well, I’ve finally run out of things to say.

Ha, yeah right! This (very short) conclusion section con-

tains no research, but is really just me wrapping up the
series and giving you all a mission on what to do now
that it’s over.
SO, WHAT’S THE VERDICT?
The point of this series is really not to “decide” whether or not Tolk-
ien and Middle Earth are Good or Bad. My goal was to collect
and present as much research and primary source information on
the topic as possible. Despite the fact that this is, you know, the
Conclusion section, I’m actually leaving all conclusions of that
sort for each individual reader to come to on their own.

But I will say this: it is not a simple issue. As you’ve seen, there
are parts of Tolkien’s writings that are undeniably touched by ra-
cism. But there are also parts that are pretty great. And the entire
question is also muddled by the way that the most successful in-
terpretations (especially the Peter Jackson movies) have shaped
our perception of the issue (by way of casting, costuming, etc.)
So, to be honest, I’d be suspicious of anyone who comes away
from this series with an absolute Racist or Not Racist verdict. The
real judgment call is how much racism you’re willing to tolerate
before you no longer enjoy a story (and there is no right or univer-
sal answer to that.)

So, think on it for a few days. Let the information percolate, as it

were. And, of course, always remember that it absolutely okay to
love a thing and still acknowledge its flaws. Pretending that Mid-
dle Earth is perfect is not loving it, and fanworks inspired by
this kind of denial will only hurt the fandom in the long run.
And speaking of fanworks...

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 YOUR MISSION, SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO
ACCEPT IT:

If you’ve read this entire series, you must love Middle Earth, because - wow, this se-
ries got really long. So, kudos to you. And now I can safely assume that you both a
dedicated fan and an informed one. After reading this series you know where the
most problematic parts of Tolkien’s writings are (with regards to racism, that is), and
you also know where the most potential is.

That means that you have the opportunity - nay, the responsibility - to improve our
fandom. You can do this in a few different ways:

1. Create fanworks with this series in mind. This could be artwork, fancasts, fanfic-
tion, meta, etc etc. If you create anything involving Middle Earth, take a minute to
consider the issues described in this series. Portray more characters (especially
those with canonical support for this) as non-white. Be mindful of hurtful stereo-
types in much of the characterization of dwarves and the “men of darkness.” Re-
member the Numenorean bias. Create works that highlight the best parts of Tolk-
ien’s work, and works that improve, fix, or alter the worst parts.

2. Promote fanworks that fit the above criteria.

3. Inform other fans. You can do this simply by reblogging this series, or by sharing
the information you’ve learned with others. Though keep in mind that the Tolkien
fandom includes a dizzying diversity of fans when it comes to “education” (while
some fans have trudged their way through thousands of pages of obscure texts,
others only know Middle Earth through the movies), so it’s likely that most “prob-
lematic” fanworks are the result of a lack of awareness. (So be kind!)

43
REFERENCES, CREDITS, WHERE TO FIND ME, ETC.
I think I referenced nearly every work of Tolkien’s in this series, and
did my best to include citations within the chapters themselves. As
for the letters, I used quotes from letters #29, 30, 45, 61, 71, 81, 156,
176, and 210. And the interview about the dwarvish language was in
1971 with BBC’s Dennis Gerrolt. If you’re ever trying to find a spe-
cific quote that I used here, or a fact I cited, or whatever, feel free to
contact me directly, and I’d be happy to give you more specific di-
rections on how to find it!
As far as contacting me goes, you can always find me at
askmiddlearth.tumblr.com (a blog where I regularly answer ques-
tions about Middle Earth, by the way, in case that interests you.) Or,
if you’d prefer, you can email me at askmiddlearth@gmail.com.
Finally, the art credits! Most of the photographs are stills from the Pe-
ter Jackson adaptations. The photos of J.R.R. Tolkien were just
found on Google images (the buff of Tolkien’s head can apparently
be found at Oxford.) The maps are excerpts from Karen Wynn Fon-
stad’s Atlas of Middle Earth (though I added the shading/color-
coding myself.)
If you’re looking to read more about this topic, you’re in luck! I’ve put
together a collection of essays, articles, and blog posts written by
other people about Tolkien, Middle Earth, and racism. If you have
something to contribute, please let me know, I’ll be happy to add it
to the list! And thanks so much for reading this. :)
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