Last week, in the first part of my investigation into whether the work of J.R.R. Tolkien is racist, I examined the creatures of "Middle Earth." In this, the second part, I wish to focus exclusively on "Men," understood in the legendarium of Tolkien as the ancestors of human beings today. As with the first part, I hope I have written this in such a way that its argument can be followed by anyone who has not read any of Tolkien’s books and only has some familiarity with the onscreen adaptations of them. As far as a charge of racism against Tolkien’s work is concerned, there seems to be some substance for it in terms of Men. There are depictions of conflicts in which the “good” side is made up of white men and those fighting for “evil” are of a darker complexion. Furthermore, there is something akin to a “master race” in Tolkien’s mythology which is also white. Yet, as with the creatures of Middle Earth, I feel that any charge of racism against Tolkien results in a qualified no. For once again when the issue is more deeply investigated, the problematic elements are revealed as effectively superficial with the true message of Tolkien’s work actually manifesting the common humanity of all Men.
To understand the nature of "Men" in Tolkien’s mythology, it is first necessary to understand their history. As touched upon in the first piece, Tolkien chronologically divides his whole legendarium into three “ages.” The first age is not covered in any onscreen adaption of Tolkien’s work, but "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" is set in the Second Age whereas "The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim," "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" are all set in the Third Age.
In the First Age, Men come into being, though in this era, they are relatively weak and elves are dominant. In this age, the reaction of Men to elves determines their status. The most culturally advanced among Men are the so-called “Elf-friends” or Edain, and their superiority consists in their recognition of the superiority of the Elves and their willingness to learn from and support the latter. Other Men remain culturally less advanced by keeping themselves away from Elves.
The support of the Edain for the elves is so significant that at the beginning of the Second Age, they are divinely rewarded for it with “greater wisdom and power and life more enduring than any others of mortal race have possessed.” They are also given a special land of their own in which to dwell – the great island of Numenor. As such, the Edain, even in the First Age and especially in the Second Age, could be regarded as a “master race” in being indisputably the most advanced Men of Middle Earth. They are also white.
Yet, these bare facts do not really support a charge of racism against Tolkien’s work, for once again, the spirit behind them refutes racism. It is not through arrogance but rather through the humility of recognizing the superior Elvish cultural achievement that the Edain are rewarded with becoming the greatest of Men. Then, Tolkien shows that over time, as hubris takes hold of Numenor, most of the Numenoreans come to resent the Elvish superiority and regard themselves as equals of the Elves. Yet the Númenόrean superiority being the result of a divine gift and not, as in racist theories, a biological advantage, it can be rescinded. Gradually this is what occurs, for the moral transgression of the Numenoreans comes to result in a diminution of their lifespans. Then there is the relationship of Númenor to the Men that remained on "Middle Earth." While keen to use their greater knowledge to help their distant kin, the Men of Numenor remain a superior people. However, when, as with the racist ideologies of our world used to justify the colonial subjugation of peoples regarded as “culturally backward,” the Numenoreans turn to domination over other Men, this is also mirrored in their declining lifespans. As such, the Numenoreans are the greatest of Men until they begin to arrogantly regard themselves as such, which actually causes them to decline. Furthermore, any supposed superiority of the Numenoreans does not prevent them from the ultimate disgrace – that of being corrupted by Sauron into bringing about their own destruction.
Although the downfall of Numenor toward the end of the Second Age is a total one, not all Numenoreans are destroyed in it. Some Numenorean refugees who have resisted hubris and remained “elf-friends” flee to Middle Earth where with their superior culture they are the greatest "Free Men." They are known as the Dunedain. But their being descended from “elf-friends” does not guarantee these Men a secure status either. The Dunedain are just as capable of, through pride or lust for power, being seduced by evil as the Númenόreans. This causes a concomitant decline in their actual power in the Third Age. This is only reversible through righteous action, such as, individually, in the case of the Dunedain Aragorn.
Also, it ought to be noted that whilst the Dunedain are white, they, as a Mediterranean-type people having what the Tolkien expert Robert Foster notes as “dark hair and grey eyes,” are not the fairest Men in "Middle Earth." The Viking-like Rohirrim, numbered amongst the “Free Peoples” are fairer in complexion than the greater Dunedain, thus there is no question of a racist racial gradation of peoples in Tolkien’s work. However, a key enemy of the Dunedain of the South are the Men of Harad, or Haradrim. They are darker skinned than the Dunedain, and the depiction of the “good” Dunedain fighting the Haradrim on the side of “evil” does suggest racist imagery, especially in its having echoes of the West at war with the East that has disturbed our world history for millennia.
The Haradrim as dark-skinned pachyderm-riding people are clearly reflective of the inhabitants of the area stretching from the Middle East to the north of the Indian subcontinent. The hard consonants of their name also suggest an Arab connection. That in "The Lord of the Rings," the Haradrim come to war in support of the evil Sauron is indisputable. Whether this is a racist representation though, a deeper analysis will show.
The Haradrim are in focus in the fourth part of Tolkien’s "The Lord of the Rings" just after the Hobbits Sam and Frodo have been captured by Faramir and his band of Dunedain Gondor warriors. One of these warriors, Damrod, speaks of the Haradrim referring to them as “Southrons.” The “enemy” and “him” in his speech are, of course, Sauron and the places mentioned are places in the "Middle Earth:"
"Aye, curse the Southrons!’ said Damrod. "Tis said that there were dealings of old between Gondor and the kingdoms of the Harad in the Far South; though there was never friendship. In those days our bounds were away south beyond the mouth of the Anduin and Umbar, the nearest of their realms, acknowledged our sway. But that is long since. 'Tis many lives of Men since any passed to or fro between us. Now of late we have learned that the enemy has been among them and they are gone over to him, or back to Him – they were ever ready to His will – as have so many also in the East."
Then a little later when the Dunedain and Haradrim clash, Sam sees a warrior of Harad shot dead by an arrow close by. It is then stated that: "It was Sam’s first view of a battle of Men against Men and he did not like it much. He was glad he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the man’s name was and where he came from; and was he really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the really long march from his home; and if he would not really have rather stayed there in peace."
The account of the character of the Haradrim given by Damrod is fairly damning. Yet, read closely, it is also problematic. Damrod claims to know of the dealings of the Haradrim with Sauron, while at the same time revealing generations have passed since direct contact existed between his people and the Haradrim. Thus, his claims are hearsay.
Of course, Haradrim are joining an attack on Gondor. But what is unclear here is how many are involved. It is possible that the force represents a popular movement on the part of Harad, but it is equally possible that it represents a minority view. Moreover, it may be that their fighting on the side of Sauron has more to do with ancient enmities and potential resentments against Gondor, including Damrod’s admission that part of Harad was once a colony of it, than any tendency to evil.
Even more significantly, the claim that the Men of Harad “were ever ready to His will” is made by Damrod, himself a descendent of the Numenoreans, shows an element of unconscious hypocrisy considering the history of that island. The fact is that Sauron is a master at corrupting Men. He corrupts the Númenόreans, thus even if he has corrupted the Men of Harad, this does not warrant a racist regard of them as lesser Men more susceptible to evil.
Then, there are the musings of Sam. These are highly significant, as Sam is the moral anchor of the whole of The Lord of the Rings. That Sam reacts to the slain Harad warrior in the way he does argues against a racist reading of Tolkien. For racism is dehumanising, while Sam, shaken by the warrior’s death, reflects upon the victim’s personality, fully humanising him.
Sam effectively ignores Damrod’s account by doubting that the man before him was a slave of evil. Considering the journey he himself is on, Sam is, of course, in no doubt that the Haradrim are on the wrong side. But, he seeks a possible explanation for why the dead man was there in his having been misled or threatened into the expedition. The treatment of the dead man of Harad is thus very different from that of the numerous dead Orcs in Tolkien’s work who are effectively swordfodder and merit no posthumous consideration.
Thus, whilst there is a skin-color contrast between the men of Gondor and those of Harad, with the former being white and the latter having a Middle Eastern or South Asian complexion, and although the men of Gondor are fighting against the Haradrim for what is right, this is hardly a racist picture. For the Haradrim, through the eyes of Sam are fully humanized and shown compassion and their fighting for Sauron makes them no different from the earlier Numenoreans.
The recently released film "The War of the Rohirrim" while also set in the Third Age focuses on a different time and place of conflict in which two different peoples can also be distinguished by their appearance. Once again, the “good” people are of a lighter complexion than the “bad” ones. The former are the Rohirrim with their Teutonic complexions, whereas the latter are the Dunlendings, which in the film look Eurasian.
Moreover, from Tolkien’s own writings it is clear that the Dunlendings are easy to distinguish from the Rohirrim by appearance alone. Indeed, their name originates in the Rohirrim designating this difference. Tolkien writes that “Dunland and Dunlending are the names that the Rohirrim gave to them, because they were swarthy and dark-haired.” It is also through appearance that Freca, a rival of the King of Rohan Helm Hammerhand, implicitly has his Rohirrim ancestry questioned. For, Tolkien states that although Freca “claimed descent” from an earlier king of Rohan, “he had, men said, much Dunlendish blood and was dark haired.” Then, in terms of behavior, Freca, his son Wulf, and the Dunlendings are depicted as somewhat savage. As such, they are of a darker complexion than the Rohirrim and in moral and cultural terms, their inferior. This once again implies a racist depiction in Tolkien’s work.
Yet, despite their depiction in the new film, which may owe something to Anime traditions, the Dunlendings whilst of a darker complexion than the Rohirrim, are nevertheless to be regarded as white. This is because in being native to the area in which they lived, their distant ethnic origins are in the same peoples as that of the Dúnedain and the Rohirrim themselves.
More significantly, in Tolkien’s "The Lord of the Rings," as with the Haradrim, the Dunlendings are not subject to racist dehumanization but rather their humanity is also recognized. Following the Battle of Helms Deep won by the Rohirrim, many of the Dunlendings are taken prisoner. They are not put to death by Théoden, the King of Rohan, who regards them as having “been deluded” into evil, the only difference here to the earlier examples being that the deceiver is the evil Saruman rather than Sauron. Moreover, the enmity of the Dunlendings to the Rohirrim is provided as a justification. As I noted in my film review of "The War of the Rohirrim," Foster reveals of the Dunlendings that “in the third age they hated the Rohirrim, who had driven them out of the northern valleys of the Ered Nimrais and the plains of western Rohan, so they frequently attacked that country.” So, once again, they are humanized, not as savage people addicted to violence, but one motivated by a natural resentment at having been dispossessed of their land.
I would like to close by returning to the onscreen Tolkien Universe with which I opened the first piece in this two-part essay. In racial terms, in his onscreen depiction of Tolkien’s works, Peter Jackson in his "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy obviously felt that he was being loyal to Tolkien in bringing his world to life through an all-white cast as far as the heroic side was concerned. The War of the Rohirrim has similarly depicted its heroes as exclusively white, despite those voicing them not being so.
On the other hand, "The Rings of Power" series differs by having an ethnically diverse cast of heroes onscreen. My own feeling is that this series has taken a better approach, but this should not be seen as a slight to Jackson. Indeed, I feel that Jackson’s cinematic success helps explain why the series has been cast this way. For, as I made clear in my last piece, it was Tolkien’s aim to create a historic mythology for the English people. Yet, now it is clear he has achieved far more than that. He has in fact created a mythology with a reach not only into contemporary multicultural Britain but also across the globe. As a global mythology, it seems fitting that any cast to embody it onscreen reflects this in its wider ethnic makeup.
It also reflects what I hope I have successfully shown in this two-part investigation – that is that while Tolkien’s work can fairly be critiqued as racist on a superficial viewing, a deeper reading reveals its spirit which is antipathetic to the ideas upon which racism is based.