Race in Middle Earth

In a very lengthy letter written to Forrest J Ackerman in which Tolkien comically but classically politely eviscerates a screenplay for a proposed The Lord of the Rings film adaptation, later published in 1981 in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien as Letter 210, he at one point describes the orcs as “squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes; in fact degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely Mongol-types.” He writes this in response to the fact that screenwriter Morton Grady Zimmerman describes orcs as beaked and feathered, which is not remotely what Tolkien had described in the novel or in his notes.

This depiction of orcs as Asian is consistent with Tolkien’s writings. They are frequently described as having “slant eyes” and some types of orcs have dark skin. I will note here that orcs as Asians is far from a one-to-one correlation. Tolkien uses racial coding to describe these creatures, but they aren’t stand-ins. Most orcish features have no correspondence to those of Asian people or Western stereotypes thereof.

This is most notable in the language of the orcs. While the languages of elves, dwarves, men, and hobbits take great influence from European languages, the languages of orcs and Uruk-hai (they don’t have their own language, but a pidgin of other languages in Middle Earth, mostly a deconstructed version of Westron, the language the Hobbits speak, plus lots of the Black Speech of Mordor) patently do not take influence from Eastern languages or stereotypes thereof. Instead the sounds are among Tolkien’s strangest and most expressive. Listen to this reading in Black Speech, and tell me if you think it sounds like Chinese.

It’s also worth noting that Tolkien is not talking about Asians per se, but the West’s historical perceptions of Asian people. Note that he doesn’t say that the orcs look like “the least lovely Mongol-types.” He says they look like “degraded versions” of what Europeans have regarded as unattractive Asian features. He’s thinking about the way that Europeans have thought about foreign peoples which makes sense because Tolkien had set out to write a European mythology. I don’t judge anyone for finding this depiction unsavory in our modern world, but the context is important.

Another point of contention in the Lord of the Rings is the fact that the men who fight for Sauron are largely Easterlings and Southrons, people who are described as having darker skin and correspond to south-east Asia and northern Africa. Most of the Easterlings, who are black, whom we meet are evil and in cahoots with Morgoth or Sauron depending on the era. However, Bór’s folk are a large group of Easterlings who fight on the good side. Many of them are described as noble just as Tolkien praises any other characters.

The Southrons are south-east Asian. They are dark skinned, and in the latter part of the third age, very evil. They are pretty obviously Indian, and many parts of their depiction haven’t aged supremely well. It is worth noting that while they are the bad guys in the time period depicted in The Lord of the Rings, they are often good guys in different eras of Middle Earth. They just had leaders who were corrupted by Sauron who led them into darkness. There are many Southron heroes. So while I think we can criticize the stereotypes used here, I don’t think that this depiction is quite as simple as people make it out to be. Also remember that many, many enemy groups of men throughout the Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings are white and described in similar fashion.

Dwarfs by Alan Lee

In a 1964 BBC radio interview with Dennis Gueroult, Tolkien says the following about dwarves: “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 Semitic.” And he’s certainly correct about this. The dwarves have many stereotypically Jewish features, including an unending lust for wealth beyond anything. It is worth noting that the dwarves are usually the good guys, and Tolkien always has a lot of sympathy for them. In letter 176, he also compares the dwarfs to Jews in that they are both peoples cruelly dispossessed of their lands forced to wander the earth and adopt the languages of other lands, both “at once natives and aliens in their habitations, speaking the languages of the country, but with an accent due to their own private tongue.” There’s lots of room to criticize the way that Tolkien depicts Jewish people through the dwarves in his work, but I think that he was genuinely trying to represent Jewish people.

There is also some explicitly anti-racist messaging in Tolkien’s work. Much of the Lord of the Rings deals with the contentious relationship between Elves and Dwarves in the relationship between Legolas and Gimli. Both carry negative stereotypes about the other, but they learn to respect one another and appreciate the other’s culture. Prejudice against Hobbits is often depicted and criticized. The Númenóreans of Gondor fell because of a Hitlerian attempt at establishing racial purity.

Tolkien does use racial coding to create his world and often relies on stereotypes. There is room for criticism. He was trying to replicate European mythology and borrowed many things from it. Many values in Tolkien’s work are ones he himself did not hold. His work has ideas like “pure bloodlines” and praises hereditary monarchy. Tolkien, despite being a monarchist, was skeptical of these ideas, but saw them as important parts of a genuine mythology. He was the first person to try to do this, and his work isn’t perfect, but I don’t think it ought to be condemned out of hand.

As a final note, Tolkien unequivocally hated racism. When his works were to be published in Germany in 1938, he was asked whether he was of Aryan descent. Otherwise, he could not be published. He wrote the following to a colleague in Letter 29:

I must say the enclosed letter from Rütten and Loening is a bit stiff. Do I suffer this impertinence because of the possession of a German name, or do their lunatic laws require 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 any such declaration appearing in print. I do not regard the (probable) absence of all Jewish blood as necessarily honourable; and I have many Jewish friends, and should regret giving any colour to the notion that I subscribed to the wholly pernicious and unscientific race-doctrine.

You are primarily concerned, and I cannot jeopardize the chance of a German publication without your approval. So I submit two drafts of possible answers.

He wrote this unsent letter to the Germans on the subject, but his colleague eventually convinced him to write a more neutral version.

Dear Sirs,

Thank you for your letter. .... I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Flindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people. My great-great-grandfather came to England in the eighteenth century from Germany: the main part of my descent is therefore purely English, and I am an English subject – which should be sufficient. I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to regard my German name with pride, and continued to do so throughout the period of the late regrettable war, in which I served in the English army. I cannot, however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this son are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.

Your enquiry is doubtless made in order to comply with the laws of your own country, but that this should be held to apply to the subjects of another state would be improper, even if it had (as it has not) any bearing whatsoever on the merits of my work or its suitability for publication, of which you appear to have satisfied yourselves without reference to my Abstammung.

I trust you will find this reply satisfactory, and remain yours faithfully J. R. R. Tolkien.