Their failures and tribulations are only barely mentioned in The Lord of the Rings but it is nonetheless the Elves who made the Rings of Power Sauron had, in fact, seduced Celebrimbor and his contemporaries to “the dark side”. The Noldor fell into great evil not once but twice. But there are light-skinned evil folk as well.
Take that for what it’s worth.Īll the “evil” peoples are dark-skinned The orcs are sometimes cited as dark-skinned servants of evil, and certainly many of them are described as having black skin or swarthy. But Sam, the dark-skinned hobbit, is said by Tolkien to be the real hero of the story. Of the Harfoots, the most numerous of hobbits, Tolkien wrote: “The Harfoots were browner of skin, smaller, and shorter, and they were beardless and bootless their hands and feet were neat and nimble and they preferred highlands and hillsides.” Analysis of the name Fallohide suggests that this smallest group of hobbits had the palest skin.
And though the Dunlendings themselves serve Saruman it turns out they were deceived by him and used as pawns against the Rohirrim, because of the ancient enmity between the two peoples.ĭwarves and some hobbits have darker complexions than the Dunedain so it’s hard to picture them as “light-skinned”. The men of Bree are said to be related to the swarthy-skinned Dunlendings. Some of the folk of Gondor are swarthy men from the coastlands they march to the defense of Minas Tirith. Aragorn, on the other hand, is said to be “weather-beaten” with a “pale stern face” - which seem contradictory to each other. Some of the good characters such as Goldberry and Galadriel are described as being quite pale. Let’s take a look at them.Īll the “good” peoples are light-skinned In fact, no one ever explains what “light-skinned” means. I cannot list all of the false statements similar to the above that are used to condemn The Lord of the Rings as a racist story, but these are some of the most favored accusations.
However, many people who ask this question may really mean to ask, “Is The Lord of the Rings a racist work of fiction?” Although some people claim that is the case they are mistaken for J.R.R. Q: Is It True There is Racism in The Lord of the Rings?ĪNSWER: Yes, it is true there is racism in The Lord of the Rings. Racists in Tolkien’s fiction always lose or change in the end. Tolkien used racism in his Middle-earth stories as a sign of moral failure.