Posted: September 07, 1999 at 21:10:08: by Jon
They basically don't know any background about Tolkien's work. If they did, they'd know this: the world Tolkien created was supposed to be the history of the real world. OK, let's look at geography now. The Shire's England, Gondor's what was the Roman empire, therefore lands like Harad, etc are Africa. And in Africa a great deal of the population is black. Sauron goes into that region and takes over, people in that area become ensnared in his power by fear. I believe Tolkien makes it quite clear in a revelation by Sam or Frodo (I believe one of them is looking at one of the warriors in the Oliphaunt battle and seems to realize they aren't really evil, just under the influence of Sauron, don't have LotR with me right now though). So basically, if they knew the background info, they'd know that it's pretty much geography that dictates the color skin of the good and bad in Middle-earth. Jon
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