XPost: alt.books.cs-lewis, rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: ppaulshoward@insightbb.com   
      
   "Steve Morrison"  wrote in message   
   news:131q9j15hht1380@corp.supernews.com...   
   > Steve Hayes wrote:   
   >> I recently posted  a note on my blog about the number of visitors from   
   >> Muslim   
   >> countries at some web pages I maintain about Christianity and literature.   
   >> Someone commented in response that there had been discussion on the web   
   >> about   
   >> Tolkien's orcs representing Arab Islamic armies. That was new to me. I   
   >> have heard people say that the Calormenes in the Narnia books represent   
   >> Muslims, and some have even indignantly claimed that they are a   
   >> deliberate   
   >> attempt to denigrate Muslims -- except that the Calormenes' religion in   
   >> no way   
   >> resembles Islam, though it might bear some resemblance to pre-Islamic   
   >> religions of the Middle East. Has anyone heard of this debate about orcs   
   >> and Islam?   
   >   
   > Yes, I have.   
   >   
   > I've seen it suggested, in particular, that the fact that the Orcs   
   > fought with curved scimitars, in contrast to the straight swords   
   > used by the heroes, associates them with medieval Moslems. I've   
   > also seen it argued (but don't remember when or where) that Mordor   
   > geographically resembles Turkey -- and this was explicitly linked   
   > to the idea that Tolkien harbored some form of anti-Moslem prejudice.   
   > Hammond and Scull's /Reader's Guide/ briefly mentions the scimitar   
   > issue under the entry on "Prejudice and Racism".   
   >   
   > Another contributing factor may be the siege of Minas Tirith;   
   > it's been argued that the battle was modeled on both the fall of   
   > Constantinople to the Turks in 1453 and the Turkish siege of Vienna   
   > in 1683. These parallels are also discussed by Hammond and Scull   
   > in their /Reader's Companion/, in the entry for "848 (III: 124).   
   > And in that hour the great battle of the field of Gondor was over"   
   >   
   > But I can't seriously see any of this as much more than the general   
   > picture of northwest Europe being invaded from the south and east,   
   > which Tolkien and Lewis inherited from traditional sources.   
      
   I would note that by the time of Lewis and Tolkien, Turkey was not a danger   
   to Europe and hadn't been for some years.  So its hard for me to see why   
   Tolkien would have viewed "Muslim Armies" as something to be feared.   
      
      
   --   
   *   
   Paul Howard   
   *   
   Drak Bibliophile   
   *   
   (Sometimes The Dragon Wins!)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)