XPost: alt.books.cs-lewis, rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: theswain@operamail.com   
      
   Steve Morrison wrote:   
   > 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.   
      
   Yes, I'd agree.  I've started a paper that someday (5-6 years hence)   
   I'll probably finish that posits that the origin of the Sothrons in   
   Tolkien's philological studies of certain words and poems; the   
   "Easterlings" drawing on the fear of Huns, Goths, Turks, and Mongols all   
   of whom invaded Europe from the East.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)