By this sword, I rule!

» Dis - Comments on civilization and barbarism

First of all, Mr. Martinez, I would like to thank you for the many interesting and tantalizing articles. I am intrigued to find someone else who sees correlations and connections to life outside of Middle-earth. Secondly, I'd like to say that I have not thought out my following words very clearly. This is just my knee jerk response. Thank you for your time.

You concluded this article with comments on renewal. There are a few examples of outsiders helping a nation renew itself. Ancient Egypt was infused with barbaric vigor many times. Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Vikings, and Normans all successfully invaded Britain and added their cultural strengths. I don't know how many waves of peoples moved east through the Indus Valley and displaced the occupants. Though in contrast, China, which possesses the world's longest continuous culture, has been repeatedly invaded from the north, has always absorbed the invaders. The Hyksos imposed their culture and maybe religion on the Egyptians. Celtic England, Roman England, Saxon England, the Danelaw and Norman England all differed greatly in culture, language and religion. In China, Khitan, Mongol, and Manchurian conquerors adopted Chinese language, culture and religion as quickly as they could.

The Edain did not fight the Eldar, but they quickly saw how adopting their languages, customs, religion, and culture would improve their lot. (Adopting their enemy certainly did not improve their lot in the short run.)

I suppose the Noldor (outsiders) and the Sindar could be compared to the Romans the Greeks. The Romans were their overlords, but they adopted much of Greek culture in order to prosper. So not only can a civilized nation benefit from outside renewal, but a barbaric nation may benefit from civilized culture and language.

The definitions of barbarian or outsider are defined by barriers. These may be linguistic, cultural, religious, ethnic, or geographic. You touched on the first three in your article. The fourth is most obvious by the Numenoreans. At the beginning of the Second Age, they defined barbarism as any humans not living on their island. In the First Age, the Edain defined it as men living east of the Ered Luin. The Chinese always defined it as anyone north of the Great Wall.

Well, these are my random thoughts. Thank you for your time.

-- posted by Dis

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