Editing Men in Middle-earth (section)

== Analysis ==

=== Ambition for power ===
{{further|Addiction to power in The Lord of the Rings}}

Kocher writes that the [[Rings of Power]] reflected the characteristics of the race that was to wear them. Those for Men "stimulated and implemented their ambition for power". Whereas the tough Dwarves resisted Sauron's domination, and the Elves hid [[Three Rings|their Rings]] from him, with Men his plan "works perfectly", turning the ambitious kings into [[Ringwraiths]], the nine Black Riders. With the [[One Ring]] to rule them, Sauron gains complete control over them, and they become his most powerful servants. Kocher comments that for Tolkien, the exercise of personal [[free will]], the most precious gift, is "the distinguishing mark of his individuality". The wise, like the [[Wizards (Middle-earth)|Wizard]] [[Gandalf]] and the Elf-queen [[Galadriel]], therefore avoid putting pressure on anybody. In contrast, Sauron is evil exactly because he seeks to dominate the wills of others; the Ringwraiths, the nine fallen kings of Men, are the clearest exemplars of the process.{{sfn|Kocher|1974|pp=55–57}}

Kocher states that the leading Man in ''The Lord of the Rings'' is Aragorn, though critics often overlooked him in favour of Frodo as [[protagonist]].{{sfn|Kocher|1974|p=117. "By some critics, like Roger Sale, he is completely neglected in favour of Frodo as central hero;"}} Aragorn is one of two Men in the [[Fellowship of the Ring (characters)|Fellowship of the Ring]], the nine walkers from the Free Peoples opposed to the nine Black Riders. The other is [[Boromir]], elder son of the Steward of Gondor, and the two Men are sharply opposed. Both are ambitious, and both intend one day to rule Gondor. Boromir means to fight valiantly, to save Gondor, with any help he can get, and to inherit the Stewardship. Aragorn knows he is in the line of kings by his ancestry, but he is unknown in Gondor. When they meet at the [[Council of Elrond]], they dispute who has been holding back Sauron. Aragorn presents the shards of the broken sword of his ancestor, Elendil, and asks Boromir if he wants the House of Elendil (the line of kings) to return. Boromir evasively{{sfn|Kocher|1974|pp=125–143}} replies that he would welcome the sword. The One Ring is then shown to the Council. Boromir at once thinks of using it himself. Elrond explains how dangerous the Ring is; Boromir reluctantly sets the idea of using it aside for the moment, and suggests again that Elendil's sword might help save Gondor, if Aragorn is strong enough. Aragorn replies gracefully to the tactless suggestion. Kocher comments that by being both bold and tactful, Aragorn has won all that he wanted from Boromir: the sword is genuine, as is Aragorn's claim to own it, and he has been invited back to Gondor. The Fellowship set off, temporarily united; when they reach [[Parth Galen]], Boromir tries to seize the Ring from Frodo, causing Frodo to use the Ring to escape; the Fellowship is scattered. Orcs attack, seeking the Ring; Boromir repents, and dies trying to save the Hobbits, an act which redeems him.{{sfn|Kocher|1974|p=132}} Aragorn gives Boromir an honourable [[Ship burial|boat-funeral]]. The quest eventually succeeds, and Aragorn, growing in strength through many perils and wise decisions{{sfn|Kocher|1974|p=139}} is crowned King. Boromir gave in to the temptation of power, and fell; Aragorn responded rightfully, and rose.<ref name="Council of Elrond" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}}, book 2, ch.&nbsp;2 "[[The Council of Elrond]]"</ref>{{sfn|Kocher|1974|pp=125–143}}<ref name="Pace 1979">{{cite journal |last=Pace |first=David Paul |title=The Influence of Vergil's ''Aeneid'' on ''The Lord of the Rings'' |journal=[[Mythlore]] |date=1979 |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=37–38, article 11 |url=https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol6/iss2/11}}</ref>

=== Race ===
{{further|Tolkien and race}}

The status of the friendly races has been debated by critics. David Ibata, writing in ''[[The Chicago Tribune]]'', asserts that the protagonists in ''The Lord of the Rings'' all have fair skin, and they are mainly blond-haired and blue-eyed as well. Ibata suggests that having the "good guys" white and their opponents of other races, in both book and film, is uncomfortably close to racism.<ref name="Ibata Chicago Tribune 2003"/> The [[theologian]] [[Fleming Rutledge]] states that the leader of the Drúedain, Ghân-buri-Ghân, is treated as a [[noble savage]].<ref name="Rutledge2004">{{cite book |last=Rutledge |first=Fleming |author-link=Fleming Rutledge |title=The Battle for Middle-earth: Tolkien's Divine Design in The Lord of the Rings |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FRiViwMylSUC&pg=PA286 |year=2004 |publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company|Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing]] |isbn=978-0-8028-2497-4 |page=286}}</ref><ref name="Stanton2002">{{cite book |last=Stanton |first=Michael N. |title=Hobbits, Elves, and Wizards: Exploring the Wonders and Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wo9asc1i09YC&pg=PA79 |year=2002 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |isbn=978-1-4039-6025-2 |page=79}}</ref> Michael N. Stanton writes in ''The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia'' that [[Hobbit]]s were "a distinctive form of human beings", and notes that their speech contains "vestigial elements" which hint that they originated in the North of Middle-earth.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Stanton |first=Michael N. |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |title=Hobbits |encyclopedia=[[The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia|The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment]] |year=2013 |orig-year=2007 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-135-88034-7 |pages=280–282}}</ref>

The scholar Margaret Sinex states that Tolkiens' construction of the Easterlings and Southrons draws on centuries of Christian tradition of creating an "imaginary Saracen".<ref name="Sinex 2010">{{cite journal |last1=Sinex |first1=Margaret |title="Monsterized Saracens," Tolkien's Haradrim, and Other Medieval "Fantasy Products" |journal=Tolkien Studies |date=January 2010 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=175–176 |doi=10.1353/tks.0.0067 |s2cid=171072624 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236771021}}</ref> Zakarya Anwar judges that while Tolkien himself was anti-racist, his fantasy writings can certainly be taken the wrong way.<ref name="Anwar 2009">{{cite journal |last1=Anwar |first1=Zakarya |title=An evaluation of a post-colonial critique of Tolkien |journal=Diffusion |date=June 2009 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=1–9 |url=http://bcur.org/journals/index.php/Diffusion/article/download/186/165|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191206043126/https://bcur.org/journals/index.php/Diffusion/article/download/186/165|url-status=usurped|archive-date=6 December 2019}}</ref>

With his different races of Men arranged from good in the West to evil in the East, simple in the North and sophisticated in the South, Tolkien had, in the view of John Magoun, constructed a "fully expressed [[Geography of Middle-earth#Moral geography|moral geography]]": [[Gondor]] is both virtuous, being West, and has problems, being South; [[Mordor]] in the Southeast is hellish, while [[Harad]] in the extreme South "regresses into hot savagery".<ref name="Magoun">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Magoun |first=John F. G. |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |title=South, The |encyclopedia=[[The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia|The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment]] |year=2006 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=1-135-88034-4 |pages=622–623}}</ref>

[[Peter Jackson]], in his [[The Lord of the Rings film trilogy|''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy]], clothes the Haradrim in long red robes and [[turban]]s, and has them riding their elephants, giving them the look in Ibata's opinion of "North African or Middle Eastern tribesmen".<ref name="Straubhaar 2013"/><ref name="Ibata Chicago Tribune 2003"/> Ibata notes that the film companion book, ''The Lord of the Rings: Creatures'', describes them as "exotic outlanders" inspired by "12th century [[Saracen]] warriors".<ref name="Ibata Chicago Tribune 2003"/> Jackson's Easterling soldiers are covered in armour, revealing only their "coal-black eyes" through their helmet's eye-slits.<ref name="Ibata Chicago Tribune 2003">{{cite news |last=Ibata |first=David |title='Lord' of racism? Critics view trilogy as discriminatory |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/chi-030112epringsrace-story.html |work=[[The Chicago Tribune]] |date=12 January 2003}}</ref> Ibata comments that they look Asian, their headgear recalling both [[Samurai helmet]]s and conical "Coolie" hats.<ref name="Ibata Chicago Tribune 2003"/>

=== From "clod" to hero ===
{{further|Heroism in The Lord of the Rings}}

[[File:Narsil andúril final (without text).jpg|thumb|upright=1.9|[[Naming of weapons in Middle-earth|A sword fit for a hero]]: [[Andúril]], "Flame of the West" is forged anew, "for [[Aragorn]] son of Arathorn was going to war upon the marches of Mordor".<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}}, book 2, ch. 3, "The Ring Goes South"</ref>]]

The Tolkien scholar Deborah C. Rogers compares the Men of ''The Lord of the Rings'' with the [[Hobbit]]s. She notes that the Hobbits are to an extent the low, simple, earthbound "clods" of the story who like beer and comfort and do not wish to go on adventures;{{efn|Rogers admits, though, that sometimes, as [[Gandalf]] said of [[Bilbo Baggins|Bilbo]] and [[Frodo Baggins|Frodo]], there is "more to them than meets the eye".<ref name="Rogers 1975"/>}} they fit the [[antihero]] of modern literature and [[Northrop Frye]]'s lower [[Anatomy of Criticism#Literary modes|literary modes]] including various forms of humour.<ref name="Rogers 1975">{{cite book |last=Rogers |first=Deborah C. |chapter=Everyclod and Everyhero: The Image of Man in Tolkien |editor-last=Lobdell |editor-first=Jared  |editor-link=Jared Lobdell |title=[[A Tolkien Compass]] |date=1975 |publisher=[[Open Court Publishing Company|Open Court]] |isbn=978-0875483030 |pages=69–76}}</ref> 

In contrast, Tolkien's Men are not all of a piece: Rogers mentions the "petty villain", [[Bill Ferny]]; the "loathsome" <!--spy and sycophant -->[[Grima Wormtongue]]; the "slow-thinking" publican [[Barliman Butterbur]] of [[Bree (Middle-earth)|Bree]]; "that portrait of damnation", [[Denethor]], [[Steward of Gondor]]; and at the upper end of the scale, the kingly [[Théoden]], brought back to life from Wormtongue's corruption; the "gentle warrior" Faramir and his brother the hero-villain Boromir; and finally the [[Rangers of the North|ranger]] Aragorn, who becomes king.<ref name="Rogers 1975"/>

Aragorn is the opposite of hobbitish: tall, not provincial, untroubled by the discomforts of the wild. At the start, in Bree, he appears as a Ranger of the North, a weatherbeaten man named Strider. Gradually the reader discovers he is heir to the throne of [[Gondor]], engaged to be married to [[Arwen]], an Elf-woman. Equipped with a [[Naming of weapons in Middle-earth|named magical sword]], he emerges as an unqualified [[hero]], in Frye's "High Mimetic" or "Romantic" literary mode, making the whole novel indeed a [[heroic romance]]: he regains his throne, marries Arwen, and has a long, peaceful, and happy reign.<ref name="Rogers 1975"/>{{sfn|Shippey|2005|pp=238–243}}