Theįlames roared up to greet it, and wreathed about it and a black smoke Then with a rush it leaped across the fissure. It came to the edge of the fire and the light faded as if a cloud hadīent over it. Symbolic influencesīoth Sauron and Morgoth are constantly associated with fire and shadow. The colors are faded, but as we can see here from the reproductions in the second image, the shield was likely painted bright red and yellow.Īs to why they are evil. With respect to the shields and such, although I did not think of it, there is a very immediate referent: the Roman scuta. Not to mention Gandalf literally calling Sauron "The Black."Īlso, it is not just the orcs who are represented by these colors. It almost always symbolizes something morbid or outright evil, as examples like the Black Gate, the Black Speech, the Black Hands, the Black Riders, and so forth make abundantly clear. Evil mentions of red outnumber even neutral mentions about five to one.Īnd as for black, well, it is not even a contest. Harsh tongues, surging up, overtaking the retreat.Īnd so forth. The lines of fire became flowing torrents, file upon file of Orcsīearing flames, and wild Southron men with red banners, shouting with Reckon that all my strength and all my speed may be?" Years! Has it indeed come to that? And what does the Lord Denethor "The Red Arrow has not been seen in the Mark in all my Summons long expected and yet dreadful when it comes. "The Red Arrow!" said Théoden, holding it, as one who receives a For the Haradim, gold probably signifies their greed, since they are villains. Remember, Tolkien is writing from a conservative Catholic viewpoint: greed for what is not one's own is evil, but the riches of the rightful and noble ruler are appointed by Eru. Tolkien is far from averse from using it to show royalty and nobility. It is true that every now and then there is an orc with yellow teeth, or a trail of yellow slime, but those instance are outweighed by soft beams of golden light, the yellow hair of the Rohirrim, yellow drinks, yellow leaves, and so forth.Īnd even gold is not always evil, despite canonically being the element into which Morgoth put the most of his essence, and of which the One Ring is made. The Sun is the Yellow Face and strikes fear into the evil Gollum, for instance. Yellow is in fact more commonly associated with positive things than negative in Tolkien's work. This answer was taken from my blog post on race in The Lord of the Rings.įirst, it is not yellow that is evil, it is gold, and not always. Tolkien was a medievalist, so this is yet another example of him incorporating medieval literature and art into his writing. (For a more detailed analysis of this picture, consult Sinex’s paper or Strickland’s book). Notice how one of the ways the figures are identified as Jewish is through their yellow hats and clothing. In this stained glass picture, several Jews are shown worshiping the golden calf (i.e. Here’s an example of this from the Lorenzkirche (Church of St. To quote from Debra Strickland’s book Saracens, Demons, and Jews: Making Monsters in Medieval Art:īoth yellow and red are colors that feature consistently in pejorative images of Jews, and both colors had contemporary associations with criminals and other social undesirables including Jews themselves once they were forced to wear the yellow badge of infamy in certain regions. In Margaret Sinex’s fantastic paper titled “Monsterized Saracens, Tolkien’s Haradrim, and Other Medieval ‘Fantasy Products’” (appearing in the 2010 Volume 7 edition of the Tolkien Studies journal), she notes how these colors were used by medieval Europeans to depict Jews. I could list more examples of this, but suffice it to say, the more you read the story, the more obvious this pattern becomes. Sméagol thinks they have come out of the South beyond the Great River’s end.Īnother example: the eye of Sauron is described in The Fellowship of the Ring as "rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat’s, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothingness." Not nice very cruel wicked Men they look. And some have red paint on their cheeks, and red cloaks and their flags are red, and the tips of their spears and they have round shields, yellow and black with big spikes. They have black eyes, and long black hair, and gold rings in their ears yes, lots of beautiful gold. For example, here is a description of the Haradim - a group of men allied with Sauron - from The Two Towers. In Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings series, Sauron, and characters allied with Sauron, are frequently associated with the colors red, yellow, and black.
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