{"id":659,"date":"2016-06-27T20:02:19","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T20:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/blog\/2016\/06\/27\/medievalpoc-glorfindely\/"},"modified":"2016-06-27T20:02:19","modified_gmt":"2016-06-27T20:02:19","slug":"medievalpoc-glorfindely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/blog\/2016\/06\/27\/medievalpoc-glorfindely\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

medievalpoc<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

glorfindely<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

diversehighfantasy<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

goseiwonder<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

fihli<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

fihli<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

hear me out: <\/b>all-female remake of lord of the rings<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

hear me out:<\/b> all-female racially diverse<\/i> remake of lord of the rings<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Isn\u2019t 2 humans, an Elf, 4 Hobbits, a Dwarf and a celestial being in a corporeal form already racially diverse?<\/p>\n

Well, at least in how most high fantasy uses the word \u201crace.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

No.<\/p>\n

If every fantasy race is imagined as entirely white it absolutely does not count as racial diversity. The implications of a world where every race (or every race that matters) is white are quite the opposite, in fact, and point to conscious or unconscious white supremacy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

feel free to re-imagine the characters as any race you want, but please understand that, in context, tolkien\u2019s characters (almost) all being canonically white does not\u00a0\u201cpoint to conscious or unconscious white supremacy\u201d<\/p>\n

you see, tolkien\u2019s mythology was intentionally written as stories for the english people. they had no mythology of their own – all of \u201ctheir\u201d stories had originated from other cultures. middle earth originated as an alternate history of europe (especially england) as it may have been told from an ancient english mythological perspective.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

as the professor himself wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cI was from early days grieved by the poverty of my own beloved country: it had no stories of its own \u2026 Do not laugh! But once upon a time (my crest has long since fallen) I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic, to the level of romantic fairy-story\u2026 which I could dedicate simply to: to England; to my country.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cI am historically minded. Middle-earth is not an imaginary world\u2026 The theatre of my tale is this earth, the one in which we now live, but the historical period is imaginary.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

people from europe, are, of course, mostly white, so it naturally follows that the people living in an alternate history of europe would be white – as well as the fantasy creatures borne out of european mythology. including a lot of non-europeans in it would make no more sense than native american mythologies featuring white people, or japanese mythologies featuring black people, and so on.<\/p>\n

basically, middle earth = europe, southern areas = africa, and eastern areas = asia. there are poc in tolkien\u2019s arda but most (not all) come from places outside middle earth, which makes sense when you put it in a real world context.\u00a0<\/p>\n

diversity in fantasy is great, but please do not assume that everything that does not meet your criteria of diversity is automatically racist. thank you<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

When I die, they\u2019re going to be doing the autopsy and find out that the cause of death is a bleeding stomach ulcer that, upon close inspection, actually is text that reads out the commentary directly above my own here.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cwhich makes sense when you put it in a real world context\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>

\nExcept how about no, no it doesn\u2019t. <\/a>
<\/h2>\n
<\/figure>\n

\u00a0Dr. Caitlin Green<\/b><\/a> has compiled some documentary and archaeological resources<\/a> <\/b>specifically
\n showing African populations in Bronze Age, Roman, and Medieval Britain.
\n <\/p>\n<\/a>

\n
\nA note on the evidence for African migrants in Britain from the Bronze Age to the medieval period <\/a>
<\/h2>\n
\n

The degree to which pre-modern Britain included people of African origin within its population continues to be a topic<\/a> of considerable<\/a> interest<\/a> and some controversy<\/a>. Previous posts on this site have discussed a variety of textual<\/a>, linguistic<\/a>, archaeological<\/a> and isotopic<\/a>
\n evidence for people from the Mediterranean and\/or Africa in the British
\n Isles from the Late Bronze Age through to the eleventh century AD.
\nHowever, the focus in these posts has been on individual sites, events
\nor periods, rather than the question of the potential proportion of
\npeople from Africa present in pre-modern Britain per se<\/i> and how
\nthis may have varied over time. The aim of the following post is thus to
\n briefly ponder whether an overview of the increasingly substantial
\nBritish corpus of oxygen isotope evidence drawn from pre-modern
\narchaeological human teeth has anything interesting to tell us with
\nregard to this question.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/figure>\n[The De Brailes Hours<\/b><\/a>: f. 1r. England (c. 1240)<\/b>]\n<\/a>

13th Century: Ipswich Man, one of nine African people buried in that particular medieval cemetery<\/b><\/a> (covered by BBC in 2010)<\/h2>\n
<\/figure>\n[link to source<\/b><\/a>]\n
<\/figure>\n[link to source<\/b><\/a>]\n
<\/figure>\n

[This image, an extract from the 60ft-long Westminster Tournament
\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Roll, shows six trumpeters, one of whom is Black and is almost certainly
\n \u00a0 John Blanke.<\/a> Westminster Tournament Roll (1511)]<\/b><\/p>\n<\/a>

\nIslamic gold dinars in late eleventh- and twelfth-century England <\/a>
<\/h2>\n
\n

The following post offers a map and brief discussion of the Islamic gold
\n coins of the later eleventh and twelfth centuries that have been found
\nin England and their context. Whilst clearly rare finds, there are now
\nten coins of this period known, all but one of which are thought to most
\n probably have their origins in Spain. Moreover, these coins are
\nconsidered to be the survivals of a potentially substantial body of this
\n material present in England at that time.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/a>

\nBritain, the Byzantine Empire, and the concept of an Anglo-Saxon
\n\u2018Heptarchy\u2019: Harun ibn Yahya\u2019s ninth-century Arabic description of
\nBritain <\/a>
<\/h2>\n
\n

The aim of the following post is to offer a draft look at an interesting
\n Arabic account of early medieval Britain that appears to have its
\norigins in the late ninth century. Despite being rarely mentioned by
\nBritish historians concerned with this era, this account has a number of
\n points of interest, most especially the fact that it may contain the
\nearliest reference yet encountered to there having been seven kingdoms
\n(the ‘Heptarchy\u2019) in pre-Viking England and the fact that its text
\nimplies that Britain was still considered to be somehow under Byzantine
\nlordship at that time.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/figure>\n

[Canterbury Cathedral Choir, north aisle, north window (Second Typological Window)The Queen of Sheba Before Solomon. England (1178-1180)<\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n<\/a>

\n
\nA great host of captives? A note on Vikings in Morocco and Africans in early medieval Ireland & Britain <\/a>
<\/h2>\n
\n

The following short note is based on a narrative preserved in the eleventh-century Fragmentary Annals of Ireland<\/i> that
\n tells of a Viking raid on Morocco in the 860s. This raid is said to
\nhave led to the taking of ‘a great host\u2019 of North African captives by
\nthe Vikings, who then carried them back to Ireland, where they
\nreportedly remained a distinct group\u2014’the black men’\u2014for some
\nconsiderable period of time after their arrival.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n[3 possible burials of African Women in 9th-11th Century England<\/b><\/a>]\n[Sub-Saharan African woman aged 18-24 from Fairford, Gloucestershire<\/a><\/b>]\n

<\/figure>\n[Link to source<\/b><\/a>]\n
<\/figure>\n[Link to source<\/b><\/a>]\n
<\/figure>\n[Link to source<\/b><\/a>]\n
<\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n[Link to source<\/a><\/b>]\n

<\/figure>\n[Sir Morien, Black Knight of the Round Tabl<\/b><\/a>e]\n
<\/figure>\n[The Murthly Hours f. 12r: Magi, or Kings, Before Herod.<\/b><\/a> Scotland\/England (c. 1280s) From the National Library of Scotland]<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/figure>\n[Link to source<\/b><\/a>]\n
<\/figure>\n
<\/figure>\n[Link to source<\/a><\/b>]\n
<\/figure>\n[Link to source<\/b><\/a>]\n

SEE ALSO:<\/p>\n