[Rumil]

Interesting post Mr. Wold,

I take your point that the ancient empires of Rome and Greece morally resembled Sauron's empire in many aspects. Tolkien's Middle Earth is very sharply split between the 'good guys' and the 'bad guys' if you like, whereas all human civilisations have exhibited aspects of each. I'd agree that the historical empires are more similar to the flawed 'Kings Men' party of the Numenoreans in the Second Age.

I'm not too sure on whether the Celts or Anglo Saxons were really any better. The Celts certainly indulged in human sacrifice and the Anglo-Saxons were not at all nice to my ancestors (the Welsh), parallels of the Rohirrim and the Dunlendings pehaps? I'll agree that these societies were more egalitarian than their predecessors, the Romans or their antecedents, the Normans but I think that this may be due to their lack of civilisation (in the true sense of the word ie. living in cities) and the necessary lack of depth in these societies.
I'd also be careful of the over- simplification of Christian=Good, I think Gibbon comments (in the context of the late Roman Empire) that the Christians massacred far more pagans than the pagans did Christians. After all, the victors always get the best press!

As for the Native Americans, they may have been far more 'in touch' with Nature than the Europeans, but they still managed to drive a few species to extinction. So a partial tick for elfliness, the problem being that they hadn't built up a high-tech civilisation (though their relatives in South America were certainly going for it). I'd imagine that their Tolkien counterparts would be the Nandor or Avari and perhaps the early Edainic tribes.

The Vikings certainly exhibited some orc-like features, raiding, pillaging, destroying monasteries etc., but pretty much everyone was at it in those days, so its a bit unfair to single them out. When they'd settled down a bit the Vikings were more noted for their trading and farming abilities.