Fantasy Counterpart Culture

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Well, we get a very Mideast/North African impression, I think, from Sam's POV description of the dead Southron in 'Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit' (The mumakil aren't a problem: think Hannibal, probably Tolkien's inspiration).

We get very little about the Easterlings (Rhunians? Rhunrim????), besides the fact that they were bearded and carried axes, which would also qualify Vikings and even Dwarves. But who else would they be calqued on, but the Slavic peoples from the East? They certainly don't appear to be Scythians/Sarmatians/Huns.

[Galadriel55]

Ok, I agree with the North African part about Haradrim.

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

We get very little about the Easterlings (Rhunians? Rhunrim????), besides the fact that they were bearded and carried axes, which would also qualify Vikings and even Dwarves. But who else would they be calqued on, but the Slavic peoples from the East? They certainly don't appear to be Scythians/Sarmatians/Huns.

I don't know. To me they seem to be steppe/Middle-Eastern peoples rather than Slavs. Axes aside, they seem to be more Arabian, or perhaps slightly Persian, or with a stretch some people from slightly farther northeast, than Slavic. The Slavs weren't the only people to wear beards; they don't match appearances in terms of what we know about facial features or skin colour; they certainly didn't ride in wains, and while they had a cavalry it wasn't anything exceptional (actually, there is a theory that the Mongolian invasion didn't reach anywhere as far as it's said to be, and one of the main supporting factors is that you can't sustain or properly maneuver such a cavalry in the Slavic forests). It's true that Slavs used axes in battle while Middle Eastern people didn't, to the best of my knowledge, but aside from that I don't see how the Easterlings match Slavs.

Saying that, though, Tolkien didn't have to base anyone on just one culture, whether consciously or not. It is entirely possible that there is a combination of more than one influence.

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Saying that, though, Tolkien didn't have to base anyone on just one culture, whether consciously or not. It is entirely possible that there is a combination of more than one influence.

I'd say so. I get the impression that Rhûn is meant to be pretty vast. The axe-bearing Easterlings were of a kind previously unknown to the Men of Gondor, which suggests to me that many cultures were imagined to exist in the Eastern regions of Middle-earth.