Patriotism and the Lord of the Rings

[Rumil]

Nice to see use of huge tracts of land and oppressed masses in the same thread

I like the ideas above that -

Settled men and hobbits identified with 'their' land

Nomadic men (and hobbits?) identified with their tribe

Dwarves identified with what they or their ancestors had made (Moria, Jewellery etc)

Elves identified with their leaders (which given their longevity in absence of nasty accidents covers land and tribe too in some ways)

Caveats I suppose are the low population density of Middle Earth, and likely insularity of most inhabitants, after all Sam had never been more than 20 miles from home and might have considered Buckland 'foreign' let alone Bree.

In todays world its strange to think how Dark Age kingdoms could be less than 50 miles wide, and that even comparatively recently there were great differences between counties (eg Cornwall and Devon; Yorks and Lancs) let alone countries.