But the vast majority of wars throughout history are not like that. The Tolkien model led generations of fantasy writers to produce these endless series of dark lords and their evil minions who are all very ugly and wear black clothes. I’m not sure that it’s a good template, though. >The war that Tolkien wrote about was a war for the fate of civilization and the future of humanity, and that’s become the template. Did Aragorn pursue a policy of systematic genocide and kill them? Even the little baby orcs, in their little orc cradles? But Tolkien doesn’t ask the question: What was Aragorn’s tax policy? Did he maintain a standing army? What did he do in times of flood and famine? And what about all these orcs? By the end of the war, Sauron is gone but all of the orcs aren’t gone – they’re in the mountains. Tolkien can say that Aragorn became king and reigned for a hundred years, and he was wise and good. We look at real history and it’s not that simple. Lord of the Rings had a very medieval philosophy: that if the king was a good man, the land would prosper. This was maybe my answer to Tolkien, whom, as much as I admire him, I do quibble with.
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