Tolkien, Mormons, and Race

By Cynthia Ann Smith

June 14, 2014
Race has been an interesting part of the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, sometimes known as Mormons. There is not room in this paper to go over this
history, but it is a point worth noting. Further worth noting is the fact that at least part of this
stems from The Book of Mormon, a book we believe to be scripture comparable to The Bible and
that we use in conjunction with The Bible. Interestingly, The Lord of the Rings too deals with
issues of race and has also provoked discussions about race as well. I see several key points of
similarity, and one crucial difference.1
The Book of Mormon tells the history of a family that left Jerusalem shortly before its first
destruction around 600 BC. They journeyed across the wilderness, built a ship, and sailed to the
Americas. The family was split into two factions: those who followed the two eldest brothers
Laman and Lemuel who were rebellious both towards their father and Gods commandments,
and the younger brother Nephi who due to his righteousness was called of God as leader and
prophet. The conflict between the two groups became so great that Nephi was forced to take
those who followed him and resettle elsewhere. His followers became known as Nephites, and
were known for having the laws of God and for being mostly obedient to them. The others
became known as the Lamanites and were known for their wickedness and for their lack of
knowledge of the ways of God. Much of The Book of Mormon contains the history of the wars
between these two people.
One particular thing to note about the Lamanites is that God cursed them and then placed
a mark of dark skin on them to distinguish them from the Nephites, to keep the Nephites from
falling into their wicked ways. It is important to note, however, that the dark skin was not the
1 First, several disclaimers. Tolkien was Catholic, not Mormon. There is no evidence that I am

aware of that he was close to any Mormons. At best, he may have heard the term and been
vaguely aware of several of the stereotypes commonly attributed to us. We can only speculate as
to what his specific views would have been to these ideas. Also, I am a practicing Mormon, or
member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and have been all my life. The views
here expressed are my own opinion and should in no way be construed as church doctrine.

curse being cut off from God was the curse. (2 Nephi 5: 20-25) Interestingly, at least one group
of Nephite dissenters ended up putting a red mark on their forehead, unintentionally perpetuating
the whole curse and mark cycle on their own. (Alma 3: 13-19)
So what does this have to do with Tolkien? Tolkiens legendarium has its own issues with
race, and this is plentifully exemplified in The Lord of the Rings. The best people, Hobbits,
Elves, men of Numenor, men of Rohan, all tend to be fair. The worst people, Orcs, Southrons,
Easterlings, all tend to be dark or even black of skin. It is argued that this is largely due to
cultural influences on J.R.R. Tolkien himself, and this is no doubt part of the story. But what
interests me is the fact that these skin colors are also meant to indicate spirituality how
spiritually close that people is to the Valar and the West, and by extension Eru himself. (Fimi
142-143) Just like in The Book of Mormon, skin color is an outward manifestation of Gods favor
or disfavor.
Of course, things are not that simple, either in The Book of Mormon or in The Lord of the
Rings. There are several glaring exceptions in each.
In The Book of Mormon, after an extraordinary mission to the Lamanites by Nephites,
tens of thousands of Lamanites are converted and forsake the wicked traditions of their fathers.
(Alma 26: 30; 29: 14-150 This experience of Lamanites being converted in fact happens several
times. (Hel. 5: 50) At one point in the history, everything is turned upside down when the
Lamanites become more righteous than the Nephites and a Lamanite prophet is even sent to the
Nephites to preach to them repentance. (Hel. 6: 34-36; Hel 13-15) And after the visit of the
Savior Jesus Christ to America, after his crucifixion and resurrection, they all become one people
for centuries, distinguishing between no one but considering all as children of God living
together in righteousness. (4 Ne. 1: 3, 15-17) A pity it did not last.
In The Lord of the Rings, there is the problem of the Half-Elven the race of Men and
Elves mixing. It is portrayed in this work (and in The Silmarillion) as a great thing that brought
blessing to both these races. But how could that be when in the view of Tolkiens legendarium a
lesser race was marrying a greater race? Fimi argues that in the end the reasons why this is racial
mixture is beneficial is because the differences between Men and Elves in Tolkiens legendarium
are mainly spiritual and theological rather than biological, which explains how the three unions

of Elf and Man enrich the race of Men, though Thingol and Elrond at least still see this as a
debasement of their daughters. (Fimi 151-154)
There is one large point in which those races with dark skin are very different as shown in
The Book of Mormon and The Lord of the Rings. In The Book of Mormon, as we have already
seen, the Lamanites are not irredeemable. In fact, the Nephites go to great pains to try to bring
them to the knowledge of the truth as they see it many times during their history. Great promises
are given to the Nephites for their righteousness, but they are also promised complete destruction
if they wholly reject God because they started out with a greater knowledge of the truth. (2 Ne. 1:
7-10) This in the end is exactly what happens the Nephites become so wicked they are
completely destroyed by the Lamanites. (Mormon 1-6) For their part, the Lamanites are
promised that their race will last and will someday be brought to a knowledge of the truth and the
curse of God will no longer follow them. (2 Ne. 4: 4-7, 9) The basic reason for this because the
more one is given the more is then required and the greater the fall then if they fail to live up to
it. (D&C 82: 3) So when the Nephites fell into extremely great wickedness, they were permitted
to be destroyed because they had rejected so much light and knowledge. Because the children of
Laman and Lemuel never had a real chance to learn the truth, their descendants were promised
they would be preserved and given a chance to learn the truth someday something we believe
his happening today.
In Tolkiens legendarium, the Orcs are Elves twisted by the original dark lord, Melchor.
They are irredeemable. It is notable that the near battle of three armies at the end of The Hobbit
does not happen because the Orcs appear, and at their coming all other quarrels were forgotten.
(Hobbit 256) Why? Because the others knew the Orcs would fall upon them without mercy and
could not be reasoned with. The best characters in The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf, Aragorn,
Frodo, Sam, never give quarter to Orcs, and it is not portrayed as evil because there is nothing
they can to do rehabilitate the Orcs. Tolkien himself became quite disturbed by this in his later
years, and spent considerable time considering the implications of an incurable race. (Morgoth
408-424) This is interesting in light of the fact that in The Lord of the Rings at least, no less a
person than Elrond says, For nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so. (LOTR
261) Tolkien spent some of his last years trying to reconcile this idea with the idea of Orcs who
have not good in them in his mythology.

It would be interesting to do a survey of Mormons who have read The Lord of the Rings
to see how they view Tolkiens depiction of race, and then to compare how they view race as
portrayed in The Book of Mormon. It is quite possible that having been influenced by The Book
of Mormon from an early age, I was conditioned to look at race through the lens of spirituality, at
least when it came to The Lord of the Rings.2 Skin color was indicative to me of nearness or
distance from God or Eru, and given the example of Nephites and Lamanites this made perfect
sense to me especially because in the context of the Nephites and Lamanites, proximity to God
was a changeable thing. In the end, they all had a choice where they stood with relation to God,
and in one way or another received the consequences of these choices. In The Lord of the Rings,
in spite of one or two interesting conversations that the characters overhear, the Orcs to me
mostly remain closer to beasts than people. If a beast attacks you, you may regret the necessity
but you do not hesitate to stop it by any means necessary. This, at least, is how I have gotten
around the constant slaying of Orcs in The Lord of the Rings. I would have to agree with Tolkien
on this point I too would feel uncomfortable with a character that by intrinsic nature was
unredeemable.

Bibliography
Fimi, Dimitria. Tolkien, Race and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits. 2010. Palgrave
Macmillion: New York. Print.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit. 2007. Harper Collins: New York. Print.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings. 1994. Houghton Mifflin Company: New York. Print.
Tolkien, J.R.R. Morgoths Ring. 1994. Harper Collins Publishers: London. Print.

2 I should also note that being part of the dominant culture race wise I personally was not aware

of issues of race in The Lord of the Rings until recently.