I think several others (like Jallon) have pointed out
Tolkien's earlier takes on
dwarves
and the significance of
Orcs. Tolkien's world is not new, but it is more of a retelling
of many other past folklore /mythologies. England itself stems from many past cultural
events, Anglos,Saxons, Danes, like most nations a host of
peoples through history
intertwining to make up its contemporary fiber. Most of the invasion/migrations are of
Northern European decent as far as England goes, although the Southern seems to get
largely overlooked for the Latin influx that came from Rome. There are quite a few
historical books that talk about Roman influence when it comes to Arthurian Legendary
but for some reason many historians seem to call up less about the people of the Latin
background and more about its influence in a the classical theme sense, such as Greek or the Latin language, more of an idea then of the actual genetics.
Personally I think it has to do with the perpetual word war between European cultures
that always view life in a superior manner from north to south. (things like the many invasions of North Africa into Europe getting less voice, or the Spanish being ruled by the moors as something detrimental to the Spanish) In any case I digress.
Tolkien's world largely comes from Northern European culture. The linguistic and mythos of things like Dwarves and Orcs are numerous and varied.
Dwarves are a fairly common theme among many much older works such as the
tales
of Sigfried and the Nibelungenleid. Dwarves and
Goblins and many
other names
for the same types of
creatures are numerous and varied. Kobalds, brownies,
elves, or dark elves. There are many small differences, I am lumping a lot of different cultures
and fine nuances together, but on the whole the difference between
Orc(which was really a prefered sound to Tolkien rather then
Goblin) and
Dwarf was slim.
Tolkien ended up creating his own universe from the borrowings of his lingustic
love. Luckily for us when Tolkien wrote the
Hobbit, he ended up getting more into
the side of the Dwarves we know and love. Really, when it comes to an altering of
peoples, Tolkien did more the change the nature of Elves then orcs or Dwarves.
Elves often could be the same as Goblins in many counts of mythology.
Tolkien took from the High
Elf writings of Elves.
High Elves folklore has always been
the most interesting and revolves a lot more around the aristocratic.
Joseph Campbell and Jung get more into universal thoughts of humans themselves
and try to move away from cultural ideas. There is something to be said in that, as nearly every culture in the world has its own version of the same creatures
as orcs, dwarves and elves. Personally I think Tolkien tapped as much into the
world of literature as he did into the linguistic. The worlds of writers from Spenser, Milton,Dunsany, Malory, and a host of others all add to the mythologies. Somehow
what makes up an Elf is a constant flow of language and expressions of our innermost
fears and loves. yay Elves, yay Dwarves yay Tolkien, to borrow from yayGollum
