[mboto]

I always thought that if you took the coastline of Turkey and created a mountain range out of it, you would have a basic representation of Mordor. Then took Gondor mainly based around the city of Minas Tirith, Rohan based mainly around Edoras etc. and you would have the Greek City states. Minas Ithil would be Troy or other overrun ex colonies of the early Greeks. And then you have the Haradrim et al and they look a lot like the Persian empire.

There are many other aspects as well such as the last stand at the Battle of the Black Gate being a lot like the Battle of Marathon.

So to me the Lord of the Rings in some parts often sounds like the defense against the Persian Empire (there are various aspects that don't fit of course), so to only see it through the myopic eyes of Identity politics is I agree lazy.

[goto11]

How about a map of Europe at the time of the invasion of the Huns? Mordor is the realm of the Huns, Rohan is the German tribes, Gondor is the Franks or perhaps the crumbling Roman Empire.

The legends in the Niebelungelied is from this time.