Another item from the mind of Professor Tolkien. He describes the Orcs as "swart." Not wanting to waste the time of this good group, and I went and looked up the word, which I find is basically a synonym for "swarthy" or "tawny," and the citations I have found are pretty old, say, Elizabethan days.

Has anyone seen this word in contemporary use? Are there negative racial connotations? Just asking...

Even the modern form 'swarthy' is so dated as to be virtually obsolete. Tolkien would have taken it straight from Middle English; that is, he wouldn't have needed recent use to justify his own use.

In Old Norse, the dark elves are called svart-alfar. He might have meant precisely this.

>>>Even the modern form 'swarthy' is so dated as to be virtually obsolete.

Not on this side of the pond-- I would use it to describe someone with dark (but not a black/negro) skin, particulary if they had a "5 o'clock shadow"-- that is they needed a shave.

Cop shows use it and news announcers use it--

In Old Norse, the dark elves are called svart-alfar. He might have meant precisely this.

This may be a yart, but I think that seems very likely, given that Tolkien belonged to a social club whose weekly meetings were conducted exclusively in Old Norse, or so I read in a biography of him.

>Tolkien belonged to a social club whose weekly meetings were conducted exclusively in Old Norse...

Well, that would certainly explain a lot...