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"Dwarves Are Not Heroes": Antisemitism and the Dwarves in J.R.R. Tolkien's Writing

2010; Mythopoeic Society; Volume: 28; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

0146-9339

Rebecca Brackmann,

Themes in Literature Analysis

J.R.R. TOLKIEN HIMSELF COMMENTED IN HIS LETTERS AND INTERVIEWS on similarity his invented race Dwarves had, in his view, with Jews: do think 'Dwarves' Jews: at once native and alien in their habitations and [t]he Dwarves course are quite obviously--couldn't you say that in many ways they remind you Jews? Their words are Semitic, obviously, constructed to be Semitic [...] (Letters 229; Interview). In this article, I explore this similarity between Dwarves and (or, more accurately, cultural assumptions about Jewishness) in Tolkien's depiction Dwarves in his 1937 book The Hobbit, and how that portrayal shifts in his later work. I argue that Dwarvishness in The Hobbit involved several traits, recognizably drawn from antisemitic stereotypes, that, according to narrator, exclude Dwarves from heroic ethos that is hallmark book's value system. Tolkien's later recognition this, perhaps, caused him to sharply alter his presentation Dwarves in The Lord Rings, published in 1954-55, and to continue this revision in his later unpublished works. Before discussing Tolkien's works, I should explain what I mean by antisemitism (1) and antisemitic beliefs for purposes this article. I do not limit meaning antisemitism to overt violence or discrimination against practitioners Judaism or converts to Christianity. Rather, by antisemitism I chiefly mean underlying assumption that makes such violence and discrimination possible--the claim that there is something about Jews, biologically and psychologically, that marks them as fundamentally different from Christian cultures that been dominant in Europe since Middle Ages. This kind thinking is necessary for persecution to happen, as it allows persecutors to believe in as a stable category identity that persisted regardless religious conviction, in a way that became more about a supposed racial identity than a religious one (Maccoby 1-4). Indeed, category provided a way for Christian culture to reject those qualities from which it wanted to separate itself, so that constructed category the Jew became a figure of Christian self-definition (Lampert 111). Perhaps best-known example this sort thinking came about in Spain during Inquisition, where any evidence descent could make a person suspect, no matter how remote ancestor or how devoutly Catholic accused was. By modern period, several negative traits had been assigned to Jewish identity by mainstream Christian culture in Europe and United States, and assumption that those traits are naturally linked, that they go together to form a real, biological Jewishness and to rationalize Jews' marginal status, is what I mean by antisemitism in this article. Antisemitism is therefore a set beliefs, not just an action. (2) In Tolkien's early writings Dwarves were often evil, but not especially like Jews as they became in later 1930s. Early on, Tolkien's Dwarves closely mimicked dwarfs Scandinavian legends, where they are frequently wicked characters. During episode Nauglafring in early material in The Book Lost Tales 2, all Dwarves combine to ambush Thingol (called here Tinwelint), including those from Belegost, and they even ally themselves with Orcs for surprise assault (a clear sign their evil) (Book Lost Tales 2 [BLT2] 232). In fact, whole race Dwarves in this text love[s] gold and silver more dearly than aught else on Earth and, spurred to ambush and murder by their greed, have been severed in feud for ever since those days with Elves, and drawn more nigh in friendship to kin Melko (BLT2 231; 232). In later Silmarillion version, however, this changes; Dwarves Nogrod carry on their war with Doriath (after they already slain Thingol) alone, and the Dwarves Belegost sought to dissuade them from their purpose (280). …