Tolkien and Anti-Semitism

 

The sin of anti-Semitism has been in the news lately.

It was also a prominent issue during the life of J.R. R. Tolkien as he watched with horror the rise of Hitler and Nazism, the Holocaust, and World War II.

According to Holly Ordway in her book, Tolkien's Faith: A Spiritual Biography, Tolkien loathed anti-Semitism. 

In 1938, for example, a German publisher producing a translated version of The Hobbit asked Tolkien to supply a declaration that he was Aryan, not Jewish. Tolkien told his own publisher that in light of that request he was willing to let the German edition "go hang" if need be. He declared, "I have many Jewish friends, and should regret giving any colour to the notion that I subscribed to the wholly pernicious and unscientific race-doctrine." He responded to the German publisher refusing to make any such declaration. 

Ordway contends that Tolkien believed that Jews and Christians "could enjoy companionship and mutual respect." He even brings that to life in The Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien repeatedly noted that the Dwarves in the epic and his legendarium parallel the Jewish people. He also displays in the trilogy the Elvish racism against Dwarves. Ordway points out that Tolkien addressed that issue through Gimli's friendship with the elf Legolas. "Writing in a time when overt racism and anti-Semitism were commonplace, Tolkien shows two characters of different races, whose cultures have a history of conflict, overcoming stereotyped assumptions and becoming the best of friends."

In a draft of his response to that German publisher, Tolkien wrote, “If am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people .…”

According to Ordway, the actual response was even more strongly worded.

That tends to make his position clear.

Tolkien respected the Jewish people, and hated anti-Semitism.