{"id":85846,"date":"2013-12-30T07:48:30","date_gmt":"2013-12-30T12:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/?p=85846"},"modified":"2013-12-30T10:49:26","modified_gmt":"2013-12-30T15:49:26","slug":"are-tolkiens-dwarves-an-allegory-for-the-jewish-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/2013\/12\/30\/85846-are-tolkiens-dwarves-an-allegory-for-the-jewish-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Tolkien\u2019s dwarves an allegory for the Jewish people?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DoSBilboAndDwarves01\" In this piece, Matt Lebovic of The Times of Israel explores the eternally fascinating question of the parallels between Tolkien’s dwarves and the Jewish people. Allegory<\/i> is almost certainly too strong a word for the relationship, the quotes that Lebovic draws from Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien<\/i> and various interviews make clear Tolkien’s dislike of the allegorical style (although Leaf by Niggle<\/i> makes one wonder and Letters #241 and #153 provide conflicting evidence there), and his sincere admiration of the Jewish people.<\/p>\n

Edit to quote from Letter #153:<\/p>\n

…I might say in my myth I have used ‘subcreation’ in a special way (not the same as ‘subcreation’ as a term in criticism in art, though I tried allegorically<\/b> [emphasis mine] how that might come to be taken up into Creation in some plane in my ‘purgatorial’ story Leaf by Niggle<\/i> (Dublin Review 1945))…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Couple of quick points of nit-picking: the Company has 13 dwarves, not 12, it’s Middle-earth not Middle Earth, and arguably Khazad-d\u00fbm (Moria) is more accurately the spiritual home of the Dwarves (especially of the Longbeards of Durin’s line) rather than Erebor. As a point of trivia, the Dwarves eventually reclaim Khazad-dum under Durin VII sometime in the Fourth Age. As for the Arkenstone, some people hold<\/a> that, within the Legendarium, it might have been a Silmaril, but that seems unlikely to this writer.<\/p>\n

\n

Are Tolkien\u2019s dwarves an allegory for the Jews?<\/h4>\n

As with its predecessor, last year\u2019s \u201cAn Unexpected Journey,\u201d the latest 161-minute romp through J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s Middle Earth will inspire some fans to see parallels with Jewish history \u2013 mostly through the epic tale of twelve displaced dwarves, hell-bent on reclaiming their homeland from the dragon Smaug.<\/p>\n

When Tolkien published \u201cThe Hobbit\u201d in 1937, the Zionist dream of a Jewish homeland \u2013 not to mention the Holocaust \u2013 was still on the horizon. Educated at Oxford, devout Roman Catholic Tolkien served as a signals officer during World War I, and saw action at the notorious Battle of the Somme, one of humanity\u2019s bloodiest.<\/p>\n

Written as a children\u2019s book, \u201cThe Hobbit\u201d has long been probed by scholars for allegory, including the influence of Tolkien\u2019s war years on the plot.<\/p>\n

Another fascinating parallel for some Tolkienites \u2013 the official word for Tolkien fans \u2013 is between the fictional dwarves of Middle Earth and real Earth\u2019s Jews, in both their history and culture.<\/p>\n

\"Tolkien_2692769b\" More than three decades after publishing \u201cThe Hobbit,\u201d Tolkien spoke about the Jewish-dwarvish connection during a BBC interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t intend it, but when you\u2019ve got these people on your hands, you\u2019ve got to make them different, haven\u2019t you?\u201d said Tolkien during the 1971 interview. \u201cThe dwarves of course are quite obviously, wouldn\u2019t you say that in many ways they remind you of the Jews? Their words are Semitic, obviously, constructed to be Semitic. The hobbits are just rustic English people,\u201d he said. [Note:<\/i> you can listen to a recording of this interview in full on Youtube here<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

According to Tolkien scholar John Rateliff, author of a two-volume \u201cHobbit\u201d history published in 2007, Tolkien drew inspiration from Hebrew texts and Jewish history when developing the dwarves. As craftsmen exiled from a bountiful homeland, the dwarves spoke both the language of their adopted nations and \u2013 among themselves \u2013 a Hebrew-influenced tongue developed by Tolkien.<\/p>\n

[Read More<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this piece, Matt Lebovic of The Times of Israel explores the eternally fascinating question of the parallels…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":79786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[36,331,7,153,196,35,6,38,98,148,149,37,152],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fotr-book","category-greenbooks","category-hobbit-book","category-tolkien-life","category-tolkien-languages","category-lotr-books","category-tolkbooks","category-rotk-book","category-silmarillion","category-hobbit","category-lotr","category-ttt-book","category-tolkien"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t