anti-semitism – Aw Yiss

fenrisesque:

stop mkaing christmas icons of canonically jewish characters

stop making christmas icons of fenris

of thorin

of gimli

of steven

stop!!!!

so I saw this and wanted to boost this for my fellow people of the lotr/the hobbit fandom: it takes a 3-second google search to find that the Dwarves in Middle Earth are coded as Jewish, Tolkien himself admitted as much (many times, in fact)

so can we keep this in mind this December?

(when it comes to Elves or Gondorians or Hobbits doing Christmassy things, sure go wild.)

callalillyg:

determamfidd:

callalillyg:

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Hi there @callalillyg! I would LOVE to chat further on this, absolutely! Under the cut:

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Hi @determamfidd, i just sent you an ask personally but just to reiterate, I am NOT at all mad or upset, I do not feel attacked by you in anyway. I’m just very impressed. You did a great job capturing awful people like Inorna can truly be. I suppose i’m very protective of people who reflect my own struggle.

I don’t feel like any wounds were opened, actually i felt very happy that someone as horrible as the people that i have dealt with IRL died the way they did, anticlimactic, nothing grand, it felt fitting. I love your writing and would love to share some of my personal head canons

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I am SO grateful – and thank you again for your message!! I am very honoured that you feel I have portrayed the anti-semitism your people face with accuracy. And I’m DOUBLY glad I chose to end it in such a way – an ignoble, mean, pathetic and petty end for an ignoble, mean, pathetic and petty view. Squashed like the bug it is. I’m glad it helped – really really glad. *hugs*

Your personal headcanons sound amazing. AMAZING. I would be utterly thrilled to hear more, particularly about your ideas for the Southern Dwarves and the cultural divide there! Seriously and honestly, reading your insights and your concepts made me gasp and reach for my notebook!!

callalillyg:

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Hi there @callalillyg! I would LOVE to chat further on this, absolutely! Under the cut:

I absolutely ABSOLUTE agree with the Dwarves=Jews angle – if indeed it can even be called an angle, as Tolkien himself said that they were based upon the Jewish people. I’ve explored this in some further detail (with the help of some Jewish friends, as I am a Gentile) in ‘Midwinter’, one of the Sansukh Appendices.

Inorna (and Krummett) serve several purposes in the narrative – but the greatest purpose they serve is in their defeat. She was initially influenced by someone I knew in my teen years: an absolute vile bigot, a bully, a blatant twister of the truth who played victimisation games, and a contemptible manipulator of people’s sympathies. (I still have violent reactions against this sort of behaviour, even today).

When I first developed her character, aaaaaaaaaaaaall the way back in the Bofur-at-Dale scene (written more than two years ago, now), I was worried and angry at the escalating prejudice I could see in the world. There were attacks against Jewish-owned businesses in Europe at the time, for example. A lot of ‘oh well, shame – but what about US’ from many other peoples.

So, Inorna came about, both a character and a symbol. Krummett is that yes-man, the follower: he is emboldened by her outspokenness to air his own nasty attitudes.

I wanted a character to embody that sort of irrational, horrible prejudice, and I wanted the Men of Dale (through Bard and Selga) to utterly refute its place amongst them. Then I wanted the Dwarves and Elves together to both expose and DEFEAT it. With this attitude expunged, the narrative is now open to a new age of acceptance, respect and love for the Dwarves.

I didn’t predict the real-life events of the past few weeks, not at all – I can most certainly see how her vitriol feels more personal to you now, and damn, I am so sorry. I truly did not wish to poke at open wounds, and I am so, so sorry.