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Was J. R. R. Tolkien really anti-Semitic?

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No. If anything, Tolkien was pro-Semitic. In letter number 30 (The Letters of JRR Tolkien, edited by Humphrey Carter), we find this statement: “But if I 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. “ (Italics original.). read more

Tolkien vocally opposed Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party prior to the Second World War, and was known to especially despise Nazi racist and anti-Semitic ideology. In 1938, the publishing house Rütten & Loening Verlag was preparing to release The Hobbit in Nazi Germany. read more

Tolkien was wonderfully unambiguous when, before World War II, a German publisher asked him whether he was"Aryan." From IYOV (quoting from the introduction to Beowulf and the Critics): In 1938, Tolkien had written a razor-tongued reply to the German firm Rütten und Loening Verlag, who, upon negotiating the publication of a German translation of The Hobbit, dared to ask Tolkien if he was"arisch" [Aryan]. read more

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