Tolkien vs the Nazis: His Actual Words On Hitler, Nazism, and the Jewish People (He's Not Far Right)

[@jasonkinzie8835]

Tolkien was also angered at the wartime depiction of the Japanese which he found to be racist and dehumanizing. This guy was about as far from being a Nazi as you can get.

[@TolkienRoad]

I haven’t heard that before. That’s great! Do you have a reference for it?

[@MegaKnight2012]

That's interesting. I've never seen Tolkien's views on the Japanese, or other Asians. My grandfather was a Navy Corpsmen in the Pacific, one of those specifically targeted by the Japanese during conflict. My grandfather never liked to speak about his wartime experience, but he never seemed to bear ill-will against the Japanese, even saving the life of one he found stranded along an American highway during winter.

[@spmoran4703]

He was a Christian . Of course he was against the Nazis

[@animeXcaso]

Miyazaki should bow and apologize for calling Tolkien a warmonger colonialist

[@MegaKnight2012]

@@animeXcaso Miyazaki should apologize for a lot. He has quite the hatred against the West, despite how much he romanticizes it in film, and enjoys the world the West made possible for him. He sees warriors and military as evil, whilst romanticizing pirates and making Ashitaka an elite warrior, not acknowledging the complex realty Tolkien knew that warriors can do great evil and great good. Miyazaki claimed Disney was just a businessman, not an artist, despite Miyazaki making animated shorts that can't legally be seen unless someone goes to his Ghibli theme park. At least Disney made his animated shorts widely accessible.

[@commandosolo1266]

While he was a devout and conservative Catholic who even disliked the Vatican reforms that allowed the mass to be given in languages other than Latin, there is no doubt that the professor was neither a racist nor a misogynist. The friendship between Gimli and Legolas shows his disdain for racism, and the triumph of Eowyn at the Pelennor Fields shows he was far from a misogynist.

[@erickpoorbaugh6728]

He also went out of his way to show that the evil humans in LOTR (Dunlendings, Easterlings, and Southrons) weren't actually bad people---just under bad leaders. After the Battle of Helm's Deep, it was mentioned that Saruman had deceived the Dunlendings with extreme anti-Rohirric propaganda. Then you have Sam's sympathy for the fallen Southron. Finally, after Sauron's defeat, his human allies made peace with Gondor and Rohan. And the appendices make it clear that even the wars fought by Aragorn and Eomer later were not a case of good and evil like the War of the Ring. Really, the most evil humans in Tolkien's works were the fallen Numenoreans, who were imperialists and more similar to Europeans than anything else. So not only was he not racist, but he outright portrayed that sort of supremacist mindset as the evilest humans can be.

[@ethanperks372]

The belief he was a misogynist is based on the fact that he has so few female characters. Yet those women are wise, strong and brave. Many male authors have some difficulty writing female characters. Jules Vern comes to mind. While movies based on his books are full of women, these are Hollywood additions and do not appear in the books. It's the same for Arwen. She only appears in the Trilogy in the Appendix. Jackson turned her into a major screen character.

[@commandosolo1266]

@@ethanperks372, Having Arwen save Frodo instead of Glorfindel is one of the few liberties I'd show to John Tolkien with confidence that he'd nod and say, "well, yes, I can see that's an improvement."

[@ethanperks372]

@@commandosolo1266 My only point was turning a minor character int a major. Bakshi turned Glorfindel into Legolas. I was only saying that film producers/directors often add female characters where they weren't written. My complaint wasn't Arwen. It was totally changing the basic natures of several characters. And none for the better IMO.

[@commandosolo1266]

Well, I think the changes you'd like to debate are outside the topic of my post or the video here, @@ethanperks372 .

[@brunnokamei9623]

I don't consider myself a Tolkien fan. But the "Tolkien was racist" hot take always make me cringe.

[@TolkienRoad]

Def cringe-worthy. Now what would it would take to make you a Tolkien fan? ;)

[@sumanadasawijayapala5372]

So you found nothing wrong with Tolkien comparing the appearance of black people with trolls?

[@TolkienRoad]

@@sumanadasawijayapala5372 Where did he do this? Please provide the exact quote.

[@sumanadasawijayapala5372]

@@TolkienRoad The Battle of Pelennor Fields (ROTK): "There they had been mustered for the sack of the City and the rape of Gondor...out of Far Harad *black men like half-trolls* with white eyes and red tongues."

[@trohnjon7944]

@@sumanadasawijayapala5372 thats a big stretch. Nice try though. Monsters can have black skin. Is no one aloud to use that as a describing word nowadays? Pretty racist to assume that everything black is african

[@Kegcrusher04]

The more I learn about Tolkien the more my respect for the man grows.

[@tactknightgaming2066]

No. My lack of respect increases as I find out how pampered and sheltered this autist really was. What did you expect from a Brifish aristocrat with a silverspoon in his mouth his entire life.

[@xtremeranger30]

It's also worth mentioning Tolkien's opposition to apartheid in South Africa. Got this from Tolkien Gateway citing these quotes from an Oxford speech and one from his letters. "I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones; and most of all I detest the segregation or separation of Language and Literature. I do not care which of them you think White." ― From a Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford in 1959 "As for what you say or hint of ‘local’ conditions: I knew of them. I don't think they have much changed (even for the worse). I used to hear them discussed by my mother; and have ever since taken a special interest in that part of the world. The treatment of colour nearly always horrifies anyone going out from Britain, & not only in South Africa. Unfort[unately], not many retain that generous sentiment for long." ― Letter 61 - Written to Christopher Tolkien who was stationed in South Africa during World War II

[@susanfreeman9500]

omg in a Valedictory Address... I am imagining the pearls that would be clutched if he said that in 21st century America. What a burn.

[@SeraphimFaith]

this is a good evidence as in another comment people are trying to accuse him of being racist just because of 1 phrasing in his fictional works.

[@Moe_Posting_Chad]

@@SeraphimFaith Those people are just using language as a weapon. They are literally communist stooges attempting a color revolution. You can't be this well acquainted with Tolkien's worldview and not have a fairly round grasp of history. Communism being a huge section of history we have to know. Its at the gates again. Its now our turn to bear that burden. We are failing.

[@PXCharon]

​@@SeraphimFaithIt's almost as if fiction writers can write things that aren't true or that they don't personally believe.

[@SeraphimFaith]

@@PXCharon I hate how the woke cancer is putting pressure on fiction and fictional writers to be "more realistic and have people of colour". I am reading fiction to escape from reality, not to be reminded that twitter exists lol. I want fiction to be as unbelievable as possible!

[@ravensthatflywiththenightm7319]

The fact that there are morons and professional liars that would call Tolkien a Nazi sympathizer is disgusting beyond words.

[@adwadswadsda8458]

u only say that cuz u racist!! 😂😂🤡

[@chubbyninja89]

Agreed. It's the same sort of thing as when those same morons label the likes of Stan Lee as racist and such. It's truly disgusting.

[@tonijelecevic9238]

So what even the big democracy hero Churchill said something good about them cos they both disliked communism

[@trenthoward6800]

Better a Nazi than an orc little man, just look at France during Hitler's occupation and what's happening right now.

[@patrickbertlein4626]

People say the same about Twain. Imagine. People are fucking morons. Nazis and non Nazis alike. Granted, Nazi is pretty high on the dumb as it gets list.

[@kellanelliott9017]

I always took the part of the LOTR where Gimli and Legolas are best friends, despite the Dwarves and Elves having a long history of conflict, as an anti-racism statement.

[@brianjohnson1932]

Thank you for this. I never thought to approach it that way. It does makes sense though.😊

[@cartoonraccoon2078]

@@newtonia-uo4889 I know what you are trying to say, and it's ugly.

[@LordVader1094]

Tolkien did also say the Dwarves were somewhat based off the Hebrews, so it tracks.

[@gwynnapnudd702]

Yes, all Elves should be MADE to have Dwarf friends. How is that possible unless Elven lands are integrated first? It will be good practice for these goody too shoes, get them ready for Orc integration later.

[@Makie.2001]

True, and he was also shocked with atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even going so far as to call Julius Oppenheimer and other Manhattan Project scientists as "Babylon tower builders"

[@connorlarkinbass]

not only was he one of the greatest writers of all time...he was also a great person! thank you for reminding the world that sometimes creatives are actually good people!

[@TolkienRoad]

IMO, his virtue is underrated!

[@elizabethcsicsery-ronay1633]

What about Shakespeare, Dante, Cervantes, Yeats, Homer, etc. etc. ? Try reading other literature too. Tolkien is a great writer, yes.

[@connorlarkinbass]

@@elizabethcsicsery-ronay1633 Those are all fantastic writers as well. Notice how I said he was "one of the greatest" not "undeniably the best." You have no idea who I am, or what else i'm into...so don't talk down to me because you made an assumption...so rude.

[@ericlarousse1149]

She is merely a woman and thinks in absolutes and simple terms. You should not talk down to someone of inferior logic. Accept them for what they are.

[@connorlarkinbass]

@@ericlarousse1149 dude...that's an absolutely insane thing to say...having a penis or vagina has nothing to do with being a jerk...

[@thomasmcginnis3783]

Tolkien's Middle Earth world was everywhere keenly aware of race, family origins, cultural differences -- but the lesson so hard to miss was that differences should be recognized and _celebrated_ and that all would come out better when *all worked together* towards the common goal. Always, every book, every "Age". Great lesson.

[@beth12svist]

And some of the best people of Middle Earth were always mixed race/descended from mixed race people. It's usually elves & humans and you might make the argument that elves are obviously the superior race which is what makes those people special... but in fact, very often the pureblooded elves are also extremely fallible people (Fëanorians, anyone?). It's very often those with insight into both cultures who manage to rise above the failings of both, there. (ETA: Not just in terms of descent, come to think of it. Middle Earth is kind of also a celebration of expanding your wisdom by travel and contact with other cultures.)

[@annavizard970]

He also shows that the dwarves and the elves, despite their deep rooted disdain for each other, did more than once find common ground and work together. This theme is repeated over and over throughout his work.

[@davehart9972]

Please they all knew to keep Orcs away. England, France, Sweden, etc. haven't and are all but destroyed.

[@rikk319]

@@beth12svist Tolkien also showed the fallacy of "racial purity" with the downfall of the supposedly superior Numenoreans--only when they'd been humbled, through the destruction not only of Numenor, but of Arnor, were Aragorn's scattered people able to rise again from a humble existence. The Rohirrim, who were supposed to be a lesser sort of men, displayed bravery and vitality in coming to the aid of their "superior" brethren, the Gondorians. Theoden refuted racism by allying with the Druedain and treating them with respect. Tolkien's theme seemed to focus on the importance of humility, and that the mighty would be brought low, while the low (think of the hobbits, and Samwise in particular) would be exalted.

[@Willy_Tepes]

@@beth12svist You seem to hold some strange belief that people of mixed race are somehow special or more valuable. It is obviously a result of brainwashing.

[@Methus3lah]

Tolkien was a man of his time. Was he perfect in terms of being ‘politically correct’ as we under it today? No. Was he a staunch opponent of racism and supremacism? Yes. The bit that Tolkien wrote about Hitler “Ruining, perverting, misapplying, and making for ever accursed, that noble northern spirit, a supreme contribution to Europe, which I have ever loved…” Here he’s pointing out something that I’ve struggled with through my adult life as I try to connect with my heritage. I have a lot of ancestry from Sweden, Norway, and Germany, and the cultural symbols of these areas have been so twisted that they’re barely recognizable. The twisting of good things by evildoers is actually a major theme in the Silmarillion. Melkor could easily be compared to the Nazi “ubermensch”, sharing in all the gifts of his siblings. Melkor has such an ego that he wants to be the ruler of creation, but cannot create anything himself, so resorts to twisting and destroying things to suit his own ends. That’s what the Nazis did and what their modern counterparts do; they twist and destroy. And let’s compare Melkor to Aulë. He creates the Dwarves, not in opposition to creation and the will of Eru Illúvatar, but in harmony with it. While there’s a whole lot of Christianity wrapped up in here that I don’t quite agree with, one thing is clear: Melkor twisted and destroyed out of hatred. Aulë created out of love. Hitler twisted and destroyed out of hatred. Tolkien created out of love.

[@TolkienRoad]

Personally, I'll take Tolkien's personal integrity and moral vision over modern puritanical political correctness every day of the week. We live in a REALITY twisted by evildoers, a twisting that goes so far down to the root that the good and the bad are often enmeshed, inseparably it would seem. It's harrowing when you stop to think about it. But if you'll pardon my insistence, that's where I believe the Christian Hope comes in, and why its influence is a good chunk of what makes Tolkien's works so powerful.

[@Methus3lah]

@@TolkienRoad What evildoers have twisted reality?

[@TolkienRoad]

All of us. Some more than others of course, but I've never met someone who didn't bear their share of responsibility.

[@Methus3lah]

@@TolkienRoad Also, when it comes to the Christianity, there’s really only one thing I don’t like about it. The idea of an all-powerful being that must be continually served and glorified just kind of irks me. It’s the reason that I haven’t been able to get myself invested in mostly any religion. But I also recognize that that’s mostly a me problem. I certainly don’t think that Tolkien was bad for being a Catholic, especially since he used his faith as a way to see the world with kindness and love. In fact, my great-grandmother is the exact same way. She is a Catholic, and she loves everyone, no matter what. I have gay cousins, and I myself am a transgender woman. She loves us all, and has never tried to push us into any particular lifestyle. And Tolkien was no different, as far as I can tell. He went above and beyond in terms of kindness and compassion. Keep in mind that he referred to Jews as a “gifted people” in 1938, when the Catholic Church’s official stance was that “the Jews are responsible for the death of Christ”. I don’t know if Tolkien personally believed that doctrine, but if he did, he doesn’t seem to have held a grudge. So yeah. Tolkien is the model of what a Christian should be.

[@TolkienRoad]

I agree, Tolkien is very much a model of the kind of Christian I want to be. Hence, this channel! :) Regarding "the idea of an all-powerful being that must be continually served and glorified", the reason that we serve and glorify God as Christians is because He is not only all-powerful, but also all-good, all-beautiful, and all-true. To NOT center our lives around God is to center it around something else that will ultimately disappoint and leave us unhappy. Drugs? Happy in the moment, but strung out and unhealthy. Money? You can't take it with you. And the list goes on. But to orient our lives on the Christian God - the Triune God, who is an eternal fellowship of Love - is to constantly discover redeeming grace and joy despite our sins and shortcomings. And the Christian God claims to have conquered both evil and death. Blessings to you on your journey!

[@craigvdodge]

I think some people might get hung up on the whole “the color white symbolizes good, black symbolizes bad” trope. But it’s not meant to be applied to race. Black Númenóreans weren’t “black” because of how much melanin they had. If someone goes on a killing spree and is later described as having a “black heart”, it’s not meant to imply that they received a heart transplant from an African-American donor. Of course, that’s just the people that are operating in good faith, and not just trying to generate clicks or be contrarian edgelords.

[@erickpoorbaugh6728]

From what I've seen, the association of white with good and black with evil far predates the association of white with Caucasians and black with Africans.

[@loldiers3238]

Where do you think that trope comes from? 🙄

[@soccerchamp0511]

@@loldiers3238 Historically speaking, in Europe the color black has been associated with sin, death, evil, darkness, the "bad", etc. without any connection to black people. Honestly, if you think about the natural world it makes sense. In Europe there are long, dark nights, and darkness is often when predators, like wolves, would roam. The dark of night also provides natural cover for bad men to do bad things. When food goes bad, it usually turns a dark color. When there is rot or decay in flesh it turns black.

[@HungryLoki]

@@loldiers3238 From the absence of light being darkness, obviously.

[@draketheduelist]

​@@loldiers3238Robbers and killers would often (and still generally do) operate at night, where their actions couldn't be seen. It's less that light is good and dark is bad per se, but that light exposes things as they truly are and darkness is a shroud for malicious scoundrels.

[@laserprop]

I'm a Jew, an enthusiastic (former) rugger like my hero Tolkien, and I have loved his works since I discovered them in 1973, at the age of nineteen. I don't know how in heaven's name anyone could have entertained the slightest suspicion that Tolkien harbored racial or religious bigotries. It's like suspecting George Washington of shoplifting. If anyone could tell me what rugby position Tolkien played, I'd be grateful (I was a prop forward; I named my beloved late mother's cockapoos Tighthead and Loosehead).

[@helenaconstantine]

Washington didn't need to shoplift. He had plenty of money he got from the labor of his slaves.

[@laserprop]

@@helenaconstantine Not all that much. Fairfax County is not the greatest place for farming. But you are at least right, in that his slaves were damned lucky to be there. You remember what Zora Neale Hurston said?

[@EwanCummins]

Washington was among the wealthiest men in the Thirteen Colonies. But a lot of that wealth was in real estate and slaves, it's true. @@laserprop

[@lightyagami1752]

I've never considered Tolkien a racist. Lovecraft, on the other hand...

[@lightyagami1752]

@@DBeskar6605 I don't have time for a long reply, but it is totally untrue that Lovecraft was "no more racist" than others of his time. He was abhorrently racist, even compared to prominent contemporaneous writers. One of my favourite authors of that period is Arthur Conan Doyle, and he was nowhere close to being as abhorrent in the sense of racial bigotry as Lovecraft. He even had stories like The Yellow Face which were remarkably progressive in their sympathetic treatment of interracial marriage and childbirth. In short, Lovecraft was just a racist.

[@jensphiliphohmann1876]

​@@DBeskar6605 The claim that the Darwinian theory of evolution were inherently racist is ludicrous.

[@TheSm1thers]

Even Lovecraft, while racist in his early life, completely changed his views later on in life. Even Gandhi was racist at some point. Racism was incredibly common back then.

[@grouchypotatowolfpack5580]

I prefer to think of lovecraft as xenophobic. What he didn't understand, he feared. That xenophobia is the emotional core of his work, and it spilled over into his racial views.

[@lightyagami1752]

@@grouchypotatowolfpack5580 There's no reason Lovecraft couldn't have been both. In fact, "xenophobia" seems to be used very often as a euphemistic rationalisation or even excuse for racism. Most self-professed "xenophobes" I know are actually quite racist. If we adhered to strict definitions, you can be xenophobic without being racist (someone in a multiracial country who loves his fellow countrymen, but won't tolerate immigration by someone of his own race) but I find it hard to envision a racist who's not a xenophobe. Sure, there are white supremacists who welcome immigration from other European-origin folk, but they would still balk at almost any other type of immigrant, so I would still consider them to be practically xenophobic. So, the TL;DR version is that I feel "xenophobia" has become a marginally more socially acceptable of relabelling racism. And Lovecraft was likely both.

[@AaronLitz]

_“I have in this war a burning private grudge against that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf Hitler. Ruining, perverting, misapplying, and making for ever accursed, that noble northern spirit, a supreme contribution to Europe, which I have ever loved, and tried to present in its true light.”_ I _love_ this quote from Tolkien, because it points out one of the crimes of the Nazis that often gets overlooked. It is a much lesser immediate crime compared to their wars of conquest and their commission of genocide, but it has had (and _will_ have) a very long-lasting effect; the horrible taint of Evil left permanently imprinted on so many innocent and simply _cool_ aesthetic objects. The most obvious being the swastika, which has been forever stripped of all its original meanings in the West, to all be permanently replaced with nothing but the idea of the Nazis (no one from the West will _ever_ be able to see a swastika and _not_ have the very first thing that comes to mind be Nazis.... probably for a long, long, _long_ time.) All kinds of really cool Germanic runes have become permanently been tainted by the Evil of the Nazis and their contemporary use by Neo-Nazi groups. All kinds of Northern European imagery in general has been permanently tainted by the Evil of the Nazis and Neo-Nazi groups. This is _yet another_ reason to hate the Nazis. This quote shows Tolkien correctly pointing out these _aesthetic crimes_ of the Nazis, and I truly believe that a lot of the misguided people who make these horribly incorrect (not to mention absolutely _libelous)_ accusations of Tolkien being Nazi-friendly have done so because they notice a similarity between elements in Tolkien's work and Nazi imagery and aesthetics, but they simply can't be bothered to do any kind of research to understand the origins of the imagery before making their accusations, can't be bothered to learn how the Nazis appropriated, misused, and abused so many of the same Northern European mythological ideas and aesthetic models that Tolkien drew on to create Middle-earth. They are apparently completely unaware that these Northern European aesthetic ideas _were not created by the Nazis,_ but instead were _looted_ by them, the same as all the other artistic treasures they looted from all over Europe... and yet these people still feel justified in making horrific accusations against Tolkien based on surface aesthetic similarities. No, they just _desperately_ want to find someone doing something wrong, and to make a splash by accusing someone as big as Tolkien of being a horrible racist and sympathizing with the Nazis, because that is how things are done these days: notice some surface details, immediately jump to as damning a conclusion as possible, especially to an un-nuanced, facile, and harshly judgemental conclusion, _never_ give any kind of benefit of the doubt, and shout it as loudly as possible for everyone to hear. All of the "Tolkien was a racist Nazi-lover" screeds I have ever read are totally devoid of actual analysis of his writing and are all based on vapid misunderstanding of surface details, and all boil down to "Orcs are black people!" or some other such ludicrous garbage. (This comparison may be "obvious" to the accusers, but I know it never even entered the mind of Tolkien, and I sure as Hell know that when _I_ read a description of Orcs the _last_ thing that comes to my mind is "Ya know, this really reminds me of black people!' The fact that it apparently _is_ the first thing that comes to minds of the accusers should be a serious warning to them that they need to stop, think, and take a good, long, deep look at themselves.)

[@FreedomAndPeaceOnly]

_"making forever accursed"_ ? Anyone who belives that truly, sounds unironically very r°cist to me. Wh°tes will forever be Earths best for all the good things they have already invented. Anyone disagreeing with that, does not deserve to wear t-shirts, have running water or electricity. People should know their place and respect the people who invented about 95% of all things that people love and enjoy today.

[@christophe9602]

Tolkien was a reactionary, it comes as no surprise he didn't ally with revolutionary ideologies such as Nazims or fascism at the time, even though it seems they would have common enemies in the early 20th century. The same was true of reactionaries in Germany (the Horst Wessel song even mentions reactionaries shooting brown shirts), albeit many of them allied with the Nazis (and later with the liberal capitalist West) when it became opportune for them. With the benefit of hindsight, one has to admit that inspite of nationalism and all its derivatives being Enlightenment ideologies at heart, allying with the liberal capitalists at every given opportunity certainly hasn't brought reactionary-conservatives many benefits in European history. Alas, one has to admit, conservatives never really do seem to take too many queues from history, and to this day prefer to lose with their principles intact. If he were alive today though, Tolkien would have to admit that the Alliance that threw its weight being the destruction of fascism, allying with the communists and indeed offering up half of Europe to them in the process, certainly did nothing to preserve Old Europe. If anything, they contributed more to its destruction than 50 years of communism did, and whatever vestiges are allowed to remain are done so as a tool of mockery or to desecrate them as a demoralization campaign (such as pride flags in churches). You blame Nazis for imprinting upon "cool aesthetic objects" their perceived "evil", but the liberal-capitalist West certainly does that and more, and it certainly wasn't something that Tolkien as a scholar couldn't imagine as a remote possibility because this had been the practice of leftists/revolutionary progressives etc. since the French Revolution. The fact that these sacred forms are mere "cool objects" to you is indicative of how the society left in the wake of the Second World War has purposefully cheapened all those things that people like Tolkien held dear. These are the people that call our mythology "cool stories" and than turn it into a comic book series. And yes, to the rabid leftist or liberal capitalists, i.e. the people that control the dialectic, (and one has to admit, among many others, national-socialists warned us about) Tolkien is a racist. Plain and simple. Tolkien, Hitler, Jordan Peterson, freaking Pewdiepie, you, me it's all the same to these people. Your rationalizing of Tolkien's world views as contemporary to his times or looking for proof in his writings of "progressive" ideology falls on deaf ears with these people, that have dedicated themselves to the destruction of all that is beautiful, traditional and decent. We now have the benefit of having witnessed 250+ years permanent revolution from these "progressive" types. What makes you think they're gonna start to get interested in seeing reason anytime soon?

[@recursiveslacker7730]

I mean, I’m extremely progressive and I haven’t seen people smearing Tolkien as racist in any of my circles. The idea that it’s common is an illusion fostered by the machinations of the modern day attention economy, where Balrog-hot takes naturally achieve the most visibility, be it from agreement or scornful mockery.

[@Lestibournes]

​@@christophe9602you seem to be using excessive rhetoric and jargon as a way of masking your true message, which seems to be a defense of fascism, when in reality fascism is just a nationalist form of Communism and is deeply immoral.

[@icicle_ai]

Another example is the Iron Cross. The medal originated 120 years *before* the founding of Nazi Germany yet if you use/like it you're a nazi

[@cuebj]

Excellent video. I saw something years ago by someone who purported to be an intellectual argue how Tolkien was racist. It was an astonishingly ignorant essay that indicated no reading of Tolkein at all, merely a vague awareness of LoTR. Tolkein was, in fact, anti-racist to a depth both of moral conviction and intellectual power in his field of northern European mythology that was unusually deep for his time and subculture.

[@chrisd2051]

I also love how people think that Tolkien a devout Catholic was secretly a pagan.

[@TolkienRoad]

He was a devout Catholic, 100%.

[@anonymousinfinido2540]

Yeah true, it was Rusell who was agnostic pagan. Darwin may be atheist I think.

[@adrianaslund8605]

He was a weird kind of christian. But his fiction largely reflected his faith in less than obvious ways.

[@chrisd2051]

@@adrianaslund8605 you calling Catholics weird bruh

[@chrisd2051]

@@anonymousinfinido2540 I heard that too about Darwin, not sure who Russell is though!

[@PaisleyPatchouli]

Of course Tolkien was not a nazi. Everything in his writing would seem to show that he was opposed to any kind of totalitarian regime. I'm glad he put his opinion in writing, I never read that Hitler quote...

[@letsomethingshine]

Everything together? Or every single individual thing alone? Return of the King is not about a totalitarian regime being established at least in name, if not by happenstance practice? Most people hear a lot of dumb nazis and pro-nazi-speech conservatives trying to put Tolkien in their anti-group-effort-pro-rich-person's-pyramid-scheme camp. And they read the original major works like The Hobbit that very shallowly put everything "black" as bad and "white" as good, and beyond that simplicity, they might also notice that after The Hobbit he became so anti-French language (and supporter of the conservative pro-monarchy anti-Republic dictator in Spain, Francisco Franco) that he changed from calling the bad guys the "too French term" Goblin and into calling them the "more Anglo-Saxon term" Orc.

[@johnisaacfelipe6357]

Except monarchy?

[@gordon_freeman2542]

​@@johnisaacfelipe6357I mean wasn't he British

[@lukefriesenhahn8186]

Anyone who calls Tolkien anything implying bad, they have to go through me, and millions of fans. He was a true Christian to the core, and his resentment for the Nazi's is clearly shown.

[@TolkienRoad]

🙌❤️👊

[@lukefriesenhahn8186]

@@TolkienRoad 👍

[@farahahmed8201]

Can you tell me his views on LGBTQ? I just wanna know

[@TolkienRoad]

@@farahahmed8201 He would not have known what "LGBTQ" meant, as that movement was not around back then. As for his thoughts on human sexuality in general, the best reference is Letter 43 from the Letters of JRR Tolkien. It is astonishingly frank, well thought out, and well worth the read for those interested. This is not to quote him, but I had to guess, I'm fairly certain his views on all questions of sexual morality would align with what you find in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. But read Letter 43, it will give you the clearest picture of Tolkien's views related to this topic.

[@matwatson7947]

@@farahahmed8201 He probably would not want gays to marry but would respect their decision and defend their right feel that way. He was a devout Catholic but also a staunch "rights" person. It would be interesting to know for certain though.

[@larrykuenning5754]

The letter to the German publisher was one of two draft answers which Tolkien sent to his own publisher (Allen & Unwin). "You are primarily concerned," he wrote in his cover letter to Allen & Unwin, "and I cannot jeopardize the chance of a German publication without your approval. So I submit two drafts of possible answers." (This is in #29 in his collected letters.) He said that his own preference was "to let a German translation go hang" by refusing to say that he had no Jewish ancestors, and that he would "regret giving any colour to the notion that I subscribed to the wholly pernicious and unscientific race-doctrine." The editor of the collected letters explains that the one you quote, which he prints as #30, is "the only one preserved in the Allen & Unwin files," and "it seems therefore very probable that the English publishers sent the other one to Germany. It is clear that in that letter Tolkien refused to make any declaration of 'arisch' origin."

[@TolkienRoad]

This makes me wonder if anyone has ever attempted to locate the other version of the letter.

[@kruggmichaels8958]

People who supported the Nazis during the war were thrown into concentration camps. No doubt the post was being monitored for pro-Nazi sentiment. Regardless of what his real thoughts were, he would not have put them into print and definitely not into a letter xD

[@willelm88]

Tolkien plainly had no use for Hitler or Nazism, but there is no evidence that he "refused to make any declaration of 'arisch' origin". The proposed German translation was indeed published; and it is hard to see how that could have happened if the German publisher had not received such a declaration. Most likely Tolkien's second draft, which Unwin did send to Germany, simply stated the facts about his ancestry without saying anything provocative or tendentious.

[@willelm88]

@@TolkienRoad It was likely lost in the War.

[@larrykuenning5754]

@@willelm88: What is your source for saying that "the proposed German translation was indeed published" (during the Nazi regime)? At the back of Douglas Anderson's _The Annotated Hobbit_ is a bibliography of translations of the book, which lists four German translations -- but none of them was published before 1957, when of course the Nazi regulations were long extinct. Your interpretation of the surviving draft to the German publishing company (the one kept in the Allen & Unwin files and never sent to Germany), as being the more strongly anti-Nazi of the two drafts, is not consistent with Tolkien's own description in his cover letter to Allen & Unwin. He says his preferred draft makes no declaration about his ancestry; but the one preserved in the Allen & Unwin files does declare that he has no Jewish ancestors, even though he surrounds this with anti-Nazi objections. If this was his preferred draft, then he mischaracterized it in his letter to Allen & Unwin, because for all its protests, it contains exactly the information the German publisher was required to obtain and which Tolkien said he preferred not to provide. Note also that Letter 37, to Stanley Unwin almost a year and a half later, mentions Tolkien's supposition that "the German edition of _The Hobbit_ will never appear now." ("Never" of course only means that in 1939 he couldn't foresee the postwar situation.) This was December 1939 by which time the war was in progress; one might suppose that a book by an English author that had not already appeared in German translation would not do so while the war lasted. Do you in fact have evidence that such a book came out before or during the war? As I understand it, a revised and expanded edition of Tolkien's letters, restoring some originally omitted material, will be published sometime this fall. Maybe it will contain more complete information about this group of letters -- or maybe not.

[@captainchaos3667]

It always seemed clear to me that Tolkien was pretty progressive for his time. One example being the strong and independent female characters. Another being that moment when Sam sees the fallen enemy soldier and wonders "what the man's name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home; and if he would rather have stayed there in peace," with the answer clearly being implied by Tolkien.

[@seekingabsolution1907]

That's why I love Tolkien and don't like it when fascists and other right wing types try to coopt his work. I am sympathetic to those who point out the elements of his writing that are kind of sketchy though. Tolkien was, I think something of a linguistic anthropologist at heart and his books reflect this in their portrayal of cultures diversifying, changing, and then warring or reuiniting to create new ones. On the other hand they also contain a bunch of swarthy easterners continuously betraying the rest of humanity by siding with the settings equivalent of demons and the devil over the righteous and holy pale faced westerners, which is, if you don't mind me saying, very reminiscent of racist colonialist narratives about the barbarity of the far east. He probably didn't intend it that way, but it is the way it turned out. I think in terms of what you might call progressive early fantasy writers Tolkien is ahead of his friend C.S. Lewis but behind Ursula Leguin.

[@SockieTheSockPuppet]

​@@seekingabsolution1907First off, you do realize that Fascists were openly and unapologetically Socialist, right? Second, you talk just like the type of people that Tolkien would have called an ignoramus.

[@klop4228]

​@@SockieTheSockPuppet They were absolutely not. They used some of the same rhetoric, but given the original fascist text by Gentile (edited by Mussolini) they explicitly explain why fascism is _not_ socialism. In Nazi Germany, in the final vote where all the power was given over to the Nazi Party, the Communist Party (the opposition, with a large proportion of the parliament) just didn't show up to the vote. And I can't imagine that's because nobody wanted to. Socialists were also one of the main "boogeymen" of Nazi Germany. They were blamed for a fair bit. Yeah, Nazis were "National Socialists", but they had very little to do with real socialism.

[@SockieTheSockPuppet]

@klop4228 Okay, so you either didn't read Gentile and Mussolini's _The Doctrine of Fascism_ AT ALL, or you are lying. Because Gentile and Mussolini made it explicitly clear that not only was Fascism absolutely Socialism, it was their idea of "pure Socialism", Socialism not dirtied by the Marxist school of thought. We see this further because Gentile and Mussolini only made the ideology as a direct response to Communists taking over the Italian Socialist Party. Furthermore, you do know that the Nazis quite literally started out in Weimar as a Communist party, right? They only became ideologically Fascist when the Strasser brothers took them over. You can still see this with their 25 Points, which are compromised of many direct holdovers from their more Commie days. I mean come on, it's common knowledge also that the Brownshirts, the Nazis' thugs, were publicly/openly mocked as "beefsteaks" (brown on the outside, red on the inside) all the way up until they gained enough political and physical power to scare people into stopping. If you're simply merely ignorant on the subject, I recommend TIKHistory for his videos of extensive knowledge and research. He has so many details with corresponding citations and direct evidence provided that his videos run pretty long, but even his ultra-condensed 45 minute video on the subject still doesn't miss a beat. He also used to be a diehard Socialist himself, so he knows what he's talking about.

[@johnreed4743]

Imagine going around calling people "ignoramus" while dropping one of the most mind-numbingly dumb takes of history about the Nazis. Flashnews for you, pal: fascists co-opt things all the time. That's how they work. From art to politics, fascists can't create anything because, in the end, their ideology is based on the hate and destruction of a big shadowy enemy, just to justify their existence and keep themselves in power. Just because Hitler's personal army of brainwashed bitch boys called themselves socialists, doesn't mean they were.

[@Bear78420]

Even the people who call him sexist don’t consider the times. Eowyn destroys an evil no man could. For his time, that’s a feminist view. That women were not only as capable as men but could do things even men couldn’t. Because there aren’t lots of female characters people say he’s sexist. This whole story began because of his love and admiration and respect for his to be wife. He was far from sexist. He considered her the most beautiful immortal goddess in the world and he but a mortal man. I’d say he had great respect for women, personally.

[@rikk319]

Whether "some people" say he's sexist doesn't make it true. There's going to be a spectrum of people who think all sorts of things about any celebrity or famous person; that's just par for the course...because the world is filled with people from one end of the spectrum to the other.

[@khankrum1]

What do these concepts matter to a deceased man? This modedern pointless revisionism is meaningless. It changess nothing. The past remains the past for good or ill. A wise man once said: Let he who is without sin cast the first stone! Stone throwers tend to be hypocrites

[@MXB2001]

It's pathetic. Look at Galadriel and Celeborn. Celewho? She wears one of the 3 rings, not he.

[@MadsterV]

These people came for Disney. They tried and tried, but couldn't get their dirty mitts on his company until long after his death. Once they did, they slowly ruined his legacy. They already came for Tolkien and have already begun ruining his legacy as well. They are against beauty and virtue. They cannot create, only destroy. They will not stop as long as they live.

[@jordanjoestar-turniptruck]

Lobelia's redemption is also a very underrated moment in Tolkien's writing women. And its as far as possible from that "ethereal pedestal" people typically talk about too.

[@tomnaughadie]

Thank you for posting this. A lot of people make a lot of assumptions about Tolkien. These days a lot of people seem to assume he would agree with them in hatred.

[@TolkienRoad]

🙌

[@MegaKnight2012]

There's an academic man, Joseph Pearce, a former racist Neo-Nazi, who cites reading Tolkien and Lewis as turning himself anti-racist and anti-Neo Nazi

[@allhopeabandon7831]

...and he would disagree with how Lefties paint anyone who disagrees with, or refuses to exult on a supreme pedestal, the lgbtqia+++ lifestyle. The whole 'silence is violence' ethos of the Left, which basically states that either you are a vocal supporter of EVERYTHING the lgbtqai+++ community does and stands for, or you are an enemy. I will NEVER celebrate ANYONE'S delusion, but so long as you keep it amongst yourselves, then I will defend your right to freely love who you want to love, and live with who you want to live with, bc as a conservative, I don't want the government telling you what to do, or me what to agree with...

[@placebo5466]

"Perhaps you should concern yourself with reading books, instead of burning them." - Henry Jones Sr.

[@thevillageyid]

This makes me love Tolkien even more. And aye, I'm Jewish.

[@TolkienRoad]

AWESOME! :)

[@bookmouse2719]

me too

[@or_gluzman561Peace_IL_PS]

me as well

[@ccchhhrrriiisss100]

I agree. Besides, am I the only person who reads something of a parallel with the nation of Israel and the events in THE HOBBIT? The Dwarves became a great nation and saw the "Arkenstone" as the symbolic emblem of that divine selection. Yet, they trusted in themselves and their own greatness and wealth. Consequently, they were eventually cast out by a great dragon who moved into their land. They were scattered among the other lands yet dreamed of one day returning to their sacred mountain. This was written in 1937. In the Bible, we read the story of the people of Judah who were a great nation. Their symbol of being God's chosen people was the Temple built on a holy mountain. In that Temple was the Ark of the Covenant. However, some of the kings led both Israel and (eventually) Judah astray. Israel was carried off into exile by the Assyrians and then the Babylonians seized the land and holy mountain. The Temple was destroyed and the Ark was lost. The Jews went into captivity -- but dreamed of returning to the land and mountain that was promised. They re-founded the nation of Israel in 1948. For me, it's difficult to NOT see a parallel. Even for a children's book, it seems to parallel the plight of the Jewish nation.

[@محمدالعمري-ز9و]

"Israel" has nothing to do with the culture and history the Middle East. They are just some East Europeans who started to settle in the Middle East and clean Palestine from its population with the help of the British and other Western imperialists. This criminal clique just finds it cool to label itself "Israel" after a civilisation that was once there in the ancient era which like other ancient civilisations like the Babylonians and Pharaons are gone since thousands of years. The dwarfs in the "Hobbit" didn't get help by superpowers, by the way.

[@alecfoster5542]

Thank you for making this video. Tolkien was also an extremely devout Roman Catholic, and his Trilogy is full of Christian symbolism (the death and resurrection of Gandalf, etc.). He was also a lifelong friend of the devout Anglican writer and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis.

[@Siegfried5846]

There are several instances of resurrections or returns from the dead in various mythologies predating the story of Jesus Christ. Here are a few notable examples: Ancient Egyptian Mythology: In Egyptian mythology, the god Osiris is killed by his brother Set and dismembered, but is later resurrected by his wife and sister, Isis. Osiris then becomes the ruler of the underworld and the judge of the dead. Ancient Greek Mythology: In Greek mythology, the god Dionysus (also known as Bacchus) is said to have been killed and resurrected. According to the myth, he is torn apart by Titans or jealous gods, but his heart is saved by his grandmother Rhea. Zeus later reconstitutes Dionysus and he is reborn. Norse Mythology: In Norse mythology, the god Baldr is killed by Loki, who tricks Baldr's blind brother Hodr into throwing a mistletoe dart, which is the only thing that can harm Baldr. After Baldr's death, the gods attempt to bring him back to life, but they are only partially successful, and he remains in the realm of the dead. Mesopotamian Mythology: In Mesopotamian mythology, the goddess Inanna (also known as Ishtar) descends into the underworld, where she is killed and her body hung on a hook. However, with the help of her assistant, she is revived and returns to the land of the living. These are just a few examples, and resurrection or return from the dead motifs can be found in many mythological traditions worldwide. The story of Jesus' resurrection in Jewish mythology is not unique in terms of the concept of resurrection in mythology.

[@alecfoster5542]

@@Siegfried5846 Those are interesting examples. But what is your point? Tolkien himself as well as his biographers are transparent about the Catholic influence on Tolkien's writings. And I am not in any way saying Tolkien was not original in his creativity. Also, Jewish mythology is the LAST thing the Gospels are! If you don't believe me, ask a rabbi.

[@Siegfried5846]

@@alecfoster5542 My point is that resurrection isn't an exclusively Judeo-Christian idea. I know that Tolkien has said that Christianity influenced him, but I also know that he said that he wasn't aware of it when writing it. He might have been "coping" when he wrote that. I for one didn't see any Christianity in the books, and I thought that Sauron was meant to represent Abrahamism, since Mordor was in the south east. I thought that the orcs, who were corrupted elves, were meant to represent Christians. After all, it was Christianity that raped and destroyed the Norse culture that the books are based on. I was very disappointed to learn that Tolkien was a Christian, and I feel that this takes away from the books, if these themes are truly there. Maybe I'll have to stick to Wagner for something purely Norse, but I truly did love these books before I found out more about the writer. I shall delve deeper into this in the future to see if these Christian themes are there or not. If not, I will separate the art from the artist, and I'll read these books again and again. Also, the Jews are most certainly the rightful inheritors of Christendom. After all, Paul, Jesus and his apostates are *their* forebears. I wish them the best with it.

[@orlog3343]

@@Siegfried5846stop watching anime man

[@Siegfried5846]

@@orlog3343 Maybe start saying something of worth instead of parroting these same old shaming tactics.

[@cyberslayer002]

I like how Tolkien specifically referred to Hitler as a "ruddy little ignoramus", which was probably a direct stab at Hitler's claim to represent the tall, blond-haired, blue-eyed Aryan people.

[@ProtoIndoEuropean88]

@@DrBased Fellow pagan here, Man these comments are literally filled with idiots, it's amazing.

[@JuliaTanno]

Thanks for making this video. I am so tired of people being falsely accused of being racist.

[@kruggmichaels8958]

Who cares if people are racist?

[@V1489Cygni]

This time around it was nothing but an orchestrated move by aceess media (and promptly followed by shills with too many good intentions for their own good) to shield an objectively bad show from criticism. Diversity hires moved from "making you look good" to making you untouchable. You know they got nothing because they're *always* the first ones to whine about "big corporations", "greed" or "inequality", but always dilligently form ranks to defend the latest massive corporation that touted their talking points. Accusations of -ism are far more often than not just the weaponization of language to get the timid people in the middle to stand aside and not pick the opposition's side.

[@Cacowninja]

In relation to that I'm tired of people being accused of being the opposite of who they really are case in point Tolkien.

[@JuliaTanno]

@@Cacowninja What does that mean?

[@Cacowninja]

@@JuliaTanno Tolkien was accused of being antisemitic and a Nazi sympathizer both of which were the opposite. I'm tired of the accuse someone of something they're not or the exact opposite of.

[@cheezemonkeyeater]

Tolkien's letters to anyone are examples of abundant poetry in common speech. Watching him turn that against people he disliked is so fantastic, because he can make his polite, flowery words bear so much understated venom.

[@allenjenkins7947]

I don't think that anyone who has really read and understood The Hobbit and LOTR would consider Tolkien to be any sort of racist. However, we seem to be living in a time when knowledge of and pride in your own history and culture is increasingly being labelled as racist by the ignorant and uneducated.

[@paulinequinton1478]

Personally I would be inclined to see pride in British imperial history and its culture to be racist. Depressed to find that this means that I am ignorant and uneducated.

[@JamesPhieffer]

​@@paulinequinton1478you can take pride in your nation and its history while still acknowledging its flaws. I'm Canadian, and I take pride in all the positives of its history, and assume I have a responsibility to live up to the efforts of those who came before me. But I'm also fully cognizant of the harm done by some of those same people. If we see society as progressing then we also need to acknowledge that those who came before were products of a society that was flawed and immature. Hence the racism that permeated it, to a greater or lesser extent. That does not excuse what was wrong. It simply means we can't hold people responsible for being of their time. But even within that time, there were people who went beyond in their acts of evil - and they were often noted for that at the time.

[@allenjenkins7947]

@@paulinequinton1478 If you think that the whole of British culture and history is summed up in the brief period of Empire, then you are truly ignorant and it is you who are the racist.

[@paulinequinton1478]

@@JamesPhieffer Fair enough.

[@jackrutledgegoembel5896]

I mean he said some weird semi-racist-sounding stuff about he way Orcs look in his books.

[@GerudoKing_]

My respect for Tolkien has grown even more after watching this. Thank you for this information.

[@TolkienRoad]

Love to hear this. Thank you! 🙌

[@michaelkelleypoetry]

The part of the quote before the section you mention is even more of a hilarious poke in the eye on the part of Tolkien against Nazi Germany. He says he doesn't know what they mean by "Arish", and then goes on to say, if they mean Aryan, he doesn't appear to have ancestry of, and then lists many groups of actual Aryans that the Nazis would have hated. Tolkien was a boss. 😂

[@erickpoorbaugh6728]

And in case anyone doesn't understand---the actual Aryans are a group of ethnicities in southern Asia that have nothing to do with the Germans. The Nazis calling themselves "Aryan" is like a group of Japanese supremacists calling themselves "Celts." Relatedly, the swastika is an ancient Indian symbol that had nothing to do with racism until the Nazis stole it. I don't know why the Nazis picked a culture thousands of miles away to mislabel themselves as, but then, intellectual consistency was never their strong suit.

[@Bacopa68]

Yes, and he even points out that Gypsies, a group persecuted by the Nazis, have more of a claim to be Aryan than any European does.

[@michaelkelleypoetry]

@@erickpoorbaugh6728 The swastika is a Buddhist symbol that's supposed to ward off evil spirits. The Nazis were highly superstitious which is why they chose the symbol. Ironically, since they were the evil ones, one could argue that the swastika ended up warding off the Nazis themselves. 😂😂😂

[@ferocient]

@@erickpoorbaugh6728 The swastika symbol is not unique to Asia. It appeared independently in many cultures including in ancient Mesoamerica as well as in northern Europe. It made its appearance in various religions including Christianity. In fact, there was a swastika on a catholic monastery near Hitler's Austrian boyhood home (some theorize this may have been of some influence to him).

[@Laurelin70]

@@michaelkelleypoetry The swastika is an indo-european symbol of the Sun. So it diffused all over Europe when Indoeuropeans (or just indo-aryans, at the time) "invaded" Europe. Since the race-doctrine insisted on the "purity" of the race, it concluded that the "purest" Europeans were the ones with the most clear and unmixed indoaryan ancestry. In the eyes of the Nazi ideology, Germans (not only Germany inhabitants but German people, like Swedes and all Norses) were those "purest" indoaryans, because they didn't have (in their minds: in reality... it's another story) foreign invasions. This kind of "retracing your cultural roots to the uttermost ancient time" was very common at the time, and it was at the base of the "Celtic Revival" in Ireland (along with the independece claim) and of the "Ancient Rome revival" in Italy under the Fascism (but also before that). But also of the Folk revival in Britain and ultimately also of Tolkien's dream of "making a mythology for England". Unfortunately in some cases it led to something akin to racism, or at least ethnic/cultural suprematism.

[@jameskent5347]

Tolkien was very clear that people from the humblest backgrounds can achieve amazing things. That we all have our own strengths and can use them to overcome the darkness of the world and within. We all are stronger when are united. No matter what race, tribe, or creed.

[@seanbigay1042]

Tolkien was a devout Christian, to the point of fretting over his own characterization of the Orcs as an Always Chaotic Evil race -- something that ran counter to Jesus' teaching that anyone can be saved if he but confess his sin. (And as far as the Orcs go, it's not hard to see in their unrelenting brutality more than a smidgen of the urgent ferocity of the Blitzkrieg.)

[@quentinsummers2531]

I wonder what Jesus thought of Judas, descendent of judah(father of the jews)? I wonder What Jesus really meant in Revalation 3:9 or in John 8:44 ?

[@seanbigay1042]

@@quentinsummers2531 Just off the top of my head, I'd say Jesus was deeply disappointed by Judas Iscariot, who basically clung to his old, mistaken ideas and refused to open his eyes to what Jesus was really teaching. As for John 8:44, in the previous verse the Jews (which is to say, the Pharisees) claimed, "We are not an illegitimate breed! We have but one Father and He is God!" To which Jesus replied, "I'm from God, so why do you reject Me? If you reject Me, then your real father isn't God but the other guy!" Which is why in Revelation 3:9 He talks about making these Jews in name only (JINOs?) fall at his feet and admit to their hypocrisy.

[@S.D.323]

Well the orcs are quite tragic in any case due to them being turned into what they are by morgoth

[@andreasklindt7144]

Another proof that Tolkien was *not* racist can be found in his stories, since every main character has friends from other races/species. Aragorn, Gandalf, Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin became friends not only with humans, elves and dwarfs, but also with the strangest beings, like Beorn, Tom Bombadil, Treebard and they even tried to save Smeagol. OK, Gimli was very aggressive towards elves at first, but he *overcame* his prejudices and considered Legolas a very good if not his best friend in the end. Aragorn married an Elf when he became king! Wouldn't a racist keep the bloodlines and relationships "pure"? And the racism, or better, prejudices towards others that do appear always have roots in negative things like greed, traumatic historical events that went sour, or coruption by the evil power of Sauron. But what you can learn about races from Tolkiens stories is, I think, that you can become friends with everyone, even if they are totally different from you and behave differently.

[@azzajames7661]

Tolkien is a true English gentleman and his works are brilliant 👏 I'm also glad you are putting the truth out there to stop these haters on their wrong tracks👏

[@anitarichmond8930]

I love & respect the Jews a culture steeped in traditions . I will never understand why hate for them is a thing. I don’t want to live in a world where people could be vilified for their ancestry.

[@TolkienRoad]

100% agree.

[@Siegfried5846]

Marcus Eli Ravage was a Jew who wrote about why he thought White people hated them. It was interesting.

[@Wintermute01001]

"I will never understand why hate for them is a thing." One word: Christianity

[@Siegfried5846]

@@Wintermute01001 It is as Marcus Eli Ravage said.

[@barccy]

Judaism summed up is "exploit and exterminate non-Jews". If you'd like a citation, the commandments to do this have been translated into English many times in one some of the most printed books of all time.

[@alexanderg1935]

This video deserves more views. Great work.

[@TolkienRoad]

Thank you and at your service!

[@sector7g549]

I found you because of what's happening in NY. Its a shame this is under viewed. Unfortunately people who only watch film think themselves an authority on Tolkien. Not to many years ago I was lost in school. I was bored with the mundane teachings of what seemed to be a direction for my mind that others would comply with. On a book shelf in the study hall was a well worn paperback novel called The Lord of The Rings. The rest is history. I was guided toward Socrates and Voltaire and so many things because of Tolkien. I am in no way interested in fiction these days but my education began with Tolkien. Teachers at that point became useless arbiters of group think socialist rhetoric. I have no papers to confirm anything but im sure glad I didn't go to Harvard.

[@asoiaf.got.3048]

What

[@sumanadasawijayapala5372]

And I'm sure Harvard is glad that you didn't get in too!

[@bazoo513]

You might not have a first idea about "socialism", but at least you seem to appreciate Ardbeg. That's a start...

[@annmarieblanc6363]

@@bazoo513 Is socialism a good thing? Regards, Andy, Annmarie's husband

[@MegaKnight2012]

​@@bazoo513Socialism and Communism have failed wherever implemented, and their failures have claimed the lives of a 100 million under their direct rule

[@FuchsiaFire444]

He was a man of ideology, high consciousness, and character. People misusing and throwing around the word racist as if its a free ticket to wealth, status, and respect from the easily programmed are irresponsible, self pitying, and lack character.

[@TolkienRoad]

INDEED 🙌

[@Rick_King]

I've never heard anything so negative about Tolkien, but I'm glad to hear that he was so strongly against the Nazis. I believe he was a good man, and I know he was a fabulous storyteller. Thanks for the video!

[@TolkienRoad]

I'm glad you haven't been exposed to the vicious calumnies against him. Hopefully, if you ever are, this has served you well. Also, I'd say he was a UNIQUELY GREAT man, but hey, this is a channel / podcast about Tolkien, so...

[@celtspeaksgoth7251]

I always thought the hobbits were based on us Welsh and that Middle Earth a re-imagining of Dark Ages Britain. Apparently as a 12 year old he was fascinated to see the word Adeilwyd written in stone on a house in Wales. That means Constructed, probably with a date. A lot of his heroes have Welsh sounding names, even those who I assumed were based on Nordic types.

[@MegaKnight2012]

England is a Celtic and Germanic, what we often call Nordic, land, and Tolkien wanted to celebrate that. It's a pity Tolkien and Lewis didn't use their scholarly abilities to draw even more attention to England's older Welsh tradition, like how King Arthur was Welsh. The Welsh heritage goes so uncredited throughout the vast English speaking world. Tolkien did write that Hobbits were a kind of humans in Middle Earth, a term he pulled from Norse to refer to Earth, aka, Midgard, and his tales likely represent a pre-Christ world, maybe even a pre-Noah's Flood (and in those days, the Sons of God joined with the Daughters of Man and produced the heroes of renown). Though, Tolkien didn't just limit himself to the Celtic and Germanic. The Dwarven language is based on Hebrew, whilst Quenya is based on Finnish, and Sindarian based on Welsh, because Tolkien liked those languages. Tolkien feel in love with Finnish culture, combining a Finnish tragic tale with the Nordic tale of Siegfried (a Hun) to make his epic tragedy, The Children of Hurin. As memory serves, the Children of Hurin gives examples of noble Easterlings, likely a tribute to the Hun, Hungarian, and Finnish literature which Tolkien drew from, and Hungarian and Finnish are Uralic languages, and some see some Asian languages as Uralic.

[@foundationofBritain]

The hobbits are directly analogues to us English... and the Shire to England. Idk where your getting the idea that they were based on you Welsh... the Elvis,(I think), were based on you Welsh. It was literally written to be an English mythology for Englishmen and England... just as the Arthurian Legends are for you Welsh.

[@AtheAetheling]

@@foundationofBritain The Elves aren't based on the Welsh, but on a mythological creature from English and Germanic folklore, forest dwellers with incredible power to heal or harm. However, one of their Elvish languages was based on Welsh as a baseplate, so that might be what you're thinking of. The Hobbits indeed are an idealised English people, and many of the races of men, specifically Rohan, are almost one for one historical copies of Anglo-Saxon civilisations, particularly Mercia. In fact, if you listen to Eowyn singing in the second movie, she's actually singing in old English.

[@eekee6034]

His hobby was creating languages. In his words, he created his stories for his languages, to have a place for his languages to develop; not the languages for the stories. In designing the Quenya and Sindarin elvish languages, he struggled for a long time until he found Welsh and Finnish to his taste and used used something of these real languages as a foundation for his fictional languages. (I'm not a linguist, I don't know the right terms. :) It's not surprising that speakers of Welsh and Finnish find something familiar in his work. Sindarin was the elves' common speech and Quenya was almost like Latin is today, except that names were often based on Quenya words. I don't remember language which was based on which, but if names are what remind you of Welsh, that must mean Welsh was the foundation for the Latin of Tolkein's magnificent fantasy world. :) The impression I get of Tolkein's era is that other scholar would have selected Latin or Greek, but Tolkein selected what was then a discouraged and disapproved language as the foundation for his Latin.

[@valerietaylor9615]

I’m not a fan of Tolkien’s work, but this was very interesting. He must have been a good man.

[@TolkienRoad]

One of the best, in my opinion - someone I deeply love, admire, and strive to be like on a personal level.

[@squishypineT03]

No. I've never heard anyone claim, nor imply such things. Rightfully so, because the man was a literary genius and magnificent storyteller.

[@TolkienRoad]

Count yourself lucky that you haven't had to suffer such malignant ignorance.

[@bonescdxx]

Thought I had a bout with Tinnitus, but it was only your background music. Great video though.

[@lomax343]

That letter to the German publisher. Tolkien actually wrote two letters, one with that sentence in it, and one rather more conciliatory. He sent both letters to his agent, and told the agent to forward whichever one they thought better.

[@tammycenter8757]

J.R.R. Tolkien served in the British Army during World War I, most notably in the Battle of the Somme. Tolkien was invalided from the Somme with trench fever just before his fellow soldiers were moved on to another ordeal at Ypres. He had been in battle twice: early in the campaign in a night attack on a ruined village, and again when a German trench was seized in the cold autumn daylight. In between he had been made battalion signaling officer and spent long weeks in the trenches where he witnessed all the horrors of mechanised death. How ignorant of people to think that a man who spent time fighting against Germany would be a Nazi sympathizer. That is one of the craziest things I have ever heard.

[@IndianaJonesTDH]

Tolkien fought against the German Empire/ the Kaiserriech not National Socialist Germany just saying you should probably slightly tweak last one even if you didnt mean by it it coemes off that way

[@lollolowski8956]

​@@IndianaJonesTDHsame evils

[@IndianaJonesTDH]

@@lollolowski8956 how was the german monarchy bad........ or even evil They were not the same One of united German state under a monarch that had reletive good policys and some democratic institutions Compare to a dictatorship and ideology based on racial theory And extermination and conquest

[@lollolowski8956]

@@IndianaJonesTDH read its history and u will know.

[@IndianaJonesTDH]

@@lollolowski8956 I did study some German History And the Monarchy wasnt that bad the kaiserriech for most part was a very morally good stable decent prosperous country You need to give actual evidence and reason then just saying its evil and go learn history Thats not how debates work or constructive conversations

[@fartkerson]

That hardcover of The Hobbit brings back memories of old libraries before everything went digital. I went to my local library to walk through the rows of musty books and they were all gone.

[@waitingforyouatthedoe2267]

I feel like, the very heart of pretty much every story in the legendarium is the differences between people often bringing us together in times of need. I feel like the very concept of the Fellowship drives this point home. I’m a huge fan of the entire story of middle earth & as a black man, the story strikes me more as a story that proves the importance of friendship despite our differences& how we are all connected through various circumstances and those connections may cause division at points but our unions becomes that much stronger as a result when we learn from them.

[@TolkienRoad]

I 100% agree with your view. YOU NAILED IT. This is a story about how a common fight for what is good is capable of uniting disparate peoples, factions, and ethnicities. A supporting theme is the BEAUTY of difference - Elves, Men, Dwarves, and Hobbits are all appreciated for their various cultures, backgrounds, and attributes. I hesitate to use the term "anti-racist" because I feel it has been co-opted in recent years for highly cynical, myopic, and destructive political aims, but if I can rewind the time machine on the term, I truly believe LOTR is the most anti-racist work I've ever read, in the actual sense of what the term would have meant to Tolkien. Thanks for understanding where I was trying to go with this, there have been a lot of really discouraging comments on this video, but these kinds of comments make it all worthwhile! :)

[@waitingforyouatthedoe2267]

@@TolkienRoad Honestly same. Like I said, I’m black & I don’t think there can be any racial connotations in the entire lore of the story that are not addressed head on through the interactions between the characters & the overarching narrative all to circle back to the unity of it all, the oneness of us as people living on this world. There are no lesser or greater people, only people born to & under different circumstances with access to different resources & knowledge. We are all individually different but in many ways, we are all universally so similar. We all make do & in general “small acts of kindness & love” do keep the monsters of our own world in hiding, no matter how great they are. Even Putin won’t step foot outside his country. Osama was hiding in a fairly plain mansion in a country that he’s not native to. Hitler, hid in bunkers. Etc, etc. time shows us that every so often, people come about with great wisdom and influence and decide to use it to the peril of others & for their own benefit instead of for the benefit for everyone as a whole. But I like to believe that though a lot of us probably operate in a relatively grey or neutral area, most people are inherently good. Like I’ve seen and met far more compassionate people in my life, having lived in NYC my whole life, doing bouncer work and selling real estate here, traveling the world, just meaning people. I feel most are inherently good & even the bad apples were once a good person, something just snaps but to quote my favorite character once more “not all those who wander, are lost.” & wandering or no, as long as we are still breathing, we can always strive for the better.

[@waitingforyouatthedoe2267]

Awesome channel btw. I JUST found it as I saw this video & I just had to subscribe! Keep up the grind man!

[@TolkienRoad]

Thank you so much - keep in touch on your journey!

[@TolkienRoad]

I too believe that people are inherently good (even the bad ones) - though we are easily led astray (often in ignorance, but also by our own foolish consent). That's something I also see very strongly in Tolkien's works. After all, Sauron was good in the beginning, but seduced to evil by Melkor. And even Melkor, in the deeps of time, desired to fill the emptiness of the void. The question is, once we've turned to evil, how do we find our way back to the good?

[@benjaminbrewer2569]

I love the accuracy of Tolkien’s wording, so clearly and precisely expressing his ideas.

[@FS-qk5kp]

great video. Acusing Tolkien or being Nazi is ridiculous. In his books presents different people as having all it's own values. And how the ones that look weaker are in someways the strongest.

[@TolkienRoad]

WORD

[@flickcentergaming680]

*cough cough* HOBBITS *cough*

[@joarcokru]

Imagine taking a an American liberal to Middle Earth? She would argue that orcs could be good and call for people to understand and respect their language, cuisine and even religion of Morgoth. She might even marry one and create a race of half orcs. Imagine her being and elf who doesn’t recognize the superiority of elven culture, technology and language. She might even complain that Gondor should never have accepted a foreign king only because he had blood ties with the extinct dynasty and call for elections.

[@erickpoorbaugh6728]

Interestingly, the closest thing to Nazis in Tolkien's works (at least among the humans of Middle Earth) were the fallen Numenoreans, who are also the most evil human faction in Tolkien's works.

[@rikk319]

@@joarcokru Terrible strawman argument there. I have some ideals that are more liberal than probably most people you may know. I'd also love to live in Middle-Earth, because I can accept that for that time, a benevolent monarchy was what went for progressive ideals. Tolkien's own liberal ideals on environmentalism clashed with the standard conservatism of his time, too. Maybe you need to realize that no person is a cookie-cutter, black-and-white caricature of liberal or conservative, but a collection of thousands of values, some left, middle, and right.

[@dudermcdudeface3674]

Tolkien was a man of his times, as literally everyone is, but he was an enlightened man. He knew evil when he saw it, and he was furious that someone would claim to represent the cultures of Europe while actively destroying them. I feel for the pain Tolkien must have felt seeing that darkness overrun the continent he loved and turn its traditions into excuses for atrocity. At very least we should understand he based his cultures on Finland, and not Germany. The Germans were the traitors in his lore: Isengard and the fallen souls of late Gondor.

[@js2749]

Tolkien’s only racism (if you can call it racism) was his hatred for evil

[@rikk319]

That's not a form of racism. Racism is a form of discrimination, an unjust form of treatment. Hating evil is very justified.

[@solushyperborea]

orcs are black people and elves are nordic aryans like me ;3

[@rikk319]

@@solushyperborea Um no. Tolkien disliked allegory, so no they aren't. Orcs and elves aren't human. Aryan isn't even a racial term, unless you believe in Nazi ideology, which isn't even based on science. Most elves aren't even blonde, if you've ever read the Silmarillion. According to anthropology, aryans are people descending from the Indian subcontinent. Oops. Using the term "nordic aryan" is as stupid as saying "wet fire".

[@PXCharon]

​@@solushyperboreaThe orcs are orcs, not representative of any one ethnicity on earth. But perfectly representative of what becomes of a people who are corrupted to become both ignorant of their own history and taught to value hatred, arrogance, and bloodlust in the name of a personality cult. Much like the sort of people who call themselves aryan... The elves are elves. Exactly that, the fae of northern European mythos. Beings who don't wholly belong in the world, but are gifted with a connection to it's natural state. Which you would know if you had any knowledge at all of the mythos of the people you claim to be decendend from.

[@solushyperborea]

@@rikk319 google Kurgan Hypothesis Aryans and all Europeans do not come from Europe. we are from Eurasia, and originally from Siberia (Ancient North Eurasian/ANE/Ancient North Siberian paleo-cultures) we invaded and conquered Europe from without. the native people of europe were Haradrics/Southrons and we rightfully conquered and took it over now we have all these damn haradrim and Uruk-Hai coming in trying to take over our elven kingdom and mordor (israel) is supporting them.... SO SAD! The Eurasian steppe is so vast that multiple invasions can take place at once As India was invaded by Aryans, so was Europe under the Yamnayan Koryos 'invasions' anyways the Eurasian Hunter Gatherers / ANE (Aryans) were blonde/red/dirty-blonde haired and always blue eyed, very low rates of brown eyes. The people of the indian subcontinent are the descendants of another set of conquerors from Sintashta called the Aryan invaders. Aryans don't come from India, rather they came from what is now Ukraine--Kazakhstan--Caucasus (originally migrating to there via Mongolia/Tarim ANE) and conquered into Europe/Sumeria/India Sumerian gods are Indo-European gods which is how we know they were conquered... the people of the region were unproductive farmers until the Aryan invasion, where they magically created society just as the good genetics got introduced to their civilization. This is the same with India, the original natives of India (Dasyu) were similar to the modern sentinelese, and India was made into a vast series of wealthy kingdoms with stunning architecture via the Aryan conquerers, who instated a racial caste (Brahmins had blue eyes until the 1800s) We are like the Numenorians, the custodian gardeners of earth, and Uruk-Hai/Sauron are trying at no end to destroy our creation (because it is good)

[@pbrn1729]

Thank you for sharing this important story for all to hear🙏🏻

[@janiceleeripley443]

Thank you. I did not know some of the information you have shared here. Thank you.

[@TolkienRoad]

At your service!

[@Einauge1987]

As a German, I NEVER believed Tolkien would sympathize with the Nazis. His works were too full of respect among otherwise rather hostile races for that.

[@TolkienRoad]

Exactly, but it's amazing how many people don't get this.

[@KSCHREIN2]

For me personally, I have always interpreted Legolas and Gimli's friendship as a metaphor for how people from vastly different cultures and races can become friends and allies, irregardless of Their obvious differences.

[@TolkienRoad]

I think that's the way Tolkien would have wanted it! The Fellowship is such a beautiful image of diverse peoples coming together through a common and just cause.

[@bluebird5173]

Not only was Tolkien _not_ racist, but he was anti-racist. He opposed racism in the real world, speaking out against Nazi race theories. He didn't believe any race was better than another. That being said, I do think Tolkien, being a product of his time, subconsciously drew influence from racist attitudes of his period when creating his fictional racial hierarchies. What I mean is, he grew up in an era in which Nordicist attitudes were widely accepted, so although he rejected these ideas in the real world, he nevertheless drew upon them in his fictional world, ranking certain races above others just as Victorians did in real life. But I don't think Tolkien _intended_ for his racial hierarchies to be a _validation_ of real world racist attitudes toward race. For him, hierarchies were purely fictional and an interesting device by which to drive storytelling. What people don't understand is, not EVERYTHING an author writes in fiction is a reflection of their support of (or opposition to) an idea in real life. Tolkien, of course, believed in things like good and evil (he was a Christian), and the power of love and friendship (lol), which he promoted in his fictional works. But that doesn't mean he supported EVERYTHING he wrote _even if that thing is true in his FICTIONAL world._ Simply put, Tolkien had fun with racial hierarchies in Lord of the Rings, but he did NOT subscribe to a similar hierarchy in real life but instead OPPOSED it. The IDEA of racial hierarchies in Lord of the Rings was DRAWN from real world racist attitudes prevalent in Tolkien's time, but this idea is NOT a reflection of Tolkien's own views on race in the real world.

[@jinhocheong5114]

So basically, he was a hipster that hated nazis before it was cool.

[@TolkienRoad]

Haha - well, he def hated Nazis before it was cool. Not sure about the hipster thing - he seems to have been impervious to "faddish" thinking of any kind - but I guess it depends on how you define hipster.

[@nicholausbuthmann1421]

God Bless You Tolkein For Dissing The damn nazi'sas, such is STILL very pertinent today !....

[@eljasau]

Thank you for this information! As life long fan of Tolkien born in the USSR I always felt that he absolutely detested any type of tyrannical ideology be it nazism or communism.

[@TolkienRoad]

He absolutely did. See my follow up video on this subject: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lZOogH-KlpmfbLc

[@ccityplanner1217]

3:20: The people who argue that Tolkien was a Nazi would argue that a Nazi is anyone who would talk of a "noble northern spirit, a supreme contribution to Europe".

[@TolkienRoad]

Are you one of those people?

[@ccityplanner1217]

@@TolkienRoad : No, I am not.

[@laserprop]

Tolkien wrote Eowyn SO SO SO brilliantly. I hate being politically correct, but she was my favorite character. By the nature of her spirit, she was utterly compelled to seek out peril, and attempt great deeds. But because of her birth, position, and sex, duty required her instead to perform mundane but absolutely necessary tasks. She initially thought she loved Aragorn, because if she wasn't permitted to take on the hardships and danger she craved, at least she could have the greatest man then alive. But he, as gently as he could, rejected her, because he was in love with another, and, as magnificent as she was, yet she wasn't worthy of him (indeed, the hero of the age as he was). When she confronted and (with Merry) slew the Nazgûl, she finally had the adventure she so earnestly sought. And she was set free to realize that she didn't really love Aragorn, and accordingly to fall in love with Faramir. WHAT WRITING!!!

[@hodgeelmwood8677]

Peace to you. The phrase "politically correct" has been misunderstood and misused. It's not a bad thing to recognize that women have worth beyond childbearing and housekeeping. Tolkien was keen enough to recognize that there are women for whom mundane tasks are not enough, even though those tasks are necessary and life-sustaining. Eowyn felt stifled because her abilities were never allowed to blossom, and she wanted to help protect the land and people she loved. She was also young, lonely, and scared of what the future might bring (with good reason). Her storyline does end with a "traditional" match-up with a man, but by that point she has proven that she's a whole person with courage, passion, and integrity. She has nothing left to prove and can now follow a new path.

[@laserprop]

@@hodgeelmwood8677 WOW! Speaking of good writing, give yourself a pat on the back! I was being slightly facetious with my "politically correct" comment, but I did mean what I said. However, you said it better.

[@applesandgrapesfordinner4626]

Great summary, though it feels a shame that we call it "PC" at all just because certain right-pundits think operating slightly out of the norms is weird.

[@cuchulainn117]

Some Dingus: Tolkien was a Racist! Me: *pops knuckles and pulls up this video*

[@TolkienRoad]

AT YOUR SERVICE - delighted to be if use in that regard!

[@skaldlouiscyphre2453]

Now, what do you do when this video fails to refute most of their arguments? Proving he wasn't a Nazi or an anti-Semite isn't the same as proving he didn't possess racist sentiments at all.

[@wilhufftarkin8543]

Holy shit, the comparison to Indiana Jones was totally unexpected, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense!

[@TolkienRoad]

Haha - that scene was basically my inspiration for doing this video.

[@ItsFrickinBats]

That background noise had me keep checking if it was my tinnitus acting up. 😬

[@jarskil8862]

Just to point out. Condemning nazis does not automatically mean that you would not be a racist. USA in 40s treated people of color worse than nazi Germany did. Still USA was against nazism. And USSR had so severe antisemitism, that Stalin had to make special laws protecting jewish minorities. Still they liberated Polish camps.

[@patopatric]

i think i see more accusations of tolkien being a nazi from nazi's than from anti-nazi's, they kinda love to distort tolkien's work and positions

[@TolkienRoad]

Unfortunately you are correct - partly why I felt the need to make this video. He was obviously VERY anti-Nazi and anti-Hitler, and his underlying reasons for being so are somewhat woven into the stories of Middle-earth.

[@PADARM]

Tolkien also expressed his dislike for South African Apartheid.

[@TolkienRoad]

Indeed, I remember that quote, it's from a commencement speech at Oxford, I think.

[@PADARM]

@@TolkienRoad "I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones; and most of all I detest the segregation or separation of Language and Literature. I do not care which of them you think White" From a Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford in 1959

[@TolkienRoad]

INDEED

[@TolkienRoad]

@pabloagus Thanks! For those wondering, this can be found in The Monster and the Critics and Other Essays. amzn.to/43P9mDx

[@echognomecal6742]

Thank you for educating & spreading positivity, especially against division & negativity.

[@fangchick93]

Whenever I hear someone claim Tolkien was r*cist or anti semetic, I laugh. A big theme in his books are different people putting their prejudices aside for friendship or allyship

[@TolkienRoad]

Exactly! It's a silly claim...

[@yosefzanerva806]

When i first heard that Tolkien based the Dwarves off of the Jews, my reaction wasn't one of "that's racist", "he's appropriating my culture", yadda yadda. My reaction was more along the lines of "that's badass! Is this for real?" I was excited to be a dwarf! I AM A DWARF AND I'M DIGGING A HOLE! A DIGGY DIGGY HOLE!

[@TolkienRoad]

🙌❤️😂

[@whatabouttheearth]

Now JK Rowling's banker characters on the other hand 🙄

[@yosefzanerva806]

@@whatabouttheearth What're talking about? They have nothing to do with Jews. Hear me out. Voldemort defected from a group of individuals to form his own group comprised of others who defected from the first group to form a similar group, but one with much different morals, ideologies, and principles. He was killed, and then came back. Sound familiar? That's right. Voldemort is Jesus. How did Jesus die? He was betrayed by Judas, someone very close to him, so close he even considered this individual to be one of their closest allies. Sounds a lot like Snape, doesn't it? Finally, if Voldemort and the death eaters represent the christians, then the wizards must be the Jews. The most important wizard in Harry Potter is obviously Harry himself, the series is named after him. Who plays Harry Potter in the movies? Daniel Radcliffe, a Jew! Case closed!

[@D4rk3clipse]

Don't wake up the Balrog please.

[@yosefzanerva806]

@@D4rk3clipse We do not fear what lies beneath, we can never dig too- oh shit.

[@vivianarojas40]

German publisher: Are you a proper white man? Tolkien, pulling out a stack of historical texts: Are you?

[@elroyscout]

German publisher: A simple question before we start... Tolkien: Well then... time to burn some bridges I never wanted to cross.

[@asher8754]

As a Jew I can say anyone calling that man racist or anti semitic is an idiot. The dwarves while having some eccentric tendencies I chop up mostly to British style of humor are my favorite race in the entire series specifically because I relate to them the most because of how Jewish they are. The lost homeland, the history of flawed but noble warrior kings, the patriarchal figure that’s a major part of their culture etc etc are not things I see as a negative but as an homage to our culture/history. Hell while I know it wasn’t his intention I always thought of the hobbit as having pro Zionist overtones given the dwarves fighting and dying to re take the lonely mountain was surprisingly close to how we Jews would do the same in retaking our homeland of Israel the following decade

[@yevgeni10]

@user-lt8wj6kg7e Ofc not Hitler anti Semitism came from the Russians.

[@OscarDirlwood]

They're also greedy too. They got that part right at least

[@Servo_M]

Don't listen to the Coms and Naz in the comments, like you said Jews are flawed but noble kings. God bless you and his people. ( :

[@OscarDirlwood]

@servom5784 If you're a Christian how could you say something about a group that still rejects and spites Christ to this day?

[@Vandrexiton]

@@OscarDirlwood If you're a Christian how could you hate God's chosen people? Yes the many of them don't acknowledge Christ as savior, but this is no cause for hate or dismissive behavior. If we hated everyone who did not acknowledge Christ as Lord, we would not have progressed beyond Judea and Anatolia. Rather, we follow the words of Christ, and these words are undoubtedly love. "Love your neighbor, and love your enemy. For if you love your neighbor and hate your enemy you are no better than the pagans." And again later on "Love one another as I have loved you." Christ's love was strange during the days of the 1st Century, he approached lepers who were believed to be in sin and healed them stating that the cause was not of sin. He defended the woman caught in adultery, when by all means of Mosaic Law she should have been stoned. To be a Christian is to understand that love of Humanity is what drove these actions. As fully God and fully Man each one of these people were his creations, and he wished to bring Humanity back into fullness of him. To be in the fullness of God is to acknowledge that God is love. Hatred holds no place in Heaven, hatred is the work of Satan and it was hatred along with envy that saw god's most beautiful angel fall from heaven. Now a counter argument is the "synagogue of Satan" verse, which could be a gotcha to any people unfamiliar with the verse. But who is in the synagogue of Satan within the confines of Christianity? Obvious examples are those baptized who participated in genocide, murder, and other physical harm to their fellow man. They might be a con artist, swindling people out of their money. An abuser, with no love for their spouse and children. The synagogue of Satan is the church that all those who claim to follow God belong to while they commit evil deeds. So I ask you, leave the synagogue and turn to Christ and his love. For it is by love that the Gospel was spread around the world, and through love that it will triumph over the world.

[@FrithonaHrududu02127]

As an Orc I'm truly offended by everything Tolkien wrote.

[@TolkienRoad]

Haha - I'm sure he'd be delighted to know that Orcs are offended by his writings. 😎

[@FrithonaHrududu02127]

​@@TolkienRoad Okay I was almost named Frodo(and I swear to God this is true) I have an older half brother named Thorin. I've always had an idea that Orcs actually represent Turks. I'm not Tolkien bashing, but if you look on the map of Middle Earth where Mordor actually lies it pretty much aligns with turkey if you look at the word for work uruk it is similar to the word Turk I'm pretty sure in some Turkic languages turk is Turk, but dont quote me. Now at what was going on with the Turks during WWII, between Gallipoli and the multiple genocides, I can see Tolkien subconsciously demonizing them. They were doing some horrendous shit.

[@mopbrothers]

Tolkien sounds like the symbol of British society and freedom. He almost sounds like a clone Churchill. Hitler is Sauron.

[@unclenogbad1509]

Thanks for this, which I think needed saying. IF Tolkien had any racist attitudes, they would have come courtesy of an upbringing at the height of the British Empire, something that would actually have been hard to shake off in his day. He seems like a sort of liberal conservative, safe in the cosy world of academia. His field, and his great love, was the ancient Celtic and Germanic/Nordic cultures of Northern Europe (and the British Isles especially), but his main concern was to bring these alive in the modern world, to place them squarely in our (British) cultural history and heritage, rather than any desire to place them above other World cultures. Naturally, he would have been outraged at the way Hitler and his cronies perverted these same old stories for their ideas of racial superiority. It's quite likely that accusations against Tolkien (and possibly also Wagner) stem from conflating his use of the material with theirs - forgetting that the source material is much older than either of them. His works, 'suitably' annotated and edited of course, would have been hugely popular in the Third Reich, and would have been actively promoted in such form by the Nazis - which wouldn't have been his fault directly. But the fact that he turned down such a lucrative deal on principle, opposing their anti-semitism, says a lot for the man.

[@flickcentergaming680]

Very well said. One can be interested in Germanic mythology without being a Nazi or Nazi sympathizer.

[@unclenogbad1509]

@@flickcentergaming680 Fully agree. It's fascinating (as are all mythologies), and was created by people who had no idea that they were 'white'.

[@foundationofBritain]

@@flickcentergaming680 English mythology... not Germanic mythology... you simply can't be an Englishman and be a a Nazi or Nazi sympathizer... you would have to reject literally every thing that is English.

[@foundationofBritain]

@@unclenogbad1509 The English are English... not 'white'.

[@beth12svist]

A similar problem befell the German writer Karl May, who does have his problems (such as apparently having been a compulsive liar), magnified by the fact that apparently his wife who survived him by quite a few years did become a Nazi supporter. Many of his books kind of stem from a similar melting pot of ideas that Nazi ideology did, and in many respects he was a product of his time when it comes to stereotypes etc. But I'm convinced May himself would have absolutely hated Nazi ideology/methods. I read somewhere that he was very critical of some colonial ventures, at a time when that opinion was very unpopular in Germany. I can't recall a single book of his where the protagonist group wasn't a whole mix of races and nationalities (I think even those taking place in Germany have a dash of that, though it's been ages since I read most of them so I may be wrong on this count). And one of his best friends at the end of his life was semi-openly gay. So yeah, being tainted by association isn't always proof of guilt at all... ETA to make myself even clearer: May has some elements of in-your-face Germanity and superman overtones that the Nazis latched onto but in reality that's just "writing what your know" and May's wish-fulfillment, wheras the real theme of most of the books - hammered down pretty hard in the last couple of them, too - is the siblinghood of all humanity. (And I say siblinghood quite intentionally because, for his time and his genre, May can have pretty memorable female characters.) So similarly Tolkien might have some elements in his writing... that are very much not the main underlying message and morality of the tale, just the window dressing.

[@kevinward2023]

Massive thanks for this excellent post! God bless you in your valuable contribution to presenting the facts/truth about a man of enormous erudition, and, humanity..

[@RaHeadD10]

He did support the BNB. Tolkien like many of his modernist counterparts would be considered reactionary to today’s standards. He was undoubtably conservative and a Catholic. He was also a proud Englishmen. He wasn’t racist but definitely racially aware of where he was from and who he is. lotr is a ode to English life. Even the idea of returning to the shire is reactionary against the backdrop of Mordor which is his machine and mechanical hell. This would have a lot to do with his time in the Great War. There’s many great writers of this era and poets with the same views. He would not of been some shitlib that’s for sure.

[@bazoo513]

He was, let's say, "British exceptionalist" - but who wasn't in those final days of their crumbling empire? _TLotR_ was published at the height of cold was and anti-Communist hysteria. Tolkien was a child of its time and environment - we all are. So, let's not make him into a saint, but let's give him some slack, too.

[@RaHeadD10]

Ernst Junger, Wyndham Lewis, Yeats. Erza Pound, T.S Eliot, C.S Lewis all underwent the same journeys. He knew them all very well. They all have something to say. What is all this moralising over if they were saints or not. Who cares. People say this as if they have the moral compass to judge. It’s ignorant and ridiculous to say the least.

[@IndusRiverFlow]

What's the BNB?

[@bazoo513]

@@RaHeadD10 I would certainly hope that we _all_ have our own personal moral compasses. Now, of course, various ideologies, religions, good old "us vs. them" mentality and such always threaten to trump "golden rule", "categorical imperative", call it as you want, to which we mostly claim adherence to.

[@crimsonthumos3905]

Exactly. He also supported Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil war, and even rebuked CS Lewis for not doing so

[@AthelstanKing]

Tolkien wasn't a racist and it doesnt need defending. Creative long winded defenses makes the side accusing him look credible enough that you need to take them seriously. You dont.

[@ronaldalanperry4875]

Distrust, hostility and hatred toward those of other tribes, races, etc. is part of mankind's evolutionary history. It's hard to write an ancient historical fantasy like Lord of the Rings without implicitly treating racism as something normal. In Tolkien's writings, it's only natural that Orcs are evil, that Dwarves don't marry Elves, etc. I've never taken this to imply that Tolkien himself was racist.

[@kindnessfirst9670]

In Tolkien's books the different races are biologically distinct beings while in humans so called "race" is a cultural phenomenon- not biological.

[@nancycrayton2738]

Thank you! I never thought he was. Some people are willingly self-deluded. Thank you!!!

[@TolkienRoad]

WORD

[@joalexsg9741]

Thank you so much for debunking that vile slander about our beloved Tolkien!! I would never believe such preposterous claims as I know in my heart he was an enlightened heart but it's truly important to debunk such disgusting accusations as some people may get conned by that defamation of an author who was not only brilliant but also a wonderful human being💙💛🙏🙏🙏 P.S.: I can't, unfortunately, become a member as even the basic plan is above my budget but I'l share the link to the page on my Twitter (I use a pseudonym there, though) so others who can afford can do so!

[@CCoburn3]

These are the same people who want to ban Huckleberry Finn because it uses a certain word.

[@DamonNomad82]

Indeed. Never mind the fact that Mark Twain wrote it as an anti-racist polemic, and that the escaped slave Jim was depicted as being highly intelligent (though uneducated about to world beyond his own environment), to the point that he easily defeated Huck in an argument over whether foreign languages exist despite being factually wrong. No, let's ban the book because it's written in rural 19th Century "dialect" that happens to frequently use one of the biggest "no-no-words" in today's society!

[@benruniko]

Thank you for putting these facts in an easy-to-link video that i can paste wherever Tolkien’s good name is being smeared.

[@TolkienRoad]

At your service! :)

[@HalfdanRekkirsson]

He mocked as well communism and the american "civilisation" (globalism). And to conclude, after the war he was one of the first to understand that the main looser was not Germany, but the wise traditionnal Europe. AND HE WAS RIGHT !

[@bertanderson2548]

Yeah, you got to look out for those loosers.

[@applesandgrapesfordinner4626]

Yeah... but he still hated Nazis though.

[@ricj101]

I love Tolkien - his philosophy, his writings, his thematics, etc. But if you read the LOTR books and I think even The Hobbit, Tolkien is CLEARLY a racist. He was no admirer of the Nazis, but there were plenty of American soldiers who went to kill Nazis and came back and held up a racist and tyrannical system in our own country, so disliking Nazis doesn't mean you aren't racist. I guess from reading the books, I feel like Tolkien was not a malicious racist, but more in favor of like a benevolent racism. For instance, the Numenoreans are the superior humans, and therefore, naturally, the rightful rulers of humanity, at least in Gondor, Arnor, Eriador. Tolkien describes the various "races" with internal racial hierarchies, from the Elves to the Hobbits, ascribing to them specific abilities and propensities for leadership and excellence. This seems to be all part of a feudalistic nostalgia. It is highly un-American, but I love it anyway, as we humans are kind of geared towards desiring a ruler to kindly watch over us (see church people). In the American view since 1776, and in reality, I might add, we understand that there's no such thing as a benevolant autocrat, or a philosopher king, or even a GROUP of philosopher kings, a la Plato's Republic. Such a thing has never existed and probably could not exist. Sadly, there are no short cuts in this world. All we have is each other and we must crowdsource our solutions to the complex problems of life. I'm not sure that Tolkien meant to apply the political economy of Middle Earth to the modern world though. The Third Age is, after all, a fantasy. I've never read anything where Tolkien explains if these kinds of lessons can be drawn and applied to our own time. But his treatment of rule and social class is so sincere and, I think, positive, that I would be hard pressed to pretend that it couldn't possibly color his view of the real, modern world. We know today that abilities and qualities are spread across all human populations of significant size and this is really the antidote of racism. But the propensity of Men to categorize everything in the world, including each other, is what will keep racism with us for some time to come. We have to be careful when extending the ideas of Middle Earth to the real world.

[@ricj101]

Let me clarify what I mean by "internal racial hierarchies". I don't mean the difference between Elves and Hobbits, but even within Elves there're differences between the various races of elves and within the Hobbits there're differences as well. Some of these are class, but some veer into racial differences. Of course, the whole moral of the story is that Frodo, a pretty insignificant person in the whole scheme of things proves superior to all of Men, and Elves, and Dwarves in some ways. So it's not like a unified theory of race. There's inconsistency. Or it could be that the narrator that comments on racial hierarchy throughout the stories is simply wrong, and the truth of the story is to be found in the actions of the Nine Walkers. In any case, JRRT lived a long time ago and comes with the baggage of his time, as do we all, so even to say that there are clear racist tendencies in the book doesn't make JRRT into a Hitler or a Trump or a Carlson. JRRT hated unjustified and arbitrary power by some over others.

[@TolkienRoad]

I think by your logic, the “everyone is racist” conclusion follows. I don’t find that actually helpful, especially because to label someone a racist is like labeling them a demon or a psycho. In the end, it ups the stakes so much that it makes “racist” a practically useless and meaningless term. The truth about Tolkien is that he was a highly enlightened individual with a magnificent moral outlook. I’d put him up against most (if not all) of today’s “anti-Racists” in terms of his views and actions toward other human beings. The evidence for “racist” accusations against him is so scant that it’s almost not worth addressing. But I’ll probably make another video about those soon enough.

[@Ragitsu]

It's called "separating fantasy from reality"; one can enjoy stories with benevolent kingdoms without wanting to live within a kingdom.

[@starwarsprequelsandsequels7582]

If the internet and the term « woke » existed at that time Tolkien would be taxed of « wokism »

[@TolkienRoad]

.

[@andrelacombe2822]

people trying to make nuanced interpretations of things that occurred in the past based on present-day perspectives is maddening.

[@andrelacombe2822]

I saw a KZbinr who was a huge fan of the new StarTrek shows oddly defending the shows from harsh criticisms by claiming that Gene Roddenberry was a borderline pedophile because of a tv interview he gave that included a story about watching his preschool-age daughter running around the house playing, Roddenberry included a detail that the child was in her underwear and that one thing made him suspicious enough to claim a man no longer around to speak for himself might have f**ked children

[@hapennysparrow]

I share Tolkeins admiration and great respect for the Jewish people. They have been a gift to the world. I myself wished I had Jewish ancestors. God bless and keep the Hebrew people.

[@anamariaguadayol2335]

Thank you 😊

[@folopoideco]

Meanwhile Salvador Dali in that time was completely in loooove with hitler

[@lordforages8319]

But I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones; and most of all, I detest the segregation or separation of Language and Literature. I do not care which of them you think White. J.R.R Tolkien

[@lordforages8319]

Dear Sirs, Thank you for your letter. I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. 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.

[@hippy282]

Thank you so much for this video mate! It really brightened my day! 😊

[@janetfolkner8588]

Excellent job of exposing the truth about Tolkien’s anti Nazi position. Thank you

[@elsenored562]

3:26 "I have in this War a burning private grudge against that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf Hitler..."

[@TolkienRoad]

❤️🔥🙌TOLKIEN🙌🔥❤️

[@noelpizarro3812]

Thank you for this video.

[@TolkienRoad]

AT YOUR SERVICE!!! 🙌

[@Davidofthelost]

Wasn’t there also a message from Tolkien correcting the Nazi’s about the actual geography location of any true Arians being in the Middle East?

[@TolkienRoad]

Possibly, but not that I am aware of. If you find it, drop me a line! [e-mail]

[@jasond2334]

I've been looking for a specific source about Tolkien's condemnation of racist anti-Japanese WW2 propaganda. Anyone happen to have details?

[@johncoffman1841]

There is a song by the Dutch band The Gathering recorded in studio. But also live, which is best, that uses the recorded voice of Tolkien from an interview in 1968 (?) It's on youtube. The song is Mercury and Sand. The sampling is used at the end of the song. (live 1997)

[@larshassing3938]

This aged supreme. Trying to accuse Tolkien of being racist so they can change his universe in woke oblivion..

[@TolkienRoad]

Tolkien mocked the Nazis to their faces when it was actually dangerous to do so. Not the case for many of his modern detractors.