Renee V ink's "'Jew ish' D w arves: Tolkien an d A nti-Semitic
S tereotyping" is a direct response to Rebecca B rackm ann's "D w arves are N ot
H eroes: A ntisem itism an d the D w arves in J.R.R. T olkien's W riting," w h ich w as
published in M ythlore #109/110 in 2010. In this article V ink takes B rackm ann to
task for w riting th a t "anti-Sem itism [or] Jew ish stereotyping contributed to
T olkien's depiction of the D w arves" and th a t this depiction changed in his later
w ork "because Tolkien got a b a d conscience th an k s to H itler" (142). I think
V ink's critique, w hile it raises som e interesting chronological questions th at
should send som eone to D oug K ane's A r d a R e c o n s tr u c te d for a th ird v iew point on
the topic, fails p rim arily on tw o points. T he first is n o t considering B rackm ann's
careful definition of w h a t she m eans b y "antisem itism " (notably, Brackm ann
insists on this spelling instead of "anti-Sem itism "), precisely in order to forestall
202 M ythlore 124, Spring/Summer 2014
Reviews
this sort of argum ent. For the p urposes of h er paper, she uses "antisem itism " to
refer to the idea th a t there h as historically been a set of characteristics associated
w ith the Jew s as a race, n o t to any act of racism or violence arising from these
beliefs. H er argum ent is th a t Tolkien im ported these stereotypes w holesale into
his early depictions of the D w arves. If Tolkien is g u ilty of a fault, then, it is in
u sin g this set of characteristics uncritically; even in his later w ork, there still
rem ains a problem atic identifiable gro u p of racial characteristics associating
D w arves an d Jew ishness. I d o n 't believe th a t at any p o in t B rackm ann considers
T olkien's use of these stereotypes "virulent" (Vink 133)—m erely u nfortunate.
I feel th a t V ink also m isinterprets B rackm ann as saying th at the single
overw helm ing source for the D w arves is in su p p o sed Jew ish characteristics,
ignoring any N orse influence entirely. I d o n 't th in k she is claim ing this, though
p erh ap s B rackm ann could have stated it m ore clearly. In the Soup of Story, there
is no reason w h y T olkien's D w arves m ig h t n o t be an ever-evolving am algam of
N orse m yth, m edieval religious and social attitudes to w ard s the Jews, T olkien's
ow n later reactions to these stereotypes in the light of WW II an d the th reaten in g
A rab-Israeli conflict (w hich n either m entions as a potential source for his 1965
rem ark about the "w arlike capacities" of the Jews), an d his ow n th in k in g on su b
creation. In any case, this rem ains a topic th a t is b y no m eans exhausted