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

Was Tolkien racist or "far right"? NOPE. Tolkien despised the Nazis and racist ideology, and I prove it in this video.

TOLKIEN ROAD PODCAST

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TRANSCRIPT:

Have you ever heard somebody accuse Tolkien of being racist or anti-semitic? Maybe you’ve even heard someone claim that Tolkien was a Nazi-sympathizer?

Is there any truth to these claims? Are Tolkien’s works some kind of trojan horse for abhorrent and despicable ideas about race?

NOT A CHANCE!

In this video, we’ll explore what Tolkien himself had to say on these issues.

If you’re a Tolkien-lover like me, it pains you to hear people claim or imply that Tolkien was some kind of racist or bigot. But the good news is these claims are all baseless, and actually contradict several things that Tolkien wrote.

In this video, I’m going to show you, in Tolkien’s own words, that he was actually an avowed enemy of the Nazis before most others were.

In 1938, less than a year after the publication of The Hobbit and only a year before the start of World War II, Tolkien’s publisher was contacted by a German publishing house with interest in publishing his works in Nazi Germany.

However, due to the Nazi racial laws, the German publisher had to determine whether or not Tolkien was of “Aryan” origin.

It’s important to understand that this was before the start of World War II, and that Nazi Germany was a properous and growing economy. It seems that Tolkien had the opportunity to use his German roots for financial gain in this case.

However, instead of taking the easy road and merely confirming his lack of Jewish ancestry, Tolkien expressed deep admiration for the Jewish people:

“But if I am correct in understanding 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.”

This was an unmistakable poke in the eye to the Nazi racial policies of the time.

Futhermore, Tolkien dared to put his disdain in writing, gambling not only with his financial and literary success, but also perhaps his own future physical safety.

After all, by 1938, it was clear that the Nazis were hell-bent on conquest, and war was starting to seem inevitable.

This one letter should be enough to remove all doubt that Tolkien had any sympathy for anti-semitic or racialist ideology, but there is more evidence to demonstrate Tolkien’s utter disdain for the Nazis.

In his classic essay On Fairy-Stories, originally delivered in 1939 just before the start of the war, Tolkien makes a disparaging reference to Hitler’s Reich, arguing that anyone should want to escape from it.

“Just so a Party-spokesman might have labelled departure from the misery of the Fuhrer’s and any other Reich and even criticism of it as treachery.”

Tolkien goes out of his way to take a jab at Hitler and the Nazi Reich.
Given the timing of this essay, it is clear that Tolkien was doubling down on his anti-Nazi views.

Indeed, this was just months before Germany was to invade Poland, and less than a year after Germany’s invasion of Czechoslovakia. Open war was on the horizon, but Tolkien wasn’t checking his contempt for the Nazis.

In 1941, with World War II fully underway, and the invasion of the British Isles by Germany seemingly imminent, Tolkien once again committed his opinion of Hitler to writing in a letter to his son Michael.

“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.”

Here, Tolkien goes ever further to the root of his hatred for the Nazis, who had twisted aspects of northern European history and culture to suit their evil ideology.

Furthermore, he openly insults Hitler, who in June of 1941, seemed to be on the road to ruling all of Europe, and perhaps beyond, with an iron fist.

We must remember that Tolkien was not a very political or ideological person. He was far more prone to spend hours talking about ancient languages and literature than the current events of his day. Therefore, the existence of these examples show that Tolkien such a revulsion toward the Nazis that he felt compelled to speak out against them clearly.

In the end, it turns out that Tolkien was anything BUT a Nazi-sympathizer.

In fact, he was more like a real-life Indiana Jones, a university professor striving to rescue ancient truths and artifacts FROM the Nazis in order to prevent them from being distorted and abused for evil purposes.

Thanks for watching this video. I hope you’ll share this widely, especially wherever you might see Tolkien accused of anti-semitism or racism.

[jasonkinzie]

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.

[commandosolo]

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.

[brunnokamei]

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

[ravensthatflywiththenightm]

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

[Kegcrusher]

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

[xtremeranger]

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

[kellanelliott]

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.

[thomasmcginnis]

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.

[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!

[Methuslah]

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.

[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.

[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.)

[chrisd]

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

[lightyagami]

I've never considered Tolkien a racist.

Lovecraft, on the other hand...

[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).

[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.

[lukefriesenhahn]

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.

[larrykuenning]

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."

[captainchaos]

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.

[placebo]

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