@brannonlasgalen / brannonlasgalen.tumblr.com
people telling you they reread your fic is the biggest compliment you could ever receive. there are thousands of stories out there begging to be found, to be explored, but your story meant so much to someone that they came back to it eagerly, they went over every word again. to love is to return and loving a fic is rereading it. thank you to all readers and rereaders <3333
between the newsletter’s entry where we learn the ponies are okay, me picking apart rings of power and analysing why it doesn’t fully feel like tolkien, and this one gifset of frodo and sam i reblogged, i felt like i finally have to gather my thoughts regarding what makes tolkien tolkien
and while there are many things that do, i’d argue that the most special one is its earnestness.
characters in LOTR care unabashedly, with all their hearts, and love so easily, whether it’s platonic, familial or romantic.
the hobbits feel like the most obvious example - merry, pippin and sam follow frodo for as long as they’re able; their loyalty goes deep to their bones, and their relationships are so full of trust, joy, devotion, fondness.
but all of LOTR is just more examples of the same thing. after the war legolas spends the rest of his life in middle-earth with gimli - they travel together for over a hundred years - and then he decides he won’t just say goodbye when gimli dies! and he does something that hasn’t been done before and just takes gimli to valinor, but not before aragorn dies. because they both loved him, too. faramir asks “do you not love me, eowyn?“ and she realises she does, and he says he’ll marry her and they’ll grow a garden and heal, and he kisses her even though everyone can see them. sam loves frodo, and he loves rosie, and he spends his life with her, then joins frodo in the undying lands after she dies.
and it shines through in the movies, too! it’s thanks to both the direction and the acting skills of the cast, of course, that so, so often all emotions are on full display - whenever sam and frodo interact, when aragorn kisses boromir’s forehead, when the hobbits say goodbye at the grey havens, when pippin finds merry at the battlefield, the way gandalf reacts when frodo says he’ll go to mordor, the way theoden breaks down at his son’s grave, the way he cares about eowyn like she’s his own child, the way eomer reacts when he finds eowyn and thinks she’s dead. those are just examples off the top of my head.
it’s also very special to me because in many fictional works (not only in fantasy) people just aren’t allowed to be that open - mostly men, but not exclusively - meanwhile this earnestness is something i always look for in fiction.
it stands out especially if you consider some fantasy creators (not naming any names but you know who i mean ajsjdjfjf) saying they “just want to reflect the misogyny of the period” (which is just bullshit and also demeaning to people of all genders in so many ways), because while LOTR is heavily male-dominated, tolkien managed to do something very, very interesting and important there.
he says, “war is the province of men”, but it doesn’t mean you’re supposed to want to be there. you’re not supposed to want to go to battle, suffer and/or die. eomer wants eowyn to stay home because he loves her, and couldn’t stand to see her die in a cruel, gruesome way (and when he thinks she’s dead, it’s the most devastating display of grief in the whole movie trilogy).
the heroes go to war because there are things that need defending, and dying for a noble cause is honorable, but again - it’s about defending, not about fighting. the clearest villains of LOTR are people who want the war to happen. many of the heroes, most of whom are men, just want peace for their people, want companionship (one of the first things aragorn says to the hobbits is that he’d be happy to have more friends, because being a ranger means he’s lonely), or want a good meal and a good drink like the hobbits. they want comfort and warmth. they want to finish a book like bilbo. they want to live in a garden among all things that live and grow like faramir. they want to marry and have a home and kids like sam.
and the things is, it’s not always that common in fiction, but it’s absolutely common, you know. IN REAL LIFE? BECAUSE MEN ARE PEOPLE? so it’s just really good to have tolkien absolutely divorce masculinity in his works from how his characters show emotions, or how much comfort they crave. and that is a realistic approach i’m interested in.
In conclusion (narrative reliability aside): you can pry woodelves and book!Thranduil out of my cold, dead, eternally grasping hands and good luck even then
this is not about any 1 post in particular but i feel like it should be more commonly addressed im the fandom that tolkiens dwarves are jewish and you cannot have a meaningful analysis of them without acknowledging that
i see a lot of posts talking about how dwarves are often derided by tolkiens narrative. questions like “why does tolkien insist on the dwarves being greedy” and “why did the line of durin get wiped out” and my favorite “is thorin a good or a bad person? lets discuss that”
those are all great questions to ask but they cannot be examined without acknowledging that tolkien based the dwarves on jewish people, and his portrayal of them is influenced both by antisemitism AND an evolving level of respect for jewish people that coexisted in tolkien. that is why we get the “dwarves are not heroes” passage in the hobbit. hell, the entire premise of the hobbit is plainly based on jewish history and lore: 12 dwarves (the 12 tribes of israel), with 1 leader, on a quest to reclaim a homeland that was stolen from them. except tolkien also has that reclaimation revolve around riches, because jews are greedy and violent in his mind (esp pre-wwii tolkien). antisemitism is the reason for thorin being portrayed as acting rash, hauty, and possessive in the hobbit. that is why it is impossible to analyze his character without acknowledging that he is jewish.
as for the radical switch in the portrayal of dwarves in the lord of the rings, this is post-wwii tolkien, when he felt a lot more guilty about being antisemitic. gimli is an apology for his antisemitism in the hobbit. at the same time, the dwarves as a people do not have much of a meaningful part to play in the narrative, and in fact so many of them have been wiped out in cold blood (sound familiar?) and i think that that also reflects tolkiens biases
he was a complex man writing a very complex piece of fantasy that has many aspects that reflect his own beliefs and beliefs prevalent in his society at the time. those beliefs coming through in his work is an important aspect of middle-earth to examine. i dont think anybody will disagree with me on that.
TL;DR for the love of G-d when youre asking questions about the dwarves’ morality and narrative in tolkien please remember that they are based on jewish people and it is IMPOSSIBLE to ask these questions fully if you dont remember that
heres an essay on this topic if you want to learn more
this post started going around again the instant social distancing started :’) so i want to clear up some common misconceptions about this post before i get any more silly comments on it. the original post is not that well-worded because i honestly never expected it to get that many notes, since whenever i spoke about this issue in the past it got no traction. so i just want to clear up some stuff:
1) “source?”
i linked an academic essay on the topic at the bottom of the post. i know its not the first thing your eye lands on, but its right there. you can also google “tolkien dwarves jewish” and get any number of articles. the fact that tokiens dwarves were influenced by his perception of jewish people is… pretty commonly accepted. i genuinely didnt realize how many people are completely unaware of this.
its also just… fairly obvious when you read his work if youre an involved jew. i forgot that not everybody has that context, so my bad. if you want me to spell out every way in which tolkiens views on jewish people influenced his work/evidence for it, i really encourage you to read the essay i cited, do your own research, and use critical thinking skills.
2) “why are you trying to cancel the hobbit/why are you calling tolkien a bad person/why are you saying i cant enjoy the hobbit/lotr”
please dont misunderstand, that is not what im saying at all. i LOVE the hobbit and lotr, which is why this issue is important to me as a jewish fan. i am not trying to “cancel” anything or say you cant enjoy tolkiens work. all i am saying is that readers need to have critical thinking and self-awareness. this is true if you are reading anything. asking questions like “how did/do societal conditions factor into the writing of this work?” is an important question to ask when you are reading anything seriously. i love tolkiens writing! many, many people do, thats why its important to think, from time to time, about its societal implications, because it has many.
3) “but tolkien wasnt antisemitic! he wrote a sassy letter to the nazis!”
yes, he did! and that was very cool of him. jrr tolkien was a complex guy, just like many of us. his views on jewish people changed a lot throughout his life. however, just because somebody says something against antisemitism at one point, doesnt mean that they are incapable of ever being antisemitic. that goes for any social bias. the fact that tolkien spoke against antisemitism at times does not mean that he was incapable of ever perpetuating it. people do not think in black-and-white ways like that.
the fact of the matter is that jrr tolkien was a white, well-to-do, english, catholic man living in the 20th century. etc. these factors influenced the way he wrote and thought about the world. anybodys life will influence the way they write, and theres no shame in admitting that.
tolkiens relationship to antisemitism was definitely complex, and his thoughts on it evolved a lot over time. if you keep that in mind, you can really see that while reading his work. for this reason, tolkien is a lot more charitable to jewish people than he is to people of color. the racism in lotr is a lot more blatant and unflinching than the antisemitism. that cant be ignored, either.
again, i am not trying to “cancel” tolkien for antisemitism. i am only saying that his views influenced his work, and that readers should take that into account when analyzing his writing.
4) “but tolkien hated metaphor/allegory! the dwarves cant be a metaphor for jewish people because tolkien never used metaphors”
i get this one a lot, and i think it just shows a lot of misconceptions about what tolkien meant when he talked about metaphor, and honestly, a lot of ignorance towards writing in general. firstly, do you really believe everything that an author says about their own work? thats a big mistake, if you ask me.
second, ive noticed this really “all or nothing” viewpoint when it comes to tolkien and metaphor– most commonly when people talk about racism/antisemitism/etc in tolkiens work. simply the fact that tolkien disliked direct metaphor/allegory does not mean that real-life events had no influence on his work.
for instance, the war against mordor in lotr is not a direct allegory for either world war. however, would you really say that tolkiens experience of the world wars had absolutely no influence on lotr? that they had nothing to do with each other? i doubt that anybody would say that.
likewise, there is no christ allegory in lotr, but did tolkiens catholic values have absolutely nothing to do with the morality in his work? rohan is not a viking allegory, but did tolkiens study of ancient norse cultures have nothing to do with how he wrote rohan? these would be pretty far-fetched statements that i dont see anybody making. there is a grey area here.
this is why i say my original post was poorly worded, because “the dwarves are jewish” is too simplistic of a statement to be taken seriously. i acknowledge this poor wording on my part, and any confusion i may have caused. what i am really trying to say is that tolkiens perception of jewish people influenced the way he wrote dwarves. are they a direct allegory for jews? no. but are they completely unrelated? the answer would also be no. its fine to acknowledge the connection and the ways in which tolkiens views on jewish people– both positive and negative– influenced his writing over time. its ok, i promise.
i also think people generally have a misunderstanding of what tolkien considered to be metaphor. in tolkiens own words, taken from the foreword to the second edition of the lord of the rings:
The real war does not resemble the legendary war in its process or its conclusion. If it had inspired or directed the development of the legend, then certainly the Ring would have been seized and used against Sauron; he would not have been annihilated but enslaved, and Barad-dûr would not have been destroyed but occupied. Saruman, failing to get possession of the Ring, would in the confusion and treacheries of the time have found in Mordor the missing links in his own researches into Ring-lore, and before long he would have made a Great Ring of his own with which to challenge the self-styled Ruler of Middle-earth. In that conflict both sides would have held hobbits in hatred and contempt: they would not long have survived even as slaves.
Other arrangements could be devised according to the tastes or views of those who like allegory or topical reference. But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse “applicability” with “allegory”; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.
An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience, but the ways in which a story-germ uses the soil of experience are extremely complex, and attempts to define the process are at best guesses from evidence that is inadequate and ambiguous.
the foreword goes on, but you get the idea. take it as you will. maybe your interpretation is different from my own, which will influence the way you read the text, and that is fine. but as for me, i take this as an indication that tolkien did not want every little detail of his plots to be taken as direct allegories to real-life events. the plots of the hobbit and lotr are not directly allegorical to any real war. however, he himself acknowledges that his experiences are not divorced from his work. i think his views are also presented in contrast to lewis’ writing, which is much more directly allegorical to the christian bible. tolkien disliked this direct metaphor and preferred a more subtle method vis-a-vis his real life and beliefs. that does not mean that there is no relationship. there is a middle ground here.
in my opinion, his social experience influenced his work a lot more than he himself realized. that is the conclusion i have personally come to reading his work, but i think it is also true of any author. can i divorce my life from my writing any more than tolkien could? no. this is a fact of writing. again, you may come to a different conclusion that i. but to claim that tolkiens dislike of metaphor means that there can never be a relationship between jews and dwarves and that tolkiens views on jewish people never had any influence on his work is… probably false.
5) “why do you care about this? this is such an overreaction to a work of fiction!”
i made this post originally because i have seen a lot of posts going around examining dwarvish characters’ motivations– especially thorin. i think these are GREAT questions to ask, and questions that tolkien wants you to ask. however, they cannot be asked in isolation.
if you are asking “is thorin a good person?/why did thorin make this choice?/why does thorin have this character flaw?/why is gimlis arc so different from thorins?” those are great questions. but you will never have a complete answer without acknowledging tolkiens evolving relationship to antisemitism and his own biases. i made this post originally in response to meta posts about thorin, which were often wordier than my own original post.
like i said, i care about these questions because i love the hobbit and i love tolkiens work. im also a lit major who spends all my time picking apart literature. i have fun thinking about these questions. if thats not your cup of tea, thats ok! im not expecting you to spend hours of your day researching these questions. but taking tolkiens work with a grain of salt is important for any reader.
im not throwing a tantrum over here, im just responding to discussions ive seen in the fandom.
6) “i disagree with you”
ok? i cant stop you. but you should probably think about why thats your gut reaction to this.
7) “wow i had no idea! this really changes the way i think about tolkien!”
first of all, if this is your response, thank you!! seriously, you have no idea how much it means to me to be listened to. im very very glad that you could learn something from my nerd posts on this blogging platform kjsah.
i want to say that going from here, now that you know this information, you can be more aware of antisemitism in works of fiction, especially high fantasy. as a jewish reader, whenever i come across a fantasy race that is obsessed with riches, i think “is this based on jews/antisemitic?” and then research. usually, the answer is yes. not always– but its a trend. same goes for races with caricature jewish features that are emphasized as ugly/signs of evil (ie big noses). its something to watch out for.
a lot of modern high fantasy is either outwardly or subconsciously influenced by christianity. this can be the case whether the author realizes it or not, whether the author is a practicing christian or not. if you live in the “west,” your worldview and morals are probably at least somewhat influenced by christianity, either in agreement or opposition to it. i say this even as a very committed and involved jew, white western christianity has influenced me and i will never escape that. as literature is a product of “society,” christianity influences western high fantasy. oftentimes, judaism/jewishness is demonized in contrast to christian morality.
before i get the “not all christians are antisemitic!” thats not what i said. what im saying is that antisemitism– specifically using jewish coding as a foil for goodness– is deeply ingrained into the western christian mindset. this influences our literature and our philosophies. we may not be aware of it. it may not be intentional. but it is something to be mindful of. it is something to analyze in our literature and ourselves.
before wrapping up– i feel the need to differentiate between tolkiens thorin and jacksons thorin.
peter jackson definitely inserted a lot of his own ideas into the hobbit movies, thats no secret. jacksons thorin has differences from tolkiens thorin. that does not mean that antisemitism is divorced from movie thorin. the question of whether antisemitism influenced jacksons portrayal of thorin is an entirely different question that you could write a whole essay on. thats not what this post is about, but i feel the need to mention it before somebody else brings it up.
this is all i have to say for now, and i know this is a long post. thanks for bearing with me if you read it. i hope this clears up any misconceptions of my original post and provides people with more context and insight. shabbat shalom <3
the sad thing is that I'm pretty sure I actually lost a few followers after reblogging that "racism in Tolkien fandom" post yesterday. like. I just kinda idealistically hoped none of the people who follow me would turn out to be white supremacists and racists? but apparently some did
so in case any of them didn't hear me the first time - this is NOT a welcoming place for you. I want this to be a safe and peaceful corner of the Internet so get out until you've changed your mind about your appalling beliefs. right now there's nothing for you here
aside from Eol, the petty-dwarves also specifically hated the Noldor for stealing their lands
This too is true! The petty dwarves had the right to despite every group of elves, honestly.
All the ‘Aragorn has no idea how to rule a country’ jokes make me ridiculously, outrageously and hilariously cross. 1) Aragorn became king at the age of 88
2) he grew up in Rivendell meeting every kind of Elf, Dwarves, Men, even the odd Hobbit. He’s a scholar who speaks many languages, and there seems no reason to think his education in history, strategy and diplomacy was not extremely thorough.
3) He ruled the Dunedain of Arnor as soon as he was old enough.
4) He has previous experience of everything : Moria? Done it before. Redhorn Gate? Done that too. Wildlife of Eregion? He knows what’s typical. History of Amon Sul? Knows it. Tom Bombadil? Recognises him on sight. Secret routes through the marshes, pubs in Bree, enemies of Bree that Bree doesn’t even know exist? Knows all that, has a plan for dealing with it. Strong enough in terms of enchantment to be able to pull a hospital full of people afflicted with the Black Breath from their coma, and to rip the Palantir out of Sauron’s control and turn it to use as he wished. Only needed a quick reminder about the Paths of the Dead, obviously he’s not too scared to use them.
4) He’d been to Gondor before in disguise and become a great captain in the days when Denethor was young. He knows Gondor really well. He also knows Rohan really well, and rode with Theoden. He may need to do a little catching up on modern issues, but since Denethor & Theoden are now dead, he’s got all the knowledge and experience that both countries have just lost.
I don’t know how he is on tax codes, but that’s what kings have stewards for.
‘Aragorn has no idea how to rule a country’ is like ‘Why didn’t the Eagles’ only WORSE.
Okie now, I’m not sure if I’ve made this clear but I write for me. I’ve got about ten fics that haven’t seen the light of an online day. They’re mine and mine alone. I post, however, for my readers… and ask for very little in return.
Will I stop posting if I get little to no feedback?? No. I still post. I’ve been posting with a lack of feedback for almost a decade, by now I’ve got thick skin about it. I will, however, stop tagging if someone doesn’t give me love back.
Now there are people (like @risingphoenix761 and @pisces-cutie) who give incredible feedback that I sometimes have to scroll through to read. Then there are people (like @mrswhozeewhatsis and @mariekoukie6661) who comment on pretty much everything. And then there are people (like @fangirl-and-medstudent-help and @maddiepants) who are my serial ASKers. These people (and every single person who leaves feedback) mean more to me than I could describe, and they inspire me to actually write on my computer instead of watch food videos on Facebook or Scared Buddies on YouTube.
However, I have left a fic hanging for almost two years because of the lack of love. It got nothing, I gave nothing. My well of inspiration dried up and the muse for that fic quit… for nearly two years.
I won’t do that again because I’ve grown and notes don’t define my actions. But people who I tag define whether or not I continue to tag them. Nothing comes for free, you want something work for it.
In saying all of this, I know people who will tag and ask for nothing in return. I know people who have quit this site because of the lack of love. I respect their decisions, and I respect them as people not just writers. If someone has incredible content I’m not going to let their pleading for feedback stop me from enjoying something that makes me happy. So getting turned off by posts begging for more reblogs… kinda shines a light in you corner. No need to feel shirty with writers if you’re giving them the love they deserve.
Imagine walking into your local book store and seeing signs everywhere advertising your favourite authors book and being like, ‘Gosh, aren’t they desperate… no thanks’. Hell, your favourite shows get cancelled if they don’t recieve enough good feedback or love.
We might not be Stephen King or the CW, but we’re still creators and we still require something from our audience.
This has nothing to do with Twilight but may the Lord bless Peter Jackson for giving us Lee Pace as Thranduil
i hate how ppl portrait Thranduil as a savage king. In many one shots he’s a rapist, sadist, and other bad things. Jesus Christ, he lost his wife, his son leaves him and Thranduil is terrified he’ll never see Legolas again. He’s been to many wars, he’s seen death, felt the wrath of the dragon.
Thranduil deserves so much better. I swear he’s sweet on the inside, just a lil bit rougher around the edges.
Im not saying you can’t write fics like that, but it just saddens me. Thank you for writing fluff & soft Thranduil stories, it makes so happy.
