• anonymous_ascendent [none/use name]
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    4 years ago

    Allegories and metaphors aren’t usually 1:1

    Also, anti-Semitic stereotypes in the early 20th century are different than today. There was indeed stereotypes of them being good at wrestling and fighting, being unhygienic and unshaven & short.

    It’s a feudal society, it wouldn’t make much sense for dwarves to have complex financial schemes. They do get mentioned as hoarders and stealers though, and their greed attracts a dragon which the humans have to fight off for them.

    • SteveHasBunker [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      There was indeed stereotypes of them being good at wrestling and fighting, being unhygienic and unshaven & short.

      Really? That's pretty stark contrast to the stereotypes of Jews I encounter today, usually they're portrayed as kinda nerdy, orderly and necrotic, "smelly bearded wrestler" isn't really what pops into my head when I think of Jews.

      Edit: Also didn't the idea of Jews being bankers come from the fact there were one of the few people who were doing banking in the feudal era? I've never known Jews to be associated with mining or metallurgy so that element of the dwarves is weird.

      • YouKnowIt [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Yeah, something about usury laws I think.

        I don't know why you guys are acting like Tolkien invented dwarves. He cribbed them from Norse and German mythology basically wholesale. They were already an established thing, short, mythologically good at smithing, often insular and hostile.