That’s it, the Professor is truly the King of Sass
The letter didn’t come from the Nazi party, but from the publishing house which had expressed an interest in the German translation of The Hobbit. Tolkien’s response really is a thing of beauty, though, so it deserves to be quoted in its entirety:
25 July 1938 20 Northmoor Road, Oxford
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. My great-great-grandfather came to England in the eighteenth century from Germany: the main part of my descent is therefore purely English, and I am an English subject - which should be sufficient. I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to regard my German name with pride, and continued to do so throughout the period of the late regrettable war, in which I served in the English army. I cannot, however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.
Your enquiry is doubtless made in order to comply with the laws of your own country, but that this should be held to apply to the subjects of another state would be improper, even if it had (as it has not) any bearings whatsoever on the merits of my work or its suitability for publication, of which you appear to have satisfied yourselves without reference to my Abstammung.
I trust you will find this reply satisfactory, and remain yours faithfully
J.R.R. Tolkien.
(Letter 30)
The Hobbit wasn’t published in German until 1957.
This might just be the politest “fuck you” ever written.
W.h.a.t.
Not just “I wish I had Jewish ancestors, but I don’t,” but also “you do realize that’s not what ‘Aryan’ actually means, right,” and “you guys are making it pretty hard to be proud of my German heritage.”
man: has anyone ever told you you’re beautiful?
me: oh no sir, today is my first day out of doors and papà forbade mirrors in the house lest we fall victim to vanity
I’ve been laughing at this on and off for two straight days
do you know what I really hate? early morning culture. the misconception that getting up early is inherently better than sleeping in. that people who stay in bed longer than 8 am are lazy and have an unhealthy life rhythm and that apparently they “miss the best part of the day”. that causes so much unnecessary shame and guilt, especially in young people whose inner clock doesn’t work that way - scientifically proven, teenagers can’t reach their mind’s full potential before 10 am. And more generally speaking: why should we care if someone gets up at 10 or 11 am and goes to bed far after midnight? I would get so much more shit done if I wouldn’t feel so guilty for staying up late and sleeping in.
One of my dad’s favorite studies to quote is one about the productivity of early risers and night owls. The study found that the only difference between the two groups was that “one is a lot more smug about it.”
Bockstensmanen, a medieval person who happened to die in a bog which preserved his clothes (and more), clothes like hella comfy??
Like seriously. Comfy and warm wool clothes!
(yes this are pictures of his actual outfit, not reconstructed clothing. They were very well preserved in all except colour. The bog gave everything that yellow shade, i suspect)
It goes around the entire body! So perhaps not quite a mantel but.
A got a little hood with a fashionedble long thingy at the end
Warm that too! There is no openings for wind or anything, so like. Just pull hood over head, get warm!
Warm socks! Gotta keep em feets warm (and just like in english, the swedish words for trousers, byxor, is in plural in its normal form, just because the medieval version of trousers consisted of two separate peices like here.
Somewhere, there should be something for hos upper legs but idk were that one is)
Anyway! I do think one can tell that keeping warm was an important part of the logic behind bockstensmannens clothing. Not odd that, when he lived in Scandinavia and all…
When we already at it, with listning his entire outfit. Here his this shoes
Reconstruction in how he might have looked like in life. The musuem points out, that his skull was very smashed when found, werehas it might be a bit so so with this dolls facial similiarity with bockstensmannen in life. And his hair colour we know not, the bog will colour most hair red with enough time.
But that hairstyle! That he really had! Bockstensmannen wore like Peak Fluffy Medieval Hair Fashion in life
The entire doll wearing bockstensmannens reconstructed clothing
