Arkhaven Comics Publisher Vox Day Explains Why Media Apparatus Is Attacking J.R.R. Tolkien And Why ‘The Rings Of Power’ Appears To Intentionally Subvert His Lore

John F. Trent |

Sep 14, 2022

Aarkhaven Comics publisher Vox Day recently explained why he believes numerous media outlets, so-called Tolkien academics, Tolkien influencers, and others are attacking J.R.R. Tolkien.

There are numerous pieces of evidence of media outlets, so-called Tolkien academics, and others attacking J.R.R. Tolkien. Most recently, Deakin University Lecturer Helen Young accused Tolkien of racism, anti-Semitism, and orientalism in The Conversation.

She would accuse him of orientalism writing, “‘Good’ species and races in Middle-Earth are constructed through references to European cultures (especially northwestern Europe), and the ‘bad’ races are constructed through orientalist stereotypes.”

Young would go on to claim he pushes anti-Semitism writing, “Tolkien’s letters show the ways that real-world ideas about race influenced Middle-Earth. He wrote ‘I do think of the ‘Dwarves’ like Jews: at once native and alien in their habitations.’”

She made it clear she believes this is anti-Semitism, “There is evidence that he revised his representation of Dwarves between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to try move away from anti-Semitic stereotypes.”

A self-described Tolkien fansite TheOneRing.net, not to be confused with TheOneRing.com, described Tolkien as “woke” writing on Twitter, “If you still think Ian McKellen is the worst & that Catholic Tolkien would have never approved, I beg you to read more of Tolkien’s books and letters. He was woke, stood against hate, embraced all cultures in life & fiction. It’s why his books are translated in every language.”

The website, which recognizes Tolkien as Catholic, also claimed that Tolkien would celebrate LGBTQ because the church celebrates LGBTQ.

They wrote on Twitter, “Tolkien followed the church, and the church celebrates LGBTQ, so I think the surprise is on you.”

The Gamer Features Editor Ben Sledge wrote in an article for the website accusing Tolkien of using anti-Semitic tropes.

He wrote, “Tolkien’s works aren’t free from criticism themselves. The anti-Semitic stereotypes in his depiction of dwarves may have been written with good intentions, but calling Jewish people ‘gifted’ does not atone for the stereotypes he perpetuated.”

Needless to say there are numerous examples of media outlets, personalities, so-called scholars, and more attacking Tolkien and his work.

Day succinctly explains why this is happening on his website, “It’s easy to understand why the Prometheans hate Tolkien so much and why they want to destroy his legacy. He knew. He absolutely knew.”

Day continued, “He knew about them, their evil, and the source of that evil, as evidenced by the Dark Herald’s review of the third episode of The Rangz.”

The Dark Herald then briefly summarizes the rise of Ar-Pharazôn to the throne of Númenór, his capture of Sauron, Sauron’s further corruption of Ar-Pharazôn that leads to private worship of Melkor and eventual public worship of Melkor that involves human sacrifice, Ar-Pharazôn leading the forces of Númenór against Valinor, and Illuvatar’s eventual intercession that completely wipes out the Númenórean fleet and a massive tidal wave that destroys Númenór.

He specifically paraphrases Tolkien’s description of the human sacrifice, which read in actuality, “The power of Sauron daily increased, and in that temple, with spilling of blood and torment
and great wickedness, men made sacrifice to Melkor that he should release them from Death. And most often from among the Faithful they chose their victims; yet never openly on the charge that they would not worship Melkor, the Giver of Freedom, rather was cause sought against them that they hated the King and were his rebels, or that they plotted against their kin, devising lies and poisons. These charges were for the most part false; yet those were bitter days, and hate brings forth hate.”

The Dark Herald paraphrased this writing, “A cult of Morgoth was established complete with human sacrifice of the Elf Faithful humans with the goal of achieving immortality.”

The idea of achieving immortality is mentioned by Tolkien when he talks broadly of the Númenóreans in a letter to Milton Waldman that is included with The Silmarillion.

He wrote “They became thus in appearance, and even in powers of mind, hardly distinguishable from the Elves – but they remained mortal, even though rewarded by a triple, or more than a triple, span of years. Their reward is their undoing – or the means of their temptation.”

Tolkien later wrote, “Foreseeing this in part, the gods laid a Ban on the Númenóreans from the beginning: they must never sail to Eressëa, nor westward out of sight of their own land. In all other directions they could go as they would. They must not set foot on ‘immortal’ lands, and so become enamoured of an immortality (within the world), which was against their law, the special doom or gift of Ilúvatar (God), and which their nature could not in fact endure.”

He also writes in The Silmarillion, “For a wind arose in the east and it wafted them away; and they broke the Ban of the Valar, and sailed into forbidden seas, going up with war against the Deathless, to wrest from them everlasting life within the Circles of the World.”

The Arkhaven Comics Publisher then reacted to this summary of Tolkien writing, “Fascinating, is it not, that a high fantasy writer could foresee today’s transhuman global technocrats in the 1940s? It’s because their goals are no different than they were back before the dawn of recorded human history: to be like God.”

Indeed Tolkien saw that evil because he also wrote in The Silmarillion, “Sauron with many arguments gainsaid all that the Valar had taught; and he bade men think that in the world, in the east and even in the west, there lay yet many seas and many lands for their winning, wherein was wealth uncounted. And still, if they should at the last come to the end of those lands and seas, beyond all lay the Ancient Darkness. ‘And out of it the world was made. For Darkness alone is worshipful, and the Lord thereof may yet make other worlds to be gifts to those that serve him, so that the increase of their power shall find no end.’”

He continued, “And Ar-Pharazôn said: ‘Who is the Lord of the Darkness?’ Then behind locked doors Sauron spoke to the King, and he lied, saying: ‘It is he whose name is not now spoken; for the Valar have deceived you concerning him, putting forward the name of Eru, a phantom devised in the folly of their hearts, seeking to enchain Men in servitude to themselves. For they are the oracle of this Eru, which speaks only what they will. But he that is their master shall yet prevail, and he will deliver you from this phantom; and his name is Melkor, Lord of All, Giver of Freedom, and he shall make you stronger than they.’”