Via Reddit: “In
1938, Tolkien was preparing to release The Hobbit in Germany. The
publishers first wanted to know if he was of Aryan descent. This was his
response.”
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.
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