I was thinking of world wide race relations in the book like the fountain of four magical races representing the goblins as the “yellow” cultures of asia who have a very long history that often clashes with “wizard/white/european” culture but is undoubtedly seperate but equal. And then the Centaurs in the statue I felt represented the “red” cultures of the first nations in the Americas who live “wild” by choice and are notably proud and deeply invested in their own culture and generally feel that separation would be best. this leaves of course the wizards who need not be mentioned as they are the story tellers and then the elves who have been enslaved and utterly lost contact with their own sense of culture. I’ve felt that it very, very clearly mirrors the African cultures who were captured in the slave trade and brought to the “wizard” world.

regardless of the symbolism, the moral of the story was undoubtedly of understanding ,tolerance and equal cohabitation with all peoples and creatures.

but who knows… maybe it’s about the Jews.

- hook nosed
- good with money
- jewellers
- persecuted historically
- refuse to eat the same food as non-goblins (see the table scene in Book 7)
- different set of customary laws regarding e.g property rights (again, Book 7)
- urban (in the books they are concentrated in London)

Yep, it’s occurred to me to, independently of anything I’d read.

Rowling portrays the goblins as complicated, not evil. But the parallels are slightly too close to be comfortable.

The real conspiracy can be found on , it involves Hagrid and his old habits that have a way of getting him in trouble.

Precisely therefore is it striking to me, that (even) she feels somewhere, that Jews are so distinctively different.

Anyhow, what I find a bit alarming is less the negative stereotypes in there, but rather (taking one step back) the fact that goblins are a distinct race (suggesting Jewish people are different to the point of being non-human, following the non-intentional, i.e. sub-contious path.

“they’re not very friendly, but devlishly clever with money!”

I think it certainly is what it appears to be. I also believe that Ms. Rowling did not even intend this. But rather this is the result of centuries of hurtful characterization and imagery that one group has heaped upon another. It is institutionalized racism.

I’m not Jewish, but I’ve always been uncomfortable with the this particular parallel. I imagined that Rowling would eventually bring our sympathies around to the goblins, as she did with the house elves–but in the end the goblins turn out to be treacherous . It was mitigating, I guess, that the wizards were planning deceit of their own. But it was the wizards who ended up with the sword of Gryffindor–because they were braver and worthier than the goblins, one has to ask?

I would be surprised indeed to learn that Rowling was an anti-semite; that doesn’t seem consistent with the message of tolerance that pervades the HP series. But I would also be surprised if she didn’t recognize (or engineer) the parallels between goblins and Jews. Some brief moral analysis of the kind provided in previous books by Dumbledore with regard to the Centaurs and Giants, or by Hermione with regard to the house elves, is conspicuously absent in the latter chapters of the seventh book (post Gringott’s).

Matt’s right: this doesn’t warrant an obsession (fatwas are for reactionary sissies) against Rowling or the series. But to satisfy my curiosity, if not my politics, I would appreciate an explanation–maybe in the rumored eighth book that will provide some exegesis of the HP universe?

well, it has to be recent. jews were only allowed into england in large numbers after 1650 remember after their medieval expulsion. various protestant dissenters in fact seem to have filled many of the niches that jews did in eastern europe (there wasn’t a big polish middle class for a variety of reasons, but there was a british middle class).

I usually just assume that they’re talking about jews

but it’s a fine line. after, the likelihood is that the jew became the goblin, not that the goblin is derived from a caricature of jews. european mythology predates and exists apart from its relationship to the jews, and it seems that many of the negative traits of quasi-human peoples were dumped into jews (and gypsies too). does that mean that europeans can’t draw upon their mythologies and folk-tales because of this taint?

i guess the short of it is that contrary to what some jews seem to perceive, it’s not always about you.