The irony of this particular meme being that Tolkien cast The Dwarves as the jews of Middle Earth. From their language to their wandering to their obsession with mineral riches. Tolkien elaborated on Jewish influence on Dwarves in a letter: "I do think of the 'Dwarves' like Jews: at once native and alien in their habitations, speaking the languages of the country, but with an accent due to their own private tongue..." In the last interview before his death, Tolkien briefly says "The dwarves of course are quite obviously, wouldn't you say that in many ways they remind you of the Jews? Their words are Semitic, obviously, constructed to be Semitic."