the problem with all of these,Ā āX creature is an antisemitic stereotypeā isā¦
well, if they are, itās a thoroughly recent invention
Christians didnāt need to come up with coded representations of the worst things they believed of Jews
they just presented it outright
we didnāt haveĀ āgoblins hoard gold and control the banksā, we hadĀ āJews hoard gold and control the banks and steal the Host and drink the blood of Christian babies and dig up our deadā
With the exception of impenetrable allegorical works that were just allllll about symbolism, from top to bottom⦠Notsrim didnāt need to invent some kind of fantastic monster to represent JewsĀ
because to them, weāre already monsters
this isnāt to say you canāt talk about stuff in the context of specific recent creators
JKRās goblins areĀ grotesque little antisemitic caricatures, just as many editions of D&D made goblins into anti-Asian stereotypes
remember that thereās no One True Goblin Form. Thereās no codified rule about dwarves being greedy treasure-hoarding foreigners, in spite of Tolkien. Thereās no rule about how long or how pointy an elveās ears are.
this stuff is all centuries if not millennia old. Itās gone through countless variations in how it has been told. Sometimes, to some people, āgoblinā,Ā āelfā, andĀ ādwarfā were all names for the same thing. Sometimes one or the other was extremely specific. Sometimes they were each broad categories, more akin to something likeĀ the JapaneseĀ āyoukaiā orĀ ābakemonoā.
sometimes, people have sat down and decided to take these ideas and use them to conceal their hatred, to signal others who believe as they do or to try to make their bigotry seem less bigoted by making it about something nonhuman
because back when people were worried about elves swapping a changeling for their baby, or an ogre in the forest
they were also convinced that āJewā was itself a category of inhuman creature.