The Devil’s Historians: How Modern Extremists Abuse the Medieval Past

by Amy S. Kaufman

giving a person extraordinary beauty, nobility, and strength is just a backwards medieval thing, you should note that it persists in some of our most enduring popular culture. Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings has the right to rule Gondor because of his ancestry, which also gives him extraordinary longevity. Modern versions of Arthurian legend keep the medieval trope that Arthur’s noble blood allows him to pull the sword from the stone and rule England. Many of our most famous superheroes—Batman, Black Panther, Superman, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Arrow, Iron Man—are either royalty in their own realms or members of the aristocracy. The question of Rey’s parentage that consumed Star Wars fans since Episode VII’s release focused exclusively on the Jedi, and when she seemed to have been sired by nobody in particular, some fans were outraged. Fan complaints may have contributed to J.J. Abrams’s decision to reveal Rey to be a member of Jedi aristocracy in Episode IX; she spent much of that film struggling with the evil “in her blood.”