Is it just me, or did someone else notice?
Initially, after seeing "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer Stone", and "The Fellowship of the Ring", I thought there are too many similarities between them to be coincidental.
After seeing "The Chamber of Secrets", and reading a bit about "The Prisoner of Azkaban", I saw "Lord of the Rings" trilogy again at home on DVD.
I thought that there was a lot of borrowing that J.K. Rowling did from J.R.R. Tolkien.
Let us see a list of similarities:
| Similarity | Lord of the Rings | Harry Potter |
|---|---|---|
| Villian | Sauron is the head of evil. He lost his power, and needs the ring to gain it all back | Voldemort is also a vanquished evil wizard. He needs the Sorcerer's Stone in order to gain his strength back |
| Unlikely Hero | Frodo Baggins is a Hobbit, a peaceful -- almost childish -- and weak race. He is entrusted with the task of saving the world from great evil | Harry is an 11 year orphan who does much the same |
| Special Object | The One Ring is the object that the hero must prevent the villian from getting, so as to regain his full powers | The Sorcerer's Stone is the same |
| Mentor/Protector | Gandalf is a guiding, helping, mentoring, teaching figure for Frodo | Professor Dumbledore is the same in the Harry Potter series |
| Troll | In the Fellowship of the Ring, the Orcs have a Cave Troll with them, and in The Two Towers, the Cave Trolls open the gates of Mordor | In Harry Potter II, there is a Mountain Troll, whom Harry and his friends have to overpower |
| Giant Spider | Shelob is a giant spider that almost kills and eats Frodo, in The Return of the King | In the forest, there is a talking spider. It is a friend of Hagred, but chases Harry wanting to eat him |
| Giant raptor bird | A giant eagle saves Gandalf from Isengard | In the Prisoner of Azkaban, Buckbeak is a giant raptor helping Harry and friends |
| Dragon | In the Hobbit, the prelude to The Lord of the Rings, the dragon Smaug is Bilbo Baggins adversary | In Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets, there is a dragon like reptilian monster, the Basilisk, whom Harry has to slay |
| Goblins | The goblins are one of the races of evil allying with Sauron and Saruman | There are goblins who run the bank. They are physically similar to the other ones, although mostly benign |
| Sidekick "Creature" | In Lord of the Ring, Gollum is a creature with both dual good and evil personalities. He helps Frodo in his quest | Dobby is a house elf who is both a hinderance and helpful at different times |
Of course, J.K. Rowling has a lot of original ideas of her own, such as the concept of muggles, and the game of Quiddich.
My opinion is that she borrowed too many themes to be a coincidence. For sure she was "inspired" by Tolkien's Lord of the Ring, at least partially.
After writing this page, I found the following links that ponder some of the points above:
- "Stone" and "Ring" look like 2 pages out of Same Spell-book
- Wikipedia article has a brief mention of similarities.
- A web page listing the similarities between Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings going into character details.
Comments
Karthik (not verified)
No Matter how hard the
Wed, 2011/06/29 - 15:32No Matter how hard the contemporary fantasy authors try... , they cant leave a scent of Tolkein.
BTW comparing any author (including Rowling) with tolkein is such a disgrace.
He was a visionary whom all these people followed.
The very basic concept of entering an imaginary world was taken from narnia. But only thing Rowling excells in Presenting a Vivid scenario.
Narcissa Malfoy... (not verified)
u r all wrong
Fri, 2012/01/13 - 12:08Harry Potter is nothing like lotr! firstly the ring is nothing like the horcruxes and dobby isnt even in all of the books it is humans who help Harry, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, also Harry is a very likely hero as Voldmort nearly killed him wen he was little its not like he is just some random-strange-kid who is trying to over run a radom-strange-guy!!!!!!!!!!!1 So ur all wrong!!!!!!!!!!!hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Elmer (not verified)
The director of the movies copied LOTR as well.
Sun, 2012/05/06 - 21:35Remember when Gandalf was killed by the Balrog? We see the characters, especially Frodo, in slow motion, wailing in complete silence.
When Dumbledore gets killed, we see THE EXACT SAME EFFECT: the character, especially Harry, in slow motion, wailing in complete silence.
Anonymous (not verified)
Some of this is wrong
Mon, 2013/04/15 - 18:56Now sorry, but I'm fairly OCD, and I couldn't help but notice that Frodo and Sam encountered Shelob in the Two Towers not the Return Of The King. I agree with you on the fact that she did get a lot of inspiration from Tolkien and wished that she would at least cite him and give his some credit. However, Tolkien did wish for his world to be a template of other fantasy books, but as I said, I just whished she had given him credit.
tincanman (not verified)
jk rowling
Sun, 2013/08/11 - 09:45I find it very coincidental that harry potter was the name of the young hero in the movie troll.
Anonymous (not verified)
You say that Harry and Frodo
Sun, 2014/11/02 - 01:49You say that Harry and Frodo are similar? How, may I ask? They are both unlikely heroes, that's true. But that's a cliché found in many works of fiction. And of course they have to save the world and vanquish evil, like many other fictional underdogs. Yet another cliché.
Harry was orphaned after his parents were killed by Voldemort. He grew up in a cupboard under the stairs with his cruel aunt, uncle, and cousin. Then, at age 11, he went to a school to learn magic. As the Chosen One, he had NO CHOICE but to fight Voldemort.
Frodo had a fairly happy childhood with Bilbo. Then, he VOLUNTEERED to go on the quest.
As for the mentors, what fantasy doesn't have the cliché mentor?
Anonymous (not verified)
Aragog, the giant spider in
Sun, 2014/11/02 - 01:59Aragog, the giant spider in Harry Potter, was raised cared for by Hagrid. He did not want to hurt Harry and Ron, but did so to try and help his family. He was, in a sense, nice.
Shelob is essentially evil in a pure form. He only wants to kill.
Humans are naturally afraid of spiders and snakes. So why not put them in a fantasy story?
Buckbeak is a hippogriff, part horse and part eagle. You are saying that's essentially the same thing as a giant eagle. I beg to differ.
Trolls are a common theme in fantasy stories. Tolkien, while being a genius, did not invent large flying creatures or trolls or dark lords or ways to return dark lords to power.
A dragon is a dragon. A basilisk is hatched from a chicken egg that a toad sat on. Are these the same, as you suggest? Once again, I beg to differ.
Pages