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
Ignotus Peverell (not verified)
Regarding the part:
Sun, 2009/09/27 - 09:54Regarding the part: DUMBLEDORE- IN LOTR, FLYING INSECT
For your information Dumbledore is the old English word for Bumble Bee. Now Rowling imagined Prof. Albus P.W.B Dumbledore as a person strolling through Hogwarts humming to himself. So nothing stolen. tolkien is referring to the old word too.
Anonymous (not verified)
HP vs LOTR
Mon, 2009/07/13 - 15:44I think Rowling borrowed heavily from Tolkien..being a LOTR fan I noticed it immediatley.
Anonymous (not verified)
Too Many LOTR Fans here haha
Sat, 2009/07/18 - 05:11She wrote an excellent series, one of my favorites. True, you have spotted curious similarities between the two, but we must keep in mind that these are fantasy books we are talking about. They are bound to have the same creatures, evil plots, etc. It's the overall jist of fantasy and I could name several other books that have similar things.
-> Not that I am disagreeing, I think that people lack original ideas these days and I can understand why, almost every creature possible has been made up and it takes time and hardwork to develop these things. but I think Rowling has down a very very good job at creating her own world and making her books in particular special. I have no doubt in my mind that by the proof shown here, she was obviously 'inspired' by the LOTR, however you can definitly tell that as she moved on from book 1 to book 7, she improved her originality and made her stories clearly more unique than most. =)
Forever a LOTR and HP Fan!
- Julitaliana
Ignotus Peverell (not verified)
Mistakes
Sun, 2009/09/27 - 09:49There are alot of mistakes above to be arranged :)
Mountain troll not in HP 2 but in 1 (that's one) ... there are more.
Also the only similarity you can see is: The Whomping Willow with Old man Willow. Nothing else.
Aragog doesn't chase after Harry and Ron ... so no similarity with Shelob.
The "Special Object" is only mentioned in one book (in HP) while its in all in LoTRO ...
The Giant Raptor, Goblin and Dragon Part is RUBBISH. Who doesn't have Goblins and dragons in fantasy stories? It wasn't Tolkien who came up with them. Also a Basilisk doesn't have to do with a dragon and the trio faces a Dragon only in the last book. (Not to mention Harry faces one in the fourth).
Anyways who ever wrote this article doesn't know his Potter, have not read the books and only watched the films. If someone wants to write an article like this ... He has to read the books not watch the movies only. Please arrange the mistakes and remove some of them as they are completely different.
Bdw the part about Frodo and Harry. Frodo is 50 + by the time he sets out, so he has some experience, although not in battle and combat. Harry is 17 by the time he does is greatest things.
Anonymous (not verified)
so not true frodo is only 33
Wed, 2009/11/11 - 22:47so not true frodo is only 33 when he sets out not 50+
aragog children as well as him chase harry and ron read the book and see the movie
no when riddle went to school he divides his victams into his souls so he wont die and in each book harry destroys at least one read book number 6 and see the movie
oh and both harry and frodo are orphans harrys where killed by voldemort and frodos were drowned
Anonymous (not verified)
Correction
Mon, 2010/08/16 - 22:51Frodo is 50 when he sets out. There is a seventeen year gap between the time that he gets the ring (on his 33rd birthday) and the time that he sets out.
Fred (not verified)
If you think that the
Mon, 2011/03/07 - 17:32If you think that the dementors and the ringwraiths are not exactly the same concept then you need to get your head checked. Likewise with the horcruxes and the one ring.
Steve (not verified)
When both villians lost power...
Sat, 2009/10/03 - 07:52Voldermort when losing his power goes to hiding in a forest. it is said he is no more than the weakest ghost or soul.
When sauron loses his power, where does he go? Mirkwood forest, and Gandalf said he is no more than a soul at this point.
Michael (not verified)
DEMENTORS AND THE NAZGUL/
Wed, 2009/10/21 - 15:02DEMENTORS AND THE NAZGUL/ RINGRAITHS BOTH HOODED, CLOAKED, CANNOT SEE THEIR FACE, CAUSE CHILLS!!!
Anonymous (not verified)
I guess Lord of the Rings is
Thu, 2009/11/26 - 23:39I guess Lord of the Rings is just so freaking epic that its impossible not to copy from... almost every fantasy book today has at least one similarity.
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