Harry Potter and The Lord of

the Rings
Reading and Writing
Similarities
Harry
Potter
The Lord of
the Rings
 THE LORD OF THE RINGS AND HARRY POTTER

JRR Tolkien's magnum opus, The Lord of The

Rings, is practically a literary legend today taking
generations of readers back to the somber universe
of Middle Earth. Meanwhile in the present context,
another British author, JK Rowling, made history
by creating a beguiling magical universe for the
boy wizard Harry Potter.
The Ring-Bearer/The
Chosen One
Let us start with the most obvious
similarity between the two epics. It is
true that every story needs a hero but
not every hero has to be the only
person in the world who must
complete a very dangerous mission,
or die trying. Yet, the central
characters in both fantasies are the
one person tasked with a mission, and
the only one capable of getting it
done.
 Frodo becomes the Ring-bearer, taking on
the mantle of destroying the One Ring by
throwing it into the fires of Mount Doom,
while Harry is the boy who lived, the chosen
one to fight the immensely powerful dark
wizard Voldemort, so much so that one
cannot live while the other survives.
Another similarity lies in the grand Gandalf The Grey/Albus
ol' men of both epic sagas. Both Dumbledore
Gandalf and Dumbledore are pillars
of strength for their respective
heroes, offering them wisdom, and
acting as their friend, philosopher,
and guide. Rowling might have
initially imagined Dumbledore as a
wizard who was as old as the rocks,
rather droll, and happened to be
Harry's safe haven -- not really
someone who exuded the kind of
grandeur as did Gandalf the Grey.
 Yet, as the character grew more
complex, it became as much a symbol
of almost infinite power as Gandalf.
Moreover, once the stories got translated
into celluloid, the comparison between
the two wizards with their long flowing
white beards became a certainty.
Both epic fantasies have a Sauron The Deceiver/Lord
villain who is basically evil Voldemort
personified. Sauron the
Deceiver rules over the grim,
perilous landscape of
Mordor, and wishes to
subjugate the whole of
Middle Earth, while He-
Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is
looking to conquer the entire
wizarding universe, leaving
a bloodbath in its wake.
 The similarities do not end there. Both
villains are hailed as the Dark Lord, both lust
after infinite power that would practically
grant them immortality, and both survive
without a weakened yet still corporeal form
for the longest of time. Most importantly,
both Voldemort and Sauron have their life
forces attached to artifacts which are also the
source of the extraordinary power they seek.
Speaking of artifacts, the
concept of Horcruxes is very
The One Ring/Horcruxes
obviously inspired by LOTR's
One Ring to rule them all. Fans
could hardly miss the similarity
between the two objects on
which depend the very
existence of the antagonists.
Sauron's fate is attached to the
One Ring which will make him
the most powerful entity in
Middle Earth.
On the other hand, Voldemort has committed a
barrage of heinous crimes thus creating as
many as seven Horcruxes, each of which bears
a part of his ripped soul. While LOTR revolves
around Frodo traveling to destroy the One Ring
which Sauron seeks, in the Potterverse, Harry's
mission is to destroy all the Horcruxes created
by Voldemort to kill him off once and for all.
Both Lord of the Rings and Harry
Nazgûl/Dementors
Potter take the reader into an
imaginary world of intriguing
magical creatures with dark,
mysterious forces lurking in every
corner. The Nazgûl are the
Ringwraiths, enslaved by the
power of the Ring and the most
terrifying lieutenants of the Dark
Lord Sauron. They are cloaked in
black and exist in the realm of the
invisible, neither living nor dead.
The dementors too are vile, wraith-
like creatures that appear dark,
hooded, and shadowy without any
particular physical form. Besides,
both creatures strike a sense of
doom, despair, and fear in the hearts
of those who cross their paths.
To be fair to Rowling, the elves in
Potterverse are nothing like those Gollum/The Elves
in Tolkien's masterpiece. However,
in terms of appearance, one can
easily draw parallels between the
house-elves in the magical world,
and the eponymous Gollum. One
of the most fascinating characters
in the history of literature is that of
the creature Smeagol, known to all
as Gollum because of the retching
noise he makes in his throat.
 Gollum is evil, yes, but he is also deeply
conflicted, a tormented soul who has long given
in to the obsessive hold of the Ring. Dobby the
elf, on the other hand, is far from evil, and one
of Harry's biggest supporters in the wizarding
world, although another elf Creature is rather
more unpleasant. Different though their spirits
might be, Gollum and the house-elves do share
certain physical attributes.
Shelob is the giant spider in Shelob/Aragog
"The Lord of the Rings" that
dwells in the deepest depths of
Mordor and feasts
indiscriminately on anybody
unlucky enough to wander into
her lair. In Potterverse, Aragog
is Shelob's counterpart, a
mammoth spider who resides
in the Forbidden Forest with
his countless offsprings.
 Frodo Baggins is seen rendered immobile
in Shelob's web until he is saved by
Samwise Gamgee. Aragog is
comparatively friendlier, choosing to
cohabit in peace with other creatures like
the centaurs in the Forbidden Forest but he
sees no reason to deprive his progeny of a
sumptuous feast if it became available.
Galadriel's mirror is not really Mirror Of Galadriel/Mirror Of
a mirror at all, but a basin of Erised-Pensieve
water from the Elvish land.
This is reminiscent of a
similar object in the
Potterverse -- the Pensieve.
Just as Dumbledore used the
Pensieve to revisit his
memories, the Mirror of
Galadriel too was capable of
throwing up the past.
 However, it's not just the Pensieve that draws
from the concept but also the Mirror of Erised.
One of the most intriguing things about
Rowling's writing is her wordplay. The Mirror
of Erised which Harry finds in his first year at
Hogwarts is one such example -- erised is, of
course, "desire" spelled backwards. This mirror
reflects a person's innermost desire, just as the
Mirror of Galadriel shows events that a person
would wish to happen in the future.
The Dead Marshes were a Dead Marshes/Inferi
part of a battlefield that
sucked in the corpses which
were buried there post-
battle. The dead could
actually be seen floating in
the marshland; when Gollum
was guiding Frodo and Sam
on to Mount Doom, he led
them through the Marshes.
Potterverse has its own version of spooky
corpses. The Inferi are the undead that
Voldemort had bewitched to attack anyone
who touched the waters in the dark cave
which held one of the Horcruxes.
Although the corpses in the Dead Marshes
are supposed to be mere visions, the
similarity with the Inferi is undeniable.
For Tolkien, the immense power of The Power Of The
the ring called out to Sauron as Ring/Legilimens
well as the Nazgûl whose fate was
bound to the Ring. Sauron and the
Black Riders were also alerted
every time the Ring was worn,
forging a connection with the Ring-
bearer. Similarly, Voldemort was
able to read Harry's mind, which is
why Dumbledore wanted the latter
to learn the art of Occlumency (a
literal mental block) from Snape.
 Of course, like the One Ring, Harry was
Voldemort's Horcrux, albeit unintended,
enabling the latter to peek into his
thoughts. Moreover, in Harry Potter and
the Deathly Hallows, Voldemort puts a
taboo on his own name so that the moment
it is uttered by anybody anywhere, his
henchmen would be able to trace them.
thank you
Jenny Palacios
Eduardo Figueroa
Raziel Jean Canitan
Judy Ann Tangcay
Stacy Cassandra Cagape