A History Lesson For Harry Potter

The Mail reveals many striking echoes of Tolkien and Narnia in the magical novels of JK Rowling

The Harry Potter books are rapidly becoming the most popular fiction in the history of literature.(is it just me or is that quite worrying?) In just four years they have sold a staggering 100 million copies, and have made their author, JK Rowling, a very rich woman.

Explaining the secret of their success, critics point to the brilliant invention in the plots and characters, the creation of a whole parallel world, and the attraction of the struggle of good against evil.

With the film version of the first book – which describes a boy’s magical first year at a school for witches and wizards – released on Friday, interest is sure to increase even more.

Yet for all their richness, there are more than a few echoes of other classic stories within the pages of the Potter books, particularly from The Lord of The Rings by J.R.R Tolkien, a film which is released next month, competing with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Of course, when it comes to literature, there’s no such thing as an entirely original story. Even Shakespeare happily raided myths, chronicles and even contemporary authors in search of the ideas for the finest plays ever written.

It is part of the tradition of all great art – and this applies to music and painting as much as literature – that ideas are passed down through the generations , constantly adapting and evolving as they go.

So while there’s no denying that J.K. Rowling’s achievement is truly staggering, it’s fascinating to look at why some elements of her stories seem rather familiar.

J.R.R. Tolkien

• The Lord of the Rings, published in 1954, has a good wizard – Gandalf – as a central character, who guides the little hero and has a long white beard and flowing hair.
• Harry Potter has a good wizard, Dumbledore, as a central character, who guides the little hero and has a long, white beard and flowing hair.
• The Lord of the Rings has an evil, dark force who has fallen from power but is growing strong again : Lord Sauron.
• The Harry Potter books have an evil, dark force who has fallen from power but is growing strong again: Lord Voldemort.
• When the hero of TLOTR, Frodo, is close to the dark lord, the ring he is carrying grows heavy in his hands.
• When the hero of Harry Potter is close to the dark lord, the scar on his head burns with pain.
• In TLOTR there’s a small, snivelling, treacherous character who is the sidekick of an evil wizard. His name is Wormtongue.
• In HP there’s a small, snivelling, treacherous character who is the sidekick of an evil wizard. His name is Wormtail.
• In The Hobbit, also written by J.R.R. Tolkien, there’s a dark forest which the heroes fear to enter.
• In HP there’s a dark forest which the heroes fear to enter.
• In the forest in The Hobbit, there is a colony of giant, talking spiders who try to murder the hero, Bilbo.
• In the forest in HP, there is a colony of giant, talking spiders who try and murder the hero, Harry.
• In TLOTR Frodo becomes invisible when he slips on his magic ring.
• In HP, Harry becomes invisible when he slips on his magic cloak.
• In TLOTR there are evil, half-dead, black-cloaked figures who can sense the hero’s presence and seek to suck out his soul : the Wraiths
• In HP there are evil, half-dead, black cloaked figures who can sense the hero’s presence and seek to suck out his soul : the Dementors.
• In TLOTR the Elven Queen has a pool of liquid – the Mirror of Galadriel – in which she can see events far away and at different times.
• In HP, Dumbledore has a pool of liquid – the Pensieve – in which Harry can see far away and at different times.
• In The Hobbit, the hero is attacked by a huge mountain troll.
• In HP, the hero is attacked by a huge mountain troll.
• In TLOTR, the ancient sword of Anduril is used to cut the ring from the dark lord’s hand.
• In HP, the ancient sword of Godric Gryffindor is used to slay the Basilisk, a serpent doing the bidding of the dark lord.
• In TLOTR, Frodo and his companions visit a village pub, The Prancing Pony, and are served by Barliman Butterbur.
• In HP, Harry and his companions visit a village pub, The Three broomsticks, where they drink pints of Butterbeer.
• In TLOTR, Gandalf is carried away from danger from the top of a wizard’s tower by a giant eagle.
• In the third Harry Potter book, Harry’s Godfather Sirius Black is carried away from danger near the top of a tower by a giant Hippogriff (which is half eagle).

Narnia

• At the beginning of the narnia book The Last battle, by C.S Lewis – the final instalment of the series published in the fifties – the children leave a Railway Platform and are thrown into a magical world from the train. In the book The Secret of Platform Thirteen, by Eva Ibbotson, there is also a secret link into a magical world via a railway station platform.
• Near the beginning of Harry Potter, he and his friends use a railway station platform – nine-and-three-quarters at King’s Cross – to move into the magical world.
• In Narnia there are wise and magical centaurs who befriend the Pevensie children.
• In HP, there are wise and magical centaurs, one of which, Firenze, lets harry ride on his back.
• In the Magician’s Nephew, the children Diggory and Polly ride on a flying horse to save Narnia from an evil witch.
• In HP Harry and Hermione fly on a Hippogriff (a beast which is a half-horse) to save the innocent Sirius Black. (Also, one of the characters in harry Potter is called Cedric Diggory. Unusual name, isn’t it?)

N.K. Stouffer (isn’t that Harry Hill’s cat?)

• American children’s lawyer N.K.Stouffer, in her 1984 book The Legend of Rah and the muggles, used the term Muggles (which she claimed to have coined at the time but has now thankfully dropped that) and the book includes the character Larry Potter.
• J.K. Rowling uses the word Muggles to describe ‘non-wizarding’ peoples, and, as we all know, the hero is called Harry Potter.
• Stouffer’s book contains a castle, like Hogwarts, which is approached by a boat across a lake. And there was a character called Nimbus, who could fly, as foes HP’s flying Nimbus 2000 broomstick.
• In Stouffer’s book the Muggles form a group called the Nevils.
• In Harry Potter there is a character called Neville.
• In Stouffer’s book, there is a character called Lilly Potter.
• Harry’s mother is called Lily Potter.
• Stouffer’s lawyers claimed that; “There are many similarities between the books, all of which cause further confusion, infringe upon Stouffer’s trademarks and unfairly compete with her properties.”
• In this case, however, it is Rowling and her U.S. publisher’s, Scholastic, who have sued Stouffer.(for what??) The matter will be settled in a Manhattan courtroom.

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