It's All Geek to Me!

The Obvious Ones

Harry, a malnourished orphan, is the hero of the Harry Potter series. He grew up in a magic-hating Muggle family. Readers wouldn't immediately associate him with a stellar wizarding tradition, unlike some of his classmates, like Ron Weasley or Draco Malfoy, who come from pure blood wizarding families and have grown up with magic surrounding them. Similarly, the hero of the LotR trilogy, Frodo, is from the race of hobbits, a race mostly ignored in the history of Middle Earth because they were content to eat, drink, be merry and generally stay out of trouble with the rest of the world. One wouldn't expect a member of this out-of-the-way, unimpressive race to be the person who finally destroyed the evil that was the Ring. In sum, Harry and Frodo didn't ask for greatness -- it was thrust upon them.

Both stories feature a dark, fearsome and all-pervasive evil force. Sauron was the central evil in LotR (indeed, it isn't clear if the Lord of the Ring doesn't refer to him), whereas Lord Voldemort/Tom Riddle, Jr. was the central evil in Harry Potter. Both Sauron and Tom Riddle covertly engaged in evil deeds when they were spending time at Numenor and Hogwarts, respectively. Sauron had undead agents, the Nazgul, who were drawn by the Ring. Everything they touched was instantly robbed of vitality, which might remind of the Dementors in Harry Potter. The dementors guarded the much-feared wizard prison, Azkaban and sapped prisoners of their mental strength by reminding them of their worst memories. In the latest books of the Harry Potter series, they had been assigned tasks much more evil than merely guarding a prison -- ambushing Harry and harming him in some way.

Of course, Harry wouldn't have made it alive through five instalments of the series by J. K. Rowling unless he got his ass saved from tight situations by the powerful wizard Albus Dumbledore. Guess who was saving Frodo's and the Fellowship's collective ass when the Balrog was almost upon them at the close of Book I of the trilogy? That's right, Gandalf the Grey (ever notice how both of them are called 'wizard'?). He paid for it with his life, of course, but being an Istari, the normal rules didn't apply to him and he came back as Gandalf the White. I wonder if this will happen sometime with Albus Dumbledore as well. Heck, he was practically not around at all for most of Harry Potter V, because he ph34red Harry's brain lacked a firewall and was ownz0r3d by \/01|)3^^0|2+. Okay, I'll stop with the geek and cracker references already.

For some reason, Dobby reminds me of Gollum, and in more than the CGI nature of their characters on screen. Gollum acted as a guide subjugated to Frodo until he destroyed the Ring, even if their relationship was a tad uneasy. Similarly, Dobby, who is subjugated to Harry, guides him in difficult situations like the Triwizard Tournament, even if Dobby tries to save Harry's life in ways that annoy Harry.

Karolina points out to me that Wormtail is the analogue to Saruman. They are both accessories to the real evil and are weak of character. I am tempted to notice a similarity in the names of Wormtail and Wormtongue, the counselor to Denethor installed by Saruman.

Aragog is the analogue of Shelob. I am so utterly freaked out by the idea of giant spiders.

The Not-So-Obvious Ones

Both the stories occur in the elaborately constructed universes of Middle Earth and Magic-Land. They have spawned an entire class of fans who are interested in the worlds in which the stories occur, in and of themselves. Both the stories and their associated movies have also spawned an elaborate collection of kitsch in one corner of our era's collective attic, which our future generations will look back upon and laugh. I would have to give it to Tolkien for the astounding level of detail he achieved in painting his universe. He was a linguist by training and started out designing his universe by first designing its languages. The songs in the book are pieces of poetry that stand by themselves. Compare this to the measly lone poems in each Harry Potter book, always sung by the Sorting Hat. Most of the spells in Harry Potter consist of touched up Latin (Expecto Patronum -- cough/spit out a Patronus; lumos -- Light Up). I have read somewhere that Avada Kedavra (kill -9 anyone?), the lethal instant-death spell is derived from Aramaic.

Both the Harry Potter series and the Lord of the Rings trilogy are about the triumph of good over evil. This is a lingering theme found in mythologies all over the world, so one wouldn't think too much of it ordinarily. However it is interesting how both stories paint a complex, ambivalent and muddled picture about these concepts. Frodo stands for the hope that the rest of Middle Earth is holding out against Sauron. However, even he is not immune to the mental tricks played by the evil Ring. Similarly, Harry represents the war of decent wizards against the troublemakers. Yet, as we see in the later books of the Harry Potter series, he is not immune to being so taken by thoughts of Voldemort and feeling like he is actually performing evil deeds as Voldemort himself. By trying to kill Harry but only succeeding in giving him a scar, Voldemort left a little of himself inside Harry. Likewise, at the end of Book IV, Voldemort takes a bit of Harry blood and transfuses it into himself. What better analogy to the figurative mixing of good and evil in the same person than these two example of literal mixing?

Authors of both the stories have chosen to personify good and evil not just a few key characters, but have chosen instead to portray the fight between good and evil in epic proportions. It is not just Frodo against Sauron -- it's Frodo and the Elves, Men and Dwarfs against Sauron and the Orcs. It is not just Harry against Voldemort -- it is Harry, Dumbledore and all the decent wizarding families against Voldemort, the Death-Eaters and the evil wizarding families.

Perhaps in 10 or 20 generations, these will be the mythologies about our times that the kids then will read. One thing is for certain, though -- the mythic archetypes of that time won't be much different!