XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.fan.tolkien, alt.fan.harry-potter   
   From: dthierbach@usenet.arcornews.de   
      
   Steve Morrison  wrote:   
   > I've always been underwhelmed by the supposed signs of Tolkienian   
   > influence on Rowling, e.g. "the Whomping Willow is just like Old   
   > Man Willow!" or "Tolkien wrote a poem with the line /He battled   
   > with the Dumbledors/!" They mostly seem explainable by common   
   > sources, a common interest in obscure and archaic words, and sheer   
   > coincidence (when you're looking for possible parallels in a long   
   > and complicated source you'd expect a lot of false positives due   
   > to coincidence, and the likelihood is more than squared when the   
   > later work is even longer and more intricate!)   
      
   I completely agree.   
      
   > The one such claim that does look plausible is the number of hobbit   
   > names which reappear in the Potter books: Proudfoot, Everard, Odo,   
   > Puddifoot, etc.   
      
   I wouldn't count that one: Rowling uses names very differently from   
   Tolkien, though both have fun with names in their own. And AFAIK   
   (someone correct me if I'm wrong), these are all common English last   
   names.   
      
   > I do take the "Christian symbolism" claims more seriously.   
   > First, there is the obvious Crucifixion parallel in the way Harry   
   > saves the world at the end of /Deathly Hallows/!   
      
   As I said, I only read DH once, at that was some time ago, so I   
   don't really feel qualified for a discussion about details.   
      
   OTOH, form me the parallel "Harry = Christ" seems to be as silly as   
   the parallel "Gandalf = Christ", because Gandalf was "resurrected" as   
   well. If Rowling really did write this with the intention of a   
   parallel, then I am somewhat disappointed.   
      
   > And that book also has a number of allusions to crosses, quotes from   
   > the New Testament, etc. But long before it was published, some   
   > analysts did see traditional Christian symbolism in the series:   
   > references to stags, griffins, phoenixes, etc. The go-to man for   
   > this is John Granger, who runs the "Hogwarts Professor" web site at   
   > http://www.hogwartsprofessor.com   
      
   I've read some of the articles there, and it's intersting stuff.   
      
   (Though either the site doesn't like my uncommon browser, or some   
   of the content is gone. I can't see the article in   
      
   http://www.hogwartsprofessor.com/the-christian-content-of-deathly-hallows-a/   
      
   for example, only the comments).   
      
   OTOH, Granger seriously proposes to see Gilderoy Lockhart as a parallel   
   to Philip Pullman, which I think is totally nuts. So I'm a bit wary now   
   of what he writes.   
      
   - Dirk   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)