The Breaking of the Hogwarts Fellowship - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

littlemanpoet · 02-19-2006, 08:07 PM

I enjoy the Harry Potter novels, and I liked Book Six second or third best of the six so far published. I want this thread to be one of appreciative discussion with literary critique that adds insight instead of criticism that merely dismisses.

Spoiler Alert!: If you haven't finished Book Six, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, stop reading this thread now, because in this thread all will be revealed.

Crit Warning!: The purpose of this thread is critical appreciation, not dismissal of J.K. Rowling or her novels. Please don't post to this thread with criticiques that dismiss the author and/or the novels as [fill in the blank]; there are other threads where that may be done; feel free to go find them.

Now that the preambles are out of the way, I'd like to draw our attention to some interesteing similarities between LotR and the Harry Potter series that stared me in the face by the time I'd gotten to the final pages of Book Six.

The similarities are not clearly parallel; good thing, or it would be mere imitation.

1. Death - there is mourning and there are burial rites; narrative is invested in this, both with Boromir and Dumbledore (I warned you!).

2. Breaking of the Fellowship - which I alluded to in the thread title. Hogwarts may be no more; it may survive, but apparently not for Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

3. Quest Clarity - In LotR, the quest became crystal clear in The Council of Elrond. It is not until the end of book Six that Harry's Quest becomes crystal clear.

4. Long Clarifying Speeches - You know the ones in LotR: Shadows of the Past, Council of Elrond, Final Debate. It is again not until Book Six that we have the long clarifying speeches from Dumbledore, explaining things to Harry, following the various Pensieve.

5. Hero breaks away from cared for others - You all know about Frodo trying to leave even Sam behind. In HP&HBP (henceforward HBP) we have Harry telling Ginny that he must leave her in order to save her life.

6. Closest friends stick to hero - Harry tries to tell Ron and Hermione the same thing, but they like Sam won't leave Harry.

7. A betrayal results in death - In LotR, Boromir's betrayal results in his own death, which is rather clean compared to HPB in which Snape's apparent betrayal leads directly to Dumbledore's death.

8. Great Wizard lost! - Gandalf/Dumbledore. Will Dumbledore return? I don't think so.

So we have some similarities, which you can of course comment on are argue against as you like.

There are differences already described above, and there are more that could be discussed. I'll leave you to it.

02-19-2006, 08:07 PM	#1
littlemanpoet Itinerant Songster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Edge of Faerie Posts: 7,066	The Breaking of the Hogwarts Fellowship I enjoy the Harry Potter novels, and I liked Book Six second or third best of the six so far published. I want this thread to be one of appreciative discussion with literary critique that adds insight instead of criticism that merely dismisses. Spoiler Alert!: If you haven't finished Book Six, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, stop reading this thread now, because in this thread all will be revealed. Crit Warning!: The purpose of this thread is critical appreciation, not dismissal of J.K. Rowling or her novels. Please don't post to this thread with criticiques that dismiss the author and/or the novels as [fill in the blank]; there are other threads where that may be done; feel free to go find them. Now that the preambles are out of the way, I'd like to draw our attention to some interesteing similarities between LotR and the Harry Potter series that stared me in the face by the time I'd gotten to the final pages of Book Six. The similarities are not clearly parallel; good thing, or it would be mere imitation. 1. Death - there is mourning and there are burial rites; narrative is invested in this, both with Boromir and Dumbledore (I warned you!). 2. Breaking of the Fellowship - which I alluded to in the thread title. Hogwarts may be no more; it may survive, but apparently not for Harry, Ron, and Hermione. 3. Quest Clarity - In LotR, the quest became crystal clear in The Council of Elrond. It is not until the end of book Six that Harry's Quest becomes crystal clear. 4. Long Clarifying Speeches - You know the ones in LotR: Shadows of the Past, Council of Elrond, Final Debate. It is again not until Book Six that we have the long clarifying speeches from Dumbledore, explaining things to Harry, following the various Pensieve. 5. Hero breaks away from cared for others - You all know about Frodo trying to leave even Sam behind. In HP&HBP (henceforward HBP) we have Harry telling Ginny that he must leave her in order to save her life. 6. Closest friends stick to hero - Harry tries to tell Ron and Hermione the same thing, but they like Sam won't leave Harry. 7. A betrayal results in death - In LotR, Boromir's betrayal results in his own death, which is rather clean compared to HPB in which Snape's apparent betrayal leads directly to Dumbledore's death. 8. Great Wizard lost! - Gandalf/Dumbledore. Will Dumbledore return? I don't think so. So we have some similarities, which you can of course comment on are argue against as you like. There are differences already described above, and there are more that could be discussed. I'll leave you to it. Last edited by littlemanpoet; 02-19-2006 at 08:17 PM.