Another Wormtongue

[msl at fc.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 11785

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
> Fascinating post, Marvin.
> 
> There is another Wormtongue in fiction who needs a mention:  The 
> Lord of the Rings' Grima, nicknamed Wormtongue, who is a servant of 
> Theoden of Rohan but goes over to Saruman.

Ooo, I'd forgotten about Grima.  IIRC he's not just a servant, he's an
advisor who covets Theoden's daughter.  (I might be wrong there; it's
been a while since I read LotR.)  It's interesting that two authors
who knew each other and were friends chose to use the same name for
devious bastards in their fiction; I wonder who used it first and if
the other was paying an homage of some kind.

> I have to head to work so I don't have time to think out the 
> parallels--maybe some other LOTR fan wants to run with it--but the 
> basic pattern of betrayal and cowardice is there.  And I love your 
> analysis that Wormtail's temptation is despair--the same with Grima, 
> I would say off the top of my head.

My recollection is that Grima betrays in order to get something (the
daughter angle) but I'm very uncertain about that.  I also seem to
recall that Grima's counsel had been poisoning Theoden's mind for a
long time before the action we see in LotR.  In that sense, Grima
might better correspond to a Hogwarts professor gone bad than to one
of the Marauders.

So...does that make Pettigrew Gollum?  :-)

> Putting The Screwtape Letters on my must-read list,

It's a fun book in addition to be thoughtful.  If you get the chance,
listen to the audiobook version because it's read by John Cleese.  I
listened to it in the car once and found myself endangering traffic
because I was alternately laughing so hard I couldn't steer or, in one
or two places, starting to cry because Lewis's analysis of human
nature seemed shockingly personal and relevant.

Mavin Long
Austin, TX