David Eddings' Belgariad series in relation to Sorceror's Stone

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 32546

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "acci0firebolt" <irene at z...> wrote:
> A friend gave me the first book in David Eddings' Belgariad series 
> for Christmas (by the way, the first 70 pages are very good), and I 
> was struck by a certain quote in the Prologue because it reminded me 
> so much of the Sorceror's Stone.
> Here it is: "'I may not touch it [the Orb of Aldur, which Torak has 
> stolen],' he said, 'lest it destroy me.  Once it welcomed the touch 
> of man or God, but its will hardened when Torak raised it against its 
> mother.  It will not be used so again.  It reads our souls.  *Only 
> one without ill intent, who is pure enough to take it and convey it 
> in peril of his life, with no thought of power or possession, may 
> touch it now.*"
> Maybe it's just because I was reading the Sorceror's Stone last 
> night, but the resemblance, to me at least, is uncanny.  Anyway, I 
> just thought I'd bring that up for discussion.  And if anyone's 
> finished the series and noticed other things like that, feel free to 
> bring it up ... just don't give away too much of the plot. :)
> 
> - Irene
> "That girl has got to get her priorities straight!"

Well, since D&L Eddings are my favourite authors (please don't flame me 
over this, JK-holics), I'd better answer.

The Belgariad has strong paralels to tLotR, and it is considered by 
some people to be the first truly modern fantasy story (modern in the 
sense of post-60's modernism). The plot develops very much like the 
LotR, but it's characters are quite different: for one, women exist 
below the neck (and are capable of joining the adventure), and the 
morality and education of the main and secondary characters agrees more 
with the sort of thinking that has been prevalecent in 80's and 90's 
(and 00's).

However, I don't quite recall similarities between the Belgariad and 
HP. The quoted lines are very similar to lots of other religious stuff 
you can find in almost every religion (real or fictitious), and if you 
read long enough into the Belgariad series (specifically, to book 11: 
Belgarath the Sorcerer), you'll discover that "The book of Alorn" is 
montly the ravings of the Bear-cult.

The differences between HP and Eddings, are more or less the sames as 
the ones between HP and LotR: Belgariad is a travel adventure, with one 
purpose in mind (which I won't tell, since Garion doesn't yet know in 
the part where you are), whilst HP is the life of HP at school (with 
interesting background things going on-such as V return), but he isn't 
working to achieve any other goal that's not finishing school (alive).

Anyway, hope that helped, and I hope you like Eddings as much as I do.
However, this board is probably not the place for Eddings discussion, 
so I better cut it here.

Grey Wolf
(He who has given enough clues here for others to guess why he calls 
himself that)