Wormtail - parallels with Wormtongue?

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 82361

It's odd how ideas creep up on you unexpectedly. While shaving in the 
bathroom this morning, I was whiling away the time thinking about the 
end of LOTR and also what might happen finally in HP. I was mulling 
over the fact that, without the aid of Gollum, Frodo would probably 
not have completed the quest and also the fact that he came back from 
Mordor in one piece – although scarred physically and mentally – but 
still able to return to the Shire although his wounds ultimately led 
him to forsake Middle-Earth and take ship with the Elves to Valinor.

Abruptly, a thought arrived out of the blue. I wonder whether Jo 
Rowling is familiar with Tolkien because I suddenly found myself 
looking at two characters with similar names, Peter Pettigrew (aka 
Wormtail) and Grima son of Galmod (aka Wormtongue). There are 
interesting similarities. Both were at one time trusted; PP was the 
friend of James, Remus and Sirius while Grima was the trusted 
counsellor of King Theoden. Both were small and - dare I suggest? – 
wimpish; PP: "He was a very short man, hardly taller than Harry
. His 
skin looked grubby
. and something of the rat lingered around his 
pointed nose, his very small, watery eyes
" Grima: "At his feet upon 
the steps sat a wizened figure of a man with a pale wise face and 
heavy-lidded eyes". Both were traitors; PP betrayed the Potters, 
Grima betrayed King Theoden and hence the kingdom of Rohan because 
they had each thrown in their lot with a powerful and evil wizard – 
Voldemort or Saruman.

I am not suggesting in any way that JKR is plagiarising, but no 
writer produces material in a vacuum and our thoughts and 
imaginations are influenced either openly or subconsciously by things 
we read, see or hear. Perhaps I am misreading the signs but it is 
interesting to extrapolate the idea. In the end of LOTR, Saruman is 
killed by Wormtongue who in turn is killed. Folk have suggested that 
Wormtail might have a part to play in the end of the HP saga; I 
wonder if there are any parallels with the other "worm's" demise 
(regardless of that damned prophecy!!)?

Geoff