Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 107680

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dan" <darkthirty at s...> wrote:
 
Dan:
> In LoTR Frodo's fate is deeply sad, but not 
> meaningless - in fact, it holds the deepest meaning possible - 
Frodo 
> is recognized abroad (out of The Shire). He WANTS to return to the 
> Shire.  

Geoff:
It's a curious coincidence that this thread arose at almost the same 
time as I picked up a thread which began several days ago while I was 
away on holiday and to which I added my two pennyworth in message 
107675.

I'm not sure whether this has any correlation to Harry but I do not 
see Frodo's fate as deeply sad. Yes, he has to leave the Shire 
because his wounds run too deep both physically and emotionally but 
he goes to Valinor to be with the Elves and, as an Elf-friend, what 
could be better? Also, Tolkien indicates in his Tale of Years in the 
Appendix, that he is later followed by Sam and by Gimli. 

There are a number of differences in addition to parallels. Sauron is 
continuing in the tradition of his master Melkor in wanting to see 
the destruction of men but he is not specifically seeking Frodo; he 
merely knows of Hobbits and the Shire. Voldemort wants to be the 
Master of all, but has concentrated his hate in recent years on Harry 
and is obsessed with revenge. Harry, although meeting the equivalents 
of the Nazgul and Shelob (Dementors and Aragog), has not received any 
physical injury from them. He is not trying to destroy an object of 
power; he is attempting to stop a person of power - the dilemma being 
how to do it without descending into evil himself (an echo here of 
Saruman and possibly Boromir).

So, I stand by my oft expressed view that Harry is an everyman, 
representative (to my view) of a Christian on the pilgrimage of life. 
Whatever transpires en route, there is an aim and a goal to which he 
needs to work without either being seduced by the lures of the evil 
personified in Voldemort or being overcome by the magnitude of the 
task.

I shall don my well-worn and battle-dinted tin hat and take up a 
defensive position behind the battlements.....