Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 107727

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dcgmck" <dolis5657 at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister" 
> <gbannister10 at a...> wrote:

Geoff:
> > Harry, although meeting the equivalents of the Nazgul and Shelob
> > (Dementors and Aragog), has not received any physical injury from
> > them.

> dcgmck:      
> Physical injuries are superficial, 

Geoff:
For Frodo, I would argue otherwise. It is the fact that the physical 
hurt – coupled with the emotional effect – which ultimately leads him 
to leave Middle-Earth for Valinor. Look at the descriptions in the 
chapter "The Grey Havens"


"So he (Sam) was not at home in early March and did not know that 
Frodo had been ill. On the thirteenth of the month, Farmer Cotton 
found Frodo lying on his bed; he was clutching a white gem that hung 
on a chain about his neck and he seemed half in a dream
..

One evening Sam came into the study and found his master looking very 
strange. He was very pale and his eyes seemed to see things far away.
`What's the matter, Mr.Frodo?' said Sam.
`I am wounded,' he answered, `wounded; it will never really heal.'
But then he got up and the turn seemed to pass and he was quite 
himself the next day. IT was not until afterwards that Sam recalled 
that the date was October the sixth. Two years before on that day, it 
was dark in the dell under Weathertop



Time went on and 1421 came in. Frodo was ill again in March but with 
a great effort he concealed it for Sam had other things to think 
about
..

`Yes, I am coming,' said Frodo. `The Ring-bearers should go together.'
`Where are you going, Master?' cried Sam though at last he understood 
what was happening.
`To the Havens, Sam,' said Frodo



`But,' said Sam and tears started in his eyes, `I thought you were 
going to enjoy the Shire, too, for years and years after all you have 
done.'
`So I thought too, once. But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I 
tried to save the Shire and it has been saved but not for me
."

OK, so some of the wounds were  not "straight" physical ones – the 
wound which Frodo suffered at Weathertop was from a bewitched knife 
and the point remained in the wound for seventeen days before Elrond 
found it but it is obvious form the above Tolkien canon that Frodo 
was still suffering after effects from these wounds which had 
apparently healed but were definitely far from superficial.

Harry has had his physical wounds but they do not appear to have left 
lasting effects – being de-boned by Lockhart, falling off his broom 
because of the Dementors for example. Perhaps his deepest wounds are 
emotional ones.

> dcgmck:            
> I, too, have entertained the notion that Harry and Frodo are
> representative Everymen progressing on their respective pilgrimages
> through life. My only problem with the idea is that I can't help
> noticing that each of these "poor" orphans seems to have a very
> fortuitous inheritance with which to finance their journeys...

Geoff:
I don't see a problem. Christians on their pilgrimage through life 
start from very different situations. Some have money, some don't; 
some have charming personalities to start with, some don't. Some come 
from a Christian background where they are supported along the way; 
some come from backgrounds where they have had to find their faith 
and their way forwards which is a straight parallel with the 
Wizarding World where you have, say, the Weasley family supporting 
its children as they grow into wizardhood in contrast to Harry, whose 
magical ability is opposed by the Dursleys. Financially he may have 
a "fortuitous inheritance" but from a support point of view, he has a 
brick wall over which to climb.