LOTR copied Harry Potter? [Archive]

Kiroshar

01-14-2003, 08:39 PM

Éomond

01-14-2003, 09:31 PM

My goodness that is so dumb! What, um, not-smart people!

Maybe the author of this should open the books that these movies were based on and look at the original copyright dates. Who has copied whom?
Yes! Exactly!

Fading Evenstar

01-15-2003, 12:52 AM

Also, the LOTR movies were all made and completed long before Chamber of Secrets. I wouldn't doubt that J.K. Rowling was inspired by the works of Tolkein, but for pete's sake, LOTR was written 40 years ago!! How can it be a copy of HP??

What a pile of rubbish.

*Lady Aragorn*

01-15-2003, 12:54 AM

Lord have mercy! LotR was made in what... 1956? and harry potter like 3 years ago? if anything, harry potter would be copying LotR.

Isenho

01-15-2003, 04:19 AM

this was on theonering.net and CMON stupid reporter! lol

Galadhon

01-15-2003, 07:00 AM

As strange as it may seem, there are still countless millions of people that remain clueless when it comes to Tolkien and his many works. ;)

33Peregrin

01-16-2003, 05:50 AM

That is so retarded! LOTR copying HP? It would be so emberassing to write something like that and have it printed. I know Rowling has read LOTR, and I believe she got a lot of ideas and inspiration from it. Not Copying (Though now I like HP less). Notice the dementors and Ringwraiths. Wormtail and Wormtongue. Plus, things like Giant Spiders. (Tolkien's are so much cooler). Dobby, Gollum. Plus in HP Harry lets Wormtongue go... saves his life, Now he is in Harry's debt. Exactly like the Frodo and Saruman thing. Oops... I hope people know what I'm talking about. Have you read HP? I used to think it was so good. It was the first fantasy I enjoyed. Oops. Now that LOTR has come, I almost feel I DISLIKE it.

Éomond

01-16-2003, 07:40 AM

Originally posted by Galadhon
As strange as it may seem, there are still countless millions of people that remain clueless when it comes to Tolkien and his many works. ;)
OH, that buggs me the most!

And 33Peregrin, I know whatcha talking about, sadly, I have read all the HP books:rolleyes:

Enduriel

01-16-2003, 08:24 AM

lol, wouldn't you hate to be the author of that article? Writing nonsense like that! :rolleyes:

Kiroshar

01-16-2003, 06:51 PM

Originally posted by Éomond
I know whatcha talking about, sadly, I have read all the HP books:rolleyes:

Do not feel bad about it; Harry Potter is wizardry and fantasy for a new generation as is a much easier read than even The Hobbit.

It does take a lot from Tolkien, but it is fresh nevertheless.

That being stated, only a complete idiot would write that The Lord Of The Rings copies Harry Potter, and the editors at EW should be ashamed to print such an article.

Wynston

01-16-2003, 07:02 PM

Obviously that writer is very wrong. Sadly its true that many folks don't even know that LoTR were books. It is our job to educate them though! But the way I see it, if HP, or the LoTR movies, get more people interested in the actual works of Tolkien, then its a good thing. (especially younger people)

Ghan-buri-ghan

01-16-2003, 08:30 PM

So, ahem, why didn't PJ show the giant spyder in TTT?

Could it be he didn't want to be called a copy cat!

Ah HA! New grist for the FAD-purist debates!

oly

01-16-2003, 08:45 PM

Actually JK Rowling stated in several interviews that she hadn't read The Lord of the Rings until after they were compared with her books.
Since she was already published And had mapped out all 7 books before that, I doubt she was inspired by Tolkien or copied him.
And of course Tolkien couldn't possibly have copied her since he wrote LOTR many years earlier.
Since the plotlines, atmosphere, characters are all different in both book series it can safely be assumed that they were both inspired by Myth not each other.

Thorin

01-16-2003, 09:44 PM

Did you all miss this quote?

But Astin isn't bitter. ''I don't think Tolkien owns the patent on spiders or cave trolls or talking trees, although you might think so by comparing the films,'' he kids.

That implies who came first. They even mention JRR Tolkien. I highly doubt the guy thinks Tolkien came after Rowling and notice that it is not whether Tolkien is copying, but Jackson. That could mean the release of the two movies at the same time and possibly why Jackson moved it to RoTK.

Still a bit misinformed for sure, but not as blatant as some of you are making it out to be.

33Peregrin

01-17-2003, 02:57 AM

I am sure that I read somewhere that Rowling read LOTR when she was a teenager. Sooo.....:D

Kiroshar

01-17-2003, 08:00 PM

As far as giant spiders go, she could just of well read the Hobbit or have seen the animated version on video or television.

Ascamaciliel

01-19-2003, 01:30 AM

her spider was lame anyway, PJ's is gonna kick butt

Nevavarein

01-19-2003, 04:19 AM

That author must not have read LoTR that is so nonsense. they should look at the books b4 they make an article about COPYING GRRR :mad:

the_third_rider

01-20-2003, 12:19 AM

i think its silly to say lotr was copied, and maybe hp was influenced by lotr, i dunno i think its all silly, they are both fantasy they are in some way or form going to similar,hmm silly repoter though
and 33peregrin, i read hp way before i read lotr and loved em lol

lightingstrike

02-08-2003, 12:56 AM

Kiroshar, you hit the nail on the head!!! Pj did not just make all this stuff up. Tolkien had it in like, before Rowling's PARENTS were born!!!

LordOfMoria

02-09-2003, 02:41 AM

ehehehe. Well i guess some guy at EW had nothing else to BS about so he picked LOTR!!!

Jesse

02-11-2003, 10:47 PM

Originally posted by Kiroshar
Maybe the author of this should open the books that these movies were based on and look at the original copyright dates. Who has copied whom?

MY sentiments exactly! I now forget the author of HP's name, but she copied LotR!!!!:mad: :mad:

Elf Goddess

02-14-2003, 09:53 PM

NO WAY! LOTR was made in 1950.

Morgoth

03-01-2003, 08:28 PM

That makes me so mad. That journalist is a ignorant fool who doesn't know what he's talking about. I want to give him a firm slap.

redline2200

03-06-2003, 10:33 PM

reading articles like that makes me want punch that 12 year old wizard in the face. I mean come on Harry Potter sucks! They can do spells that regrow bones, yet they can't fix Harry's eyesight so he wears glassess! I hate that stupid series!

Eledhwen

03-06-2003, 11:19 PM

When an author is as famous as JRRT, people can pick up their ideas without ever reading the book. It's like the Bible - phrases like calling someone 'the salt of the earth' and also 'blessed are the Cheesemakers' (oh, sorry, that was Monty Python).

When the LotR film was made, I knew it made sense to have read the Hobbit before seeing it. How could I know that? I just picked it up by the general knowledge osmosis caused by the dissemination of good literature (sorry about the long words).

Evenstar373

03-10-2003, 02:02 AM

That makes me want to punch that 12 year old wizard in the face. I mean come on Harry Potter sucks! They can do spells that regrow bones, yet yet they can`t fix Harry`s eyesight so he wears glassess!I hate that stupid series!

:mad:

My thoughts exatley!!!!

That reporter Was so dume to wright something like that!!!!

MisstikalElf

03-13-2003, 04:04 AM

Hm...........alright, here's an opinion from a HP fan! I'm a HUGE Harry Potter fan and I say......that journalist should be shot in the head. LOTR was BEFORE Harry Potter, any fool knows that (although, evidently, not her). I have always thought that Mrs. Rowling got many of her inspirations from Prof. Tolkien, although I read Harry Potter YEARS before I even heard of Lord of the Rings (when my friend dragged me, kicking and screaming, to watch FOTR).

Bleargh, it shames me to share the same earth (in a sense) with this journalist.

e.Blackstar

09-03-2004, 07:02 PM

Ugh...that is absolutely disgusting. Yes, I am pretty sure that Rowling got some inspiration from Tolkien, but with so many excellent elements intertwined in LOTR, its hard to stay totally off of it. Besides, they are totally different settings and even genres, and so the whole 'copying'-either way-is just total bull.

I like HP just fine-good books, fine movies, whatever. Nice premise, good writing-nothing, however, exceptional.

If you want leeched ideas from various sources, read Eragon.

Aglarband

09-04-2004, 07:35 AM

Barliman Butterbur

09-04-2004, 02:02 PM

What a bunch of nonsense from Entertainment Weakling.

This article here (http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,406712~1~0~islotrcopyingharry,00.html)

"The season's two biggest franchises have more in common than bazillions in ticket sales: Wizards, elves, trolls, and animated trees crop up in ''The Lord of the Rings'' and the two ''Harry Potter'' movies. ''Rings'' director Peter Jackson moved a jumbo spider -- not unlike the one in ''The Chamber of Secrets'' -- from ''The Two Towers,'' the second in J.R.R. Tolkien's series, to next Christmas' ''Return of the King.'' .... "

Maybe the author of this should open the books that these movies were based on and look at the original copyright dates. Who has copied whom?

The author of that article is indeed revealing his dumbth. He seems not to realize that LOTR was written many years before Harry Potter, and that led him down the wrong path straightaway. No more need be said about "Entertainment Weakling.":D

Having read all the Harry Potter books published so far, there are a number of things in which I felt JKR owed JRRT in a big way, but used them in different ways. Just off the top of my head: Dark Lord (LOTR)/Dark Lord (Voldemort); Black Riders/Dementors; etc.

One fellow has taken the time on his blog (http://baheyeldin.com/rowling-borrowing-from-tolkien) to do a very good side-by-side comparison of the two works, even offering a chart, and some links leading to similar discussions.

I believe Rowling herself has acknowledged this debt.

Barley

joxy

09-04-2004, 04:19 PM

Did you all miss this quote?....
Still a bit misinformed for sure, but not as blatant as some of you are making it out to be.
As the article is inaccessible to most people, then most people must have missed that quote!
It would have been helpful if the thread starter had said what the problem is with the article. There's nothing in the quotation from it to complain about, and I'm sure anyone who writes any article would have the minimal knowledge it takes to know which came first between Tolkien and Rowling. As I see it, the suggestion is about Jackson taking ideas for the films from Rowling's books, which seems reasonable enough.

rohobbits

09-04-2004, 05:07 PM

hey I agree. Lord of the Rings was made a long time ago.
Harry potter and lord of the rings are two different books and were never
copied by one another.
whoever wrote lotr copied harry potter you are nuts because
well i just explained it to you.
have a nice day

Lord Sauron

09-06-2004, 03:47 PM

LOTR was made back in the middle 1900's and harry potter was made started to come out in 1998. so how could lotr copied arry potter?

Astaldo

09-13-2004, 09:11 AM

Come on guys there is no issue of agruing because we know the truth. Books of Prof. Tolkien are just fantastic. A lot of writers have takes things from them and made new stories. For example R.A Salvatore and his series. In every book he says that he was inspired by Lotr etc. However there is no possibility of saying that this is copying. I know HP has a lot of common things with Lotr but it is not the same movie/book (of course it could'n be Lotr and the others are much more better) so let's quit arguing and saying this is a copy or not and try learn people that they do not know that Lotr were books by a great writer and no-one can even reach him to his little finger.

Snaga

09-14-2004, 12:28 AM

JK Rowling probably didn't 'copy' Tolkien per se. But Tolkien's influence is very pervasive, and is often creditted with being the father of modern fantasy literature. Even if he wouldn't have liked that title, it does tell you just how much has been inspired by and influenced by Tolkien. JKR draws from many many sources, particularly in the creation of her vast menagerie of magical creatures. Tolkien will undoubtedly have influenced her work, indirectly at least.

Mirendabeth

09-14-2004, 04:13 PM

I read Harry Potter before I'd heard of Lord of the Rings as well. When I went to watch the first film (I saw that film, and then read the books) I can't say that I noticed any similarities between the two! I only started noticing them after having read the books when other people pointed them out!

Imo, to say that JRRT copied HP is madness, I love both the books, and could not even begin to say that one is better than the other. Yes, I agree that it is quite possible that JKRowling got some of her ideas from Tolkien, but then, did he copyright them? I mean, if she did 'use' some of his ideas/visions, she didn't use them completely, she adapted them to suit her cause, which personally, I can't see anything wrong with unless someone has said that it is not allowed. :)

Astaldo

09-14-2004, 06:35 PM

Imo, to say that JRRT copied HP is madnessWell it's not madness it's impossible. Prof. Tolkine deceased in 1973 and JKR wrote the first book in 2000(?). So he could not even think about copying HP. :cool:

Obi-Wan Kenobi

11-16-2004, 02:13 PM

Actually J.K Rowling published Harry Potter in 1997. :)

spirit

11-16-2004, 03:07 PM

See? The HP books will usher in a whole new generation of Tolkien fans. HP is like a gateway drug to Middle-earth.
Not necessarily, there are some kids out there who judge a book by it's cover, and others who judge a book by its' weight, and this generation of kids are really impatient (trust me, I know, I belong to this category) and they are not going to sit at home and just read LotR, for them, (I suppose) HP is a shorter (and crapper :p) version of LotR.

Aulë

11-16-2004, 03:08 PM

Yes, I agree that it is quite possible that JKRowling got some of her ideas from Tolkien, but then, did he copyright them? I mean, if she did 'use' some of his ideas/visions, she didn't use them completely, she adapted them to suit her cause, which personally, I can't see anything wrong with unless someone has said that it is not allowed. :)It's not a matter of it being illegal or anything. It's all to do with credibility: someone who is original, and is considered the person who created something will have far higher credibility than someone who "steals" ideas from other people, and sticks them together in their own way.

Sure, it's not wrong per se; some people improve on something already created, and become very popular. And given the right marketing techniques, something that isn't nessesarily better can do very well. But the person who did it first will always be considered better by the purists.

Basically- there's nothing wrong with JKR using techniques "invented" by JRRT. But JRRT will always be considered the better for doing it first.

spirit

11-16-2004, 03:12 PM

some people improve on something already created, and become very popular.

If you're trying to say that JK "imporved" on Tolkien's work, I'd have to knock you out. :p She tooks some of his ideas, and made them much worse, and pathetic, I'm sorry, but it's true!

Aulë

11-16-2004, 05:18 PM

If you're trying to say that JK "imporved" on Tolkien's work, I'd have to knock you out. :p She tooks some of his ideas, and made them much worse, and pathetic, I'm sorry, but it's true!Yes, I could do with some "imporving" of my spelling ;)
And no, I'm not saying she did. I said that some people did. She copied a few things that Tolkein did (as many writers do) and integrated them into her own story, and thanks to some very good marketing techniques HP has become very popular.

Hobbit-queen

11-17-2004, 02:52 AM

HELLO!!!!!!!!!

Peter finished filming the movies before the first HP movie hit the screen!
The whole darn script was layed out and every one knew what they had to do!
Harry Potter is extremly different from LoTR. Read the books and you'll see how different they are....

Elemmire

11-17-2004, 03:43 AM

Hi!

I agree with you, Hobbit-queen, plot-wise, at least, the stories themselves are very different, but there are a lot of similarities...
If you go to http://www.mugglenet.com/hpvslotr.shtml you can find a list of similarities between the two (too many to list here), or cheap copies of LotR, however you want to look at it.

I agree with spirit also

Not necessarily, there are some kids out there who judge a book by it's cover, and others who judge a book by its' weight, and this generation of kids are really impatient (trust me, I know, I belong to this category) and they are not going to sit at home and just read LotR, for them, (I suppose) HP is a shorter (and crapper :p) version of LotR.
The two stories have their similarities, but the writing style is completely different. Even though they're both fantasy stories, they often attract different audiences. Actually, though, when you think about it, as far as a page count goes HP isn't really shorter than LotR anymore... though it doesn't have anything near the historical depth that LotR does (ie. Silmarillion, HoME...)

Ithilwen

11-21-2004, 04:39 AM

how could lotr copy harry potter, if lotr was written years before harry potter? i don't get it. harry potter could have used a version of the language of mordor in the chamber of secrets, when harry is at the door to the chamber, but other than that, i don't get it.

Pantalaimon

02-03-2006, 01:45 AM

WOW! A Harry Potter thread in an LOTR forum...okay.The question, no doubt, is ancient, but we wanted to add our 2-cents worth of opinion to the list.The fact that Tolkien is dead a long time before Rowling wrote Harry Potter should already answer the question with a resounding NO.But we will tell you who Rowling might have copied. Another author, Neil Gaiman, one of our favorite, wrote a series of books for DC\'s vertigo line called THE BOOKS OF MAGIC. If you do a search in Amazon.com, you will see a cover of that book released 1991 with it\'s main character looking amazingly like Harry Potter (minus the scar). Timothy Hunter is a boy-turned-wizard, bespectacled, who has an owl for a pet, and studies magic to become a great wizard someday. Sounds familiar, no?If there was copying done, we would say this is more likely than LOTR.2c

e.Blackstar

02-03-2006, 04:26 AM

A Harry Potter thread in an LOTR forum...okay
Actually, Pan, there's a whole sub-forum.

Wolfshead

02-03-2006, 01:39 PM

If you do a search in Amazon.com, you will see a cover of that book released 1991 with it\'s main character looking amazingly like Harry Potter (minus the scar).
And coincidentally enough the first Harry Potter is set in 1991 :eek: We know this from Neary-Headless Nick's 500th Deathday Party in CoS - it's mentioned (on his cake, I think) that he died on 31st October 1492, thus implying that day was 31/10/1992.

Although I think I've just noticed an(other!) inconsistency in the books - I've just remembered there's mention of Dudley throwing his Playstation out the window. If I remember rightly (please correct me if I'm wrong here) this was in the first book which would suggest there were Playstations in 1991, and I don't think there were.

But now I think more about it I'm not sure that was in the first book at all, but perhaps a later one. I don't know... but more to the point, who cares...? :rolleyes:

Glory

03-23-2006, 09:35 AM

I can hardly picture Rowlings reading any DC material in my mind, but, it is possible:eek:

Eledhwen

10-22-2007, 11:16 AM

Although I think I've just noticed an(other!) inconsistency in the books - I've just remembered there's mention of Dudley throwing his Playstation out the window. If I remember rightly (please correct me if I'm wrong here) this was in the first book which would suggest there were Playstations in 1991, and I don't think there were.If you want to go and check, in 1991 the brand new games console in 1991 was the Super Nintendo. Dudley could have had the original monochrome GameBoy two years before that.

I'm relying on memory here, but didn't JKR call it a Gamestation?

On the main subject of this thread; I'm astonished that anyone can call either set of books a copy of the other (especially the wrong way round Chronologically - I'll bet the journalist was told this about fifty times, the day after publication). The only real real similarity is the good wizard/bad wizard and a giant spiders; neither of which were oversized 'normal' arachnids.

Josephine

10-22-2007, 06:35 PM

I'm relying on memory here, but didn't JKR call it a Gamestation?

I think you're mixing up two different incidents. In the Philosopher's Stone, Dudley is angry because "[he] was hungry, he'd missed five television programmes he'd wanted to see and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer" (p. 50 of my edition).

In the Goblet of Fire, Harry writes a letter to Sirius, telling him that "he [Dudley] got really angry and chucked his PlayStation out of the window (P. 27 of my edition)". That would have been in 1995 then.

As for the article, I think it's a good example of people writing about something they don't know too much about, not even bothering to check their facts.