Of course, there are a lot of overarching concepts between
the fairy like land of the Hobbit series, and the more modern and earthly
fantasy world of J.K Rowling’s Wizard world. Many of the obvious connections are the magical creatures like the goblins, man sized spiders, dragons, and
powerful wizards. But what about the plot, and character development?
In the beginning both characters start their
journey in a homely and mundane setting, completely unaware of their
importance to opposition of the peril to come and how their existence affects
the world. Harry is an 11 year-old boy who has been adopted by a horrible
family which treats him more like a dog than a human. Growing up Harry is treated and
starved as a lower-class ingrate living in a cupboard under the stairs and
doing menial slave work. Bilbo in the book series is portrayed as a humble, self-sustaining,
and kindred spirit who lives under a hill in his small cave completely unadventurous.
While living in simple conditions, both characters also have
somewhat of a noble ancestry that is acknowledged as immense power by some old
wizard with a staff. Harry soon learns of his parent’s legacy, and slowly accepts
and realizes his quest for opposing the greatest evil known to the wizard
world. Bilbo on the other hand, wasn’t completely accepting of his prophesied destiny, but also was not anticipating going to far reaches of the land on an adventure with
a wizard and 13 of his dwarf companions.
The transgressions of previous generations
seem to catalyze the disfiguration and metamorphosis of evil in both worlds. In the Potter
series a young half blood wizard by the name of Tom Marvolo Riddle, becomes the
most powerful and dangerous dark wizard of all time, splitting his soul and
attaining immortality. Born out of a lustful love potion, and raised in an unforgiving
orphanage, Tom became a glutton for power, so much so that he fixated his
ambitions and greed of obtaining the magical properties of immortality, wanting
to go “further than any wizard had gone before”. By means of sacrificing and mutilating his
soul, Tom sloughs off his name and mortality for the title “Lord Voldemort”, deforming his
physiognomy forever. Similarly, in the Hobbit, the greedy nature of the dwarves
whom have mined and harvested precious gold form the depths of their mountain
home, Erebore, leads to their own peril. Upon their discovery of the most
precious stone of their time, The Arkenstone, the dwarves greed of power and
possession becomes overwhelmingly present and physically manifests into
Smaug, a dragon the brings incursion upon their homeland.
Lastly, apart from these few similarities, both protagonist of the
series find a seemingly innocent but rare and useful item. In the potter series
Harry inherits a magic cloak which is considered extremely rare and invaluable
as it is a part of 3 part set that compose “the Deathly Hallows”. In the movie,
this cloak of invisibility along with its counterparts grant the owner powers
similar to a God of Death, which becomes of interest to the dark lord Voldemort
in his desires for immortality. In
the Hobbit series, Bilbo comes across a ring that also grants him the power of
invisibility, of which he uses to fight his own evil doer, Smaug.
Though the
protagonist for the Harry potter and Hobbit Series live in separate fairy and
fantasy worlds, the nature of their importance to the world stems from the same
type of past injustices that have come back to haunt those responsible.
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