Parallels between the Lotr and WoT

[Son Of Feanor]

I chose Maedhros because he has only one hand.

like Rand

and like Rand he surrendered to the dark side for a time

Maedhros died for his sins

will Rand die for his sins?

 

Take what you want and PAY for it.

It is the refusal to pay that is the sin.

[Son Of Feanor]

I welcome any comments because i feel that most great fantasy was inspired by Tolkien.

and Robert Jordan carried it forward to a really great place.

 

 

[Leyrann]

Let's have a look...

 

The "peaceful" start, but there is something wrong.

The Attack on the Manor and Helmsdeep.

The Myrddraal and the Black Riders (or something like that).

 

And lots more.

[damandred]

On my phone travelling(weres a gateway when you need it?) so, my spellings may be off.

O well here it goes.

 

Shagar logath = numenor

The Blight= mordor

The WT= minas tirith

 

That's all for now I'm sure there's way more though, there are parallels I have seen in the past but can't remember, right now.

[baalsmistress]

The big obvious ones

 

Creator / Illuvatar

Dark One / Melkor

Trollocs / Orcs

 

iffy

 

Fain / Smeagol

Ogier / Ents

 

And also of note, but not LoTR related

 

Ta'veren = Plot immunity

[mb]

Long ago I started a thread like this::

http://www.dragonmount.com/forums/topic/29020-wheel-of-time-and-lord-of-rings-parallels-potential-spoilers/

[UncleButcher1980]

Moiraine = Gandalf.

[RandAlJazeera]

One I noticed but you can shoot me down if you wish...

 

Perrin's rescue of the Whitecloaks in ToM was suspiciously like the Rohirrim at Helm's Deep.

 

Thoughts?

[Roxinos]

The Two Rivers is the Shire.

 

The Two Rivers folk are the hobbits.

 

Rand, Mat, Perrin, and Egwene are Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin.

 

Moiraine is Gandalf.

 

Lan is Aragorn.

 

The Mountain of Mists is the Misty Mountains.

 

The Mountains of Dhoom is Mount Doom.

 

The Myrdraal are the Nazgul.

 

The Trollocs are the orc.

 

Ogier are the ents.

[Jon Paul]

I really don't get the comparison of Rand Sedai with Frodo. Frodo for all intents and purposes was an educated, well-to-do aristocrat with a decent knowledge of the world. The Hobbit spent his evenings discussing life's issues with High Elves. There was also the that he was well into his middle-ages when he left the Shire. He wasn't a naive little farm boy. If Rand had left the Two Rivers as a 30 year old man and conversed with the Queen of Andor in the Old Tongue whilst sharing a fire on a warm evening then you might just have something.

 

As it is the comparison is superficial at best.

[Roxinos]

The Shire and the Two Rivers are both farming communities. Their environments were, therefore, similar. They were both taken from their home to prevent their homes from being invaded by evil. They were both taken on a rather epic quest that they did not want to be on. The entire time, they wanted more than all else to go home.

 

The Shirefolk are long-lived people. Frodo had just come of age at the start of the Fellowship (at the age of 33). That is comparable to Rand just coming of age around 19. Much in the way that while Loial may be in his 90s, he's still of a comparable age to Rand and co. as far as Ogier go. Granted, Frodo was about 50 when he actually left the Shire, that's comparable to Rand being in his mid-twenties. And he did so for the exact same reason Rand did. He recognized the threat the Ring played to his home, and so he fled.

 

Regardless of how educated he was, it was through books. Rand was not uneducated.

 

Methinks, in light of every other parallel Jordan put into the Wheel of Time (and specifically The Eye of the World), to try to claim that Rand is anything but a parallel to Frodo is just folly. It's not about personality, but about circumstance, role in the books, and general sentiment with regards to home.

[thesheepnoob66]

I would just like to mention that RJ wanted TEOTW to be like LOTR e.g.

the ways being moria

the blight=mordor

 

sheep

[Thor]

The sheep being a flaming sword? :O Wat?

[white_wolf]

Well one of the move obvious parallels are Aragorn and Lan.

[Stubob]

I chose Maedhros because he has only one hand.

like Rand

and like Rand he surrendered to the dark side for a time

Maedhros died for his sins

will Rand die for his sins?

 

Take what you want and PAY for it.

It is the refusal to pay that is the sin.

We could also add parallels with The Matrix to both. The general fantasy architecture is what all are built on.

[Didgya]

I chose Maedhros because he has only one hand.

like Rand

and like Rand he surrendered to the dark side for a time

Maedhros died for his sins

will Rand die for his sins?

 

Take what you want and PAY for it.

It is the refusal to pay that is the sin.

We could also add parallels with The Matrix to both. The general fantasy architecture is what all are built on.

Exactly!!!!!!!!

[Roxinos]

Except it's generally accepted, considering all of the direct allusions to tLotR within tWoT, that Robert Jordan intentionally paralleled tLotR to a significant extent in his first book.

 

(I've heard the theory that he did so because when the book was first published back in 1990, the fantasy genre was still unfriendly to such large novels -- being as tied as it is to the SF genre which contains generally relatively short novels --, tLotR being famously split into three novels because Tolkien's publisher didn't think people would buy a single book that large, and so he paralleled tLotR to attract readers and to allow them to grow comfortable with his story through a familiar setting.)

[water_seeker]

I see more of a link between tWoT and the Belgariad than I do between tWoT and tLotR...

[Dante282]

Methinks, in light of every other parallel Jordan put into the Wheel of Time (and specifically The Eye of the World), to try to claim that Rand is anything but a parallel to Frodo is just folly. It's not about personality, but about circumstance, role in the books, and general sentiment with regards to home.

I think this might be true in the beginning, but later on in the series the parallel is limited at best. In terms of role, the way I see it is Frodo is merely a tool used by others to destroy the ring. Rand on the other hand starts out as a tool for others but as he comes to terms in becoming the Dragon Reborn he becomes a leader and his role is reversed into someone who uses others to achieves his ends. The general sentiment regarding home is the same, but as the series progresses, Rand begins to disregard his sentiment for home as opposed to Frodo who maintains it throughout the entire trilogy.

Essentially, while Frodo may have been the foundation for Rand, Rand's character progressively becomes unique compared to Frodo, especially in regards to his character development (though all of this is probably a symptom of the length of the series).

 

Furthermore to compare Merry, Pippin, and Sam to Mat, Perrin and Egwene, to me, seems bizarre. Pippin and Merry are mostly support characters who, IMHO, play minor roles. Sam has a major role and is constantly at Frodo's side, yet neither Perrin, Mat, or Egwene fit this role. If anything I would compare Sam to Min. Mat and Perrin, as Ta'veren and Egwene as Amyrlin have far more significant and consequential roles in the plot than can be compared to the other three hobbits.

[cookiecrisp]

Well, the only similarity of the Two Rivers runaways and the Hobbits are that they lived with the protagonist before the story began.

 

Merry gave a nice assist against the Witch King, and Pippin somehow managed to kill the troll general, but they don't exactly have any sort of power, political or physical. If say opponents like a Ring Wraith tried to fight them in single combat, they would fare far worse than Mat or Egwene against a forsaken.

 

I find more similarities in the names and geography of wherever WoT is taking place and Middle Earth. The background details have much in common.

 

Story wise, WoT is utterly different, as it's written in a different era. Today, most fantasy readers love their Mary Sues and would not read fantasy literature where the main protagonists are weaker than average Joes.