Harry Potter vs. A Wizard of Earthsea

We all know that writers borrow (or steal) from one another. That’s OK. It’s part of the game. And fantasy writers are perhaps more guilty than most of recycling not just plots and imagery but specific details and situations from other works, both contemporary and ancient. This is most likely because fantasy is a genre that deals with archetypal situations: The pure-hearted hero (usually an orphan!) matched against the dark, corrupted villain; a small party of good guys hopelessly outnumbered by the armies of evil; the wise mentor who guides the hero on his quest and then conveniently dies; the faithful animal companion; all that good stuff. It’s all part of what makes fantasy thrilling for fans.

So it’s by no means an assault on the awesome J.K. Rowling to point out that many of the details of her Harry Potter series are clearly lifted from other works. I’m not the first to make this observation, and I won’t be the last. I’ve seen the HP series likened to everything from Star Wars to The Lord of the Rings to Batman. What I haven’t seen, however, is a comparison of Rowling’s stories to one of my own particular favorite fantasy series: Ursula K. LeGuin’s Wizard of Earthsea books (WoE).

If you're not familiar with them, these books were published in several batches. First came the original trilogy, A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), The Tombs of Atuan (1971), and The Farthest Shore (1972). Eighteen years then passed before LeGuin added another novel to the series, Tehanu (1990). Then, after another decade, she added what are the final (so far) books in the cycle, both published in 2001: a book of short stories, Tales from Earthsea, and another full-length novel, The Other Wind.

The failure of the fan community to note the parallels between the books is somewhat surprising, since the comparison seems fairly obvious: The Earthsea books, like the Potter series, concern not just magic in general but a school of wizardry in particular, one with rules and traditions not too dissimilar from the more widely known school at Hogwarts.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the more obvious similarities between the two story lines. The parallels are extensive, and interesting.

First, as I just mentioned, both series are set at least partly at a school for young wizards: Hogwarts in the Potter books, and Roke Academy in LeGuin’s fictional world of Earthsea.

Both schools are located on islands: Rowling’s magical alternate Britain vs. the heavily enchanted Roke Island. Also, both schools are protected from the outside world by strong layers of magic, making them virtually impregnable to attack and impossible for non-magical folk to enter.

The heroes of the two series, Harry Potter and Ged, a.k.a. Sparrowhawk, are both poor boys with unloving father figures who are openly hostile to magic. Both grow up in small villages. Both have lost their mothers and are raised at least in part by their dead mother’s sister.

Both boys show signs of magical abilities at an early age that they are initially unable to control (as when Ged enchants the village goats but then cannot break the enchantment, and when Harry releases the snake at the zoo).

Harry and Ged are both saved from their dreary lives by being granted entrance to a school of wizardry, where upon arrival they are issued a powerful magical implement (Harry’s wand, Ged’s staff) that is the mark of their new status.

Both schools are run by a kindly, bearded old wizard (Dumbledore in HP; the Archmage Nemmerle in WoE) who has a bird companion (Dumbledore has Fawkes the phoenix, the Archmage has his raven). Both these wizards (as well as Ged's first teacher, the mage Ogion the Silent) will die before the hero can complete his quest.

The grounds of both schools include a mysterious forested section that is off-limits to younger students (Hogwarts has the Forbidden Forest; Roke has the Immanent Grove).

Both heroes acquire an animal companion (Hedwig the owl, Ged’s unnamed pet “otak”) that is eventually killed in a pivotal run-in with their enemy.

At school, both the heroes gain a loyal friend from an even poorer background than their own (Ron Weasley in HP; Vetch in WoE) who will accompany them on their final confrontation with their nemesis, and both of whom have a younger sister who has a crush on the hero (Ginny Weasley in HP; Yarrow in WoE).

Also while at school, the heroes have a bitter rivalry with a snide boy from an aristocratic background (Draco Malfoy; Jasper in WoE), with whom they will end up fighting a magic duel.

At one point in their adventures, both heroes will rescue a young girl from a subterranean chamber (Ginny Weasley in Chamber of Secrets; Tenar in The Tombs of Atuan), whom they will later marry.

Both boys will visit the land of the dead, and although both are able to rejoin the living, they will be forever changed by the experience (Harry at the very end of Deathly Hallows; Ged in The Farthest Shore).

Perhaps most crucially, both Harry and Ged acquire an enemy (Voldemort in HP; the unnamed Shadow Creature in WoE) to whom they are intimately connected, in a way that neither understands at first, and both will receive a disfiguring scar to his face in their very first encounter with this nemesis. Both villains have the ability to control the minds of innocent bystanders, forcing them to do their bidding (Voldemort via the Imperio curse, the Shadow Creature by making them into gibbeths). Eventually, both heroes will have to face and defeat their enemy alone, without the aid of their friends.

As I said, some of these themes are bigger than either Rowling or LeGuin; for example, the notion of the hero visiting the land of the dead and returning forever altered is as old as literature, appearing in ancient epics such as the Babylonian Gilgamesh and the Roman Aeneid, as well as Dante’s Inferno.

Some of the differences between the two series are interesting as well. In general, Ged is a lonelier figure than Harry and has a much harder time making human connections. While Harry has a huge cast of friends and supporters, Ged has almost no one. It's true that Ged, like Harry, will marry the girl he rescues from underground, but in Ged’s case the marriage will be childless (though the couple does eventually take on the care of Tehanu, a damaged young girl who is not their natural child).

Perhaps most strikingly (particularly for a book written by a woman), the school that Ged attends at Roke, in very marked contrast to Hogwarts, is not co-ed: No girls allowed! The reasons why women are not permitted to be wizards in Earthsea are explored in the later additions to the original trilogy, particularly in The Other Wind.