I remember the first time I saw Eragon; my mother had boughtit for me and seeing a new book in her hand I scrambled for it, thinking it wasprobably another Lord of the Rings book but I realized it wasn’t when I saw thedragon. So I immediately started reading the book and the prologue captured myattention instantly. I decided it was going to be an excellent book. What Ididn’t know was that the book was like a fusion of Harry Potter and Lord of theRings.
Let’s start with the cover. What better way to capturepeople’s attention than having a scaly brilliant blue dragon on the cover ofthe book? I’m sure this dragon is what captured the attention of many peoplewho have this book and it’s probably what captured my mother’s attention too.
Ok let’s move on to our story. Eragon (whose name is similarto Aragorn) is a farm boy who discovers a dragon egg while hunting one night.He does not suspect it is an egg; he thinks it is just a weird looking stone.But when the egg hatches into a dragon, Eragon dreams of becoming a DragonRider, legends and heroes of the past. The Empire is searching for dragon eggsand people to become Riders under the tyrannical control of the KingGalbatorix. Eragon does not want to become a tool of the Empire nor does he andhis dragon is in league with Galbatorix. All is well until Eragon’s uncle ismurdered by servants of the King. He wants to avenge his uncle’s death and heand his dragon Saphira along with an old man Brom hunts down the murderers.What happens? I will not spill the story. Read the book; I’ve only given you asummarized synopsis of the book.
Let’s move on to our characters. Our main character isEragon, obviously. Eragon is a simple farm boy thrown into a centuries oldbattle between the Empire and the enemies of the King. He is the one who hasthe power to probably kill the King and end the sufferings of the people. Wecan see that Eragon is very similar to Frodo who was the Bearer of the One Ringand Harry who has to kill Voldemort. Did any of them ask for what they had todo? Nope, although Frodo and Harry did not have a dragon to protect him andhelp him but characters are similar. Harry had Dumbledore and lots of peoplefor protection at first though.
Next we have Brom. Brom is like a teacher to Eragon; heteaches him all the things he has to know about being a rider. Brom is probablylike Gandalf, Dumbledore and Aragorn in one because he not only teaches Eragonhe guides him through the lands. Gandalf has taught Frodo all he knew about theRing and Aragorn guided Frodo through Middle Earth and Dumbledore teaches Harryall about Voldemort’s past and protects him as best as he could. So here wehave a fusion of characters as well. See any similarities? Read on, we’ve onlystarted.
Let’s look at Galbatorix. He is an evil king who wantscontrol of all the lands and the Riders. Remind you of anyone? How about Sauronand Voldemort the Dark Lords? Sauron was evil a bit more evil though and healso wanted control of everything but in a much darker way but without his Ringhe lacked the ability to have total control over everything. Just likeGalbatorix who lacked people for his dragon eggs. Voldemort wants control ofthe wizarding world but he has Harry and Dumbledore to fear and reckon with.
Then we have Eragon and Arya, the elf. I do not know if Aryafeels the same about Eragon but we know that Eragon falls in love with the elf.We can see it coming even if they did not say it (read between the lines, people). Anyways, this is very much like…guess who? Aragorn and Arwen ofcourse! Both Arwen and Arya are great elves. Arwen is known as the Evenstar ofher people and the most beautiful since the time of Luthien Tinuviel. Arya is apowerful elf who knows swordplay, the ancient language and magic.
Let’s look at this ability that Eragon has to see intopeople’s minds and animals other than his dragon. This is similar to the HarryPotter method of Occlumency and Legilimency. Occlumency is the ability to seeinto people’s minds and read their thoughts (the stuff Snape loves to tortureHarry with) while Legilimency is the ability to block out people, the barrieragainst Occlumency. Eragon’s method is much simpler, it came to him quiteeasily and he can also block out people trying to get into his mind.
The characteristics of the elves are also like Tolkien’sidea of them; great, the fairest people and wisest and the most ancient andfierce in battle.
Then there are the dwarves. In Paolini’s novel the dwarvesaren’t many but they are a lot in Lord of the Rings. Here again we see thatdwarves and elves aren’t the best of friends. I don’t know if later on a dwarfand elf will become best friends like Legolas and Gimli but generally thedwarves want to be part of the Riders and that is their reason forunfriendliness to the elves.
There are Galbatorix’s servants, the Ra’zac, murderers ofEragon’s uncle, who can be compared to the Nazgul and there are the Urgals, afoul race that can be compared to the orcs.
I will leave you to ponder in silence, is Eragon as originalas it seems? Isn’t it too much like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter?
My conclusion: despite the similarities I love the book butI think it is so like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter I cannot love the bookas much as I would love Harry Potter.