The Lord of the Rings and Inferno

While reading Dante's Inferno, I have been pleasantly surprised by the extent to which the poem's images resemble those in The Lord of the Rings. As a medievalist and deeply religious person, J. R. R. Tolkien would have been very familiar with The Divine Comedy. I haven't read Tolkien's original novel before, but even the movies are similar to what we have been reading.

Gollum is to Frodo as Virgil is to Dante. Like Dante, Frodo is sometimes reluctant to continue his journey, but Gollum encourages him to move on. I remember a scene in one the movies where Frodo, Sam, and Gollum pass a swamp where there are zombie-like creatures beneath the murky water that seduce Frodo, who falls, only to be saved by Sam. This scene is similar to Dante's journey through the Styx, beneath which the Slothful sing a hymn that gurgle in their throats. The resemblance to Inferno is intensified by the presence of The Watcher outside the Gates of Moria, who resembles the guardians that block the ways of Virgil and Dante at each circle of Hell.

As we continue to read Inferno, it will be interesting to see other parallels between the poem and The Lord of the Rings.