10 Incredible Similarities Between Harry Potter And The Lord Of The Rings

5. Giant Spiders

A word of warning: if you, like Ron Weasley, have any kind of arachnophobia, you're advised to skip this section completely. Rather than a spoiler alert, it's more of a spider alert. Aragog, the Forbidden Forest-dwelling spider from Harry Potter, is probably influenced by Shelob, the spider that lived in the Ephel Dúath mountains, near Mordor. As well as both bearing names that you wouldn't inflict on your kids, the two spiders are evil, but they don't side with the main villain of the story; both are known as being man-eating creatures, both live in lairs, and both could communicate with people, though we never actually heard Shelob speak. Even the etymology of the two creatures is similar, with Aragog taking the "Ara" prefix of arachnids, and Shelob taking the "Lob" suffix, meaning her name translates as "She-spider". Where the giant spiders differ though is through Hagrid; Shelob was ancient, predating the Hobbits' adventures by "ages", according to Tolkien, whereas Hagrid cared for Aragog when he was attending Hogwarts. Despite his apathy towards people, Aragog was fiercely loyal to Hagrid; quite simply, the difference between the two is that Aragog had a better upbringing.