Parallels Between WD and LotR

[omorka]

It strikes me that there are a great many similarities between Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Adams's Watership Down:

Romanticization of unspoiled countryside, almost to the point of worship

Forests are romanticized, too, but they're also dark, scary, and perilous

The characters who serve as narrative voices live in underground burrows

Non-human languages are used, especially for names (although Tolkien's are much better)

Evil is portrayed as totalitarian in the extreme

Technology is also portrayed as inherently evil (although the LotR movies played this up more than the books)

The "good" form of leadership is explicitly not democracy; instead, it's a well-advised monarchy (at least in Adams's book, the leader is "proclaimed" by his followers; in Tolkien, he has the Divine Right)

Leadership and obedience styles are based on the author's war experiences (different wars, though)

The main character actively chooses to 'go on' at the end

Also, I'm shocked to the bone in retrospect that Papa C. didn't have us read Watership Down as the contemprary British novel instead of HHGttG, given that he had picked "leadership" as the theme for our year. WD is all about different styles of leadership - The Threarah's, Hazel's, the lack of leadership in Cowslip's warren, General Woundwort's, and the secondary leaders' - Bigwig's, Holly's, and Campion's.