Sith Lords, the Dark Side, and Tolkien's "wraithing-process"

I had just borrowed a book from my local public library. It's a book called J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century by Professor Tom Shippey (who also appears in the documentary features on the Extended Edition DVDs of the Lord Of The Rings movie trilogy). There's a chapter in it that deals with Tolkien's concepts of evil, and it struck me that there were many parallels between Shippey's view of the Ringwraiths and George Lucas's conception of the Dark Side of the Force and the Sith Lords.
For example, Shippey describes the process of how one becomes a "wraith":

This is a good way of describing Anakin's transformation from Jedi Knight to Sith Lord. Palpatine offers to teach Anakin the power of the Dark Side and to share his knowledge, and Anakin ultimately accepts not because he wants to become evil, but in the name of the "cause" of "saving" Padme. I'm sure that becoming a Sith started out simply as a means to an end for Anakin, and that he felt he had no other choice (having just helped to destroy Mace Windu and believing he had blown any chance he had at being a Jedi). But Anakin's anger and lust for power ultimately superseded any concern he had for Padme's well-being in the end, and he lost Padme as a consquence.
Does anyone else have any thoughts on this matter...?

I would invite you to repost on Our LotR thread

 

That's a good point. But I think it was a coincidence. But if it's not, Tolkien wins. The books were written when Lucas was a little toddler or not even born.

 

It isn't a contest between Lucas and Tolkien, it is just stating yet again that both men were influenced by mythology. As Joseph Campbell argues in Hero with a Thousand Faces (a major influence on Lucas) all cultures share the same heroes' journey. Regardless of time, place, race or people--it is in essence the same myth that they tell. There is this structure and set of characters which remains the same. The story of Beowulf is essentially the same as that of Perseus. It is all one mega-myth. Tolkien and Lucas both wrote mythologies, and the two stories have connecting threads due to that. It really isn't that difficult to figure out, though this is an interesting connection.

If we were to to list the connections between the Rings myth and the Star Wars one, we could be here for a very long time. They really have the same structure and both fall into Campbell's theory.

-Seldon

 

That is a great observation Pazuzu.

Yeah like Seldon says both men drew on information and inspiration from ancient mythology for their ideas and there are many things in both works (SW and LOTR) that you can draw very close parallels with.