KnightFluttershy
Member
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2025
- Messages
- 19
As an excercise, I thought I would take the two story worlds that I enjoy thinking about the most (Tolkien's Middle Earth and My Little Pony's Equestria) and see how many similarities I can find.
1. Dragons
Although many fantasy works have dragons in them of some distinction, it must be noted that Tolkien's dragons have very specific traits that distinguish them. The first, and most obvious, being their love of gold, for dragons in Tolkien are based strongly off of the Norse stories of Fafnir as well as the tale of Beowulf, both dragons being famous for their "Dragon Hoards". This is a trait shared by the dragons of My Little Pony; the Dragon from "Dragonshy" lives inside his mountain cave, like the famous Smaug, and sit upon a vast hoard of gold and gems. Further, when Spike the baby Dragon is accidentally given his own hoard, this turns him into a terrifying, greedy monster. This is, I would argue, a direct inspiration from the aforementioned Fafnir, who was originally a dwarf who was literally turned into a greedy, hoarding dragon by cursed gold, while the "dragon curse" in Tolkien and the Hobbit is rather less direct in its inspiration from Fafnir (it doesn't directly turn anyone into a dragon, but rather it causes a great battle to break out and seems to exacerabate greed), the parallels are undeniable.
What also must be taken into account is the similarities in personalilty between the MLP dragon and Tolkien's Smaug. For, when Bilbo wishes to play for time, he appeals to Smaug's vanity, and indeed, Rarity comes closest to tricking the dragon into leaving by appealing to his vanity, although she is of course undone by her own greed. In the end, however, Tolkien's Smaug is defeated by a Black Arrow while the MLP Dragon is tamed by Fluttershy, which doesn't seem so impressive, until you realise that Fluttershy seems to be capable of causing the most terrible creatures to cower under her Stare...
2. Castles and Cities
This one is an example of a direct Tolkien reference being confirmed by the creators of MLP. For the great ivory castle, built into the side of the mountains, known as "Canterlot" was directly inspired by Minas Tirith from The Return of The King. Superfically, it is easy to see the resembelence in the description alone, with both being "the white City". However, there is more to this comparison than their appearence, for their histories seem to run parellel to each other. Minas Tirith, while designed by Gondor, was not actually the first great City to be built by the descendents of Numenor. Fornost, far to the West, was a great city built by Arnor shortly after the destruction of Numenor. Yet by the time of LOTR, it has been in ruins for a long time, having been destroyed in the Battle of Fornost by the Witch-King.
In MLP, neither is Canterlot the oldest Castle in Equestria. When the Two Royal Sisters first came to Equestria, they built The Castle of the Royal Sisters in the Everfree Forest as their very first Royal Home. Yet it was destroyed in the Battle with Nightmare Moon, so by the time of the series, it has been in ruins for at least a thousand years. Yet it still houses secrets, most notably being the hiding place of the Elements of Harmony...
3. Trees and shiny stones
Here we come to one of my favourite parellels; the Silmarils and the Elements of Harmony. In Tolkien, the Silmarils contain the light of the two trees of Valinor, the purest lights in all of creation. But even when the trees themselves are destroyed, the light of the Silmarils can revive them if they are only given up. Yet the elven creator of the Silmarils, Feanor, refuses to give them up, causing a great deal of sorrow. The light of the stones is so pure that anyone who is not worthy, even the Dark Lord Morgoth, is burned with searing pain when they make contact with its light.
In MLP, the Elements of Harmony are the most powerful artefacts known to Ponydom. They contain the light of the "Tree of Harmony" within the Everfree Forest, and have the power to both purge all evil from a Pony and completely destroy beings of pure evil. Even when the Tree of Harmony begins to wither and die due to an external attack, the Elements of Harmony have the power to revive the tree, but only if they are freely given up. Luckily, Twilight Sparkle does just this, and the Tree is brought back to life and destroys the attacking vines.
There are plenty of other parallels I could make here (Griffonstone & Erebor having parallel histories and themes, The Alicorn Amulet and the One Ring, Fluttershy resisting Discord's corruption in much the same way Samwise's humility allowed him to resist Sauron's corruption), but those three that I mentioned feel like the most overarching similarities, at least for me. I wonder if anyone else has come up with these!
1. Dragons
Although many fantasy works have dragons in them of some distinction, it must be noted that Tolkien's dragons have very specific traits that distinguish them. The first, and most obvious, being their love of gold, for dragons in Tolkien are based strongly off of the Norse stories of Fafnir as well as the tale of Beowulf, both dragons being famous for their "Dragon Hoards". This is a trait shared by the dragons of My Little Pony; the Dragon from "Dragonshy" lives inside his mountain cave, like the famous Smaug, and sit upon a vast hoard of gold and gems. Further, when Spike the baby Dragon is accidentally given his own hoard, this turns him into a terrifying, greedy monster. This is, I would argue, a direct inspiration from the aforementioned Fafnir, who was originally a dwarf who was literally turned into a greedy, hoarding dragon by cursed gold, while the "dragon curse" in Tolkien and the Hobbit is rather less direct in its inspiration from Fafnir (it doesn't directly turn anyone into a dragon, but rather it causes a great battle to break out and seems to exacerabate greed), the parallels are undeniable.
What also must be taken into account is the similarities in personalilty between the MLP dragon and Tolkien's Smaug. For, when Bilbo wishes to play for time, he appeals to Smaug's vanity, and indeed, Rarity comes closest to tricking the dragon into leaving by appealing to his vanity, although she is of course undone by her own greed. In the end, however, Tolkien's Smaug is defeated by a Black Arrow while the MLP Dragon is tamed by Fluttershy, which doesn't seem so impressive, until you realise that Fluttershy seems to be capable of causing the most terrible creatures to cower under her Stare...
2. Castles and Cities
This one is an example of a direct Tolkien reference being confirmed by the creators of MLP. For the great ivory castle, built into the side of the mountains, known as "Canterlot" was directly inspired by Minas Tirith from The Return of The King. Superfically, it is easy to see the resembelence in the description alone, with both being "the white City". However, there is more to this comparison than their appearence, for their histories seem to run parellel to each other. Minas Tirith, while designed by Gondor, was not actually the first great City to be built by the descendents of Numenor. Fornost, far to the West, was a great city built by Arnor shortly after the destruction of Numenor. Yet by the time of LOTR, it has been in ruins for a long time, having been destroyed in the Battle of Fornost by the Witch-King.
In MLP, neither is Canterlot the oldest Castle in Equestria. When the Two Royal Sisters first came to Equestria, they built The Castle of the Royal Sisters in the Everfree Forest as their very first Royal Home. Yet it was destroyed in the Battle with Nightmare Moon, so by the time of the series, it has been in ruins for at least a thousand years. Yet it still houses secrets, most notably being the hiding place of the Elements of Harmony...
3. Trees and shiny stones
Here we come to one of my favourite parellels; the Silmarils and the Elements of Harmony. In Tolkien, the Silmarils contain the light of the two trees of Valinor, the purest lights in all of creation. But even when the trees themselves are destroyed, the light of the Silmarils can revive them if they are only given up. Yet the elven creator of the Silmarils, Feanor, refuses to give them up, causing a great deal of sorrow. The light of the stones is so pure that anyone who is not worthy, even the Dark Lord Morgoth, is burned with searing pain when they make contact with its light.
In MLP, the Elements of Harmony are the most powerful artefacts known to Ponydom. They contain the light of the "Tree of Harmony" within the Everfree Forest, and have the power to both purge all evil from a Pony and completely destroy beings of pure evil. Even when the Tree of Harmony begins to wither and die due to an external attack, the Elements of Harmony have the power to revive the tree, but only if they are freely given up. Luckily, Twilight Sparkle does just this, and the Tree is brought back to life and destroys the attacking vines.
There are plenty of other parallels I could make here (Griffonstone & Erebor having parallel histories and themes, The Alicorn Amulet and the One Ring, Fluttershy resisting Discord's corruption in much the same way Samwise's humility allowed him to resist Sauron's corruption), but those three that I mentioned feel like the most overarching similarities, at least for me. I wonder if anyone else has come up with these!
