Beware the Ides of March
 

This is naught but a quick thought that occurred to me the last time I read the Return of the King. 'Tis probably not worthy of a new topic but there are no other threads on which it would be logical to post.

In the Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien kept a clear chronology of dates, but the dates never really seem to have any meaning outside of the text. In Return of the King, it is stated that Theoden dies on March 15, the Ides of March, the same day that Julius Caesar was murdered. The deaths do not seem to bear any relation, but do you think that Tolkien consciously intended the date to match?

The only other semblance of a parallel I could find between the two deaths (aside from the obvious fact that they were both kings/emperors) was that their deaths were caused by an enemy and actually carried out, in a sense, by friends. Cassius was the plotter of Caesar's murder, and Brutus (at least partially unwillingly) helped to carry it out. Similarly (if you can call it similar [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] ), the Lord of the Nazgul is the "plotter" of Theoden's death, but Theoden is actually killed by his faithful horse, Snowmane.

Wow.. I have never thought about it . But actually I think there is no relation between these two deaths . I think that it would be kinda hard to calculate the lenghth of the fellowship's journey specially for the Men of Rohan come to Minas Tirith at 15th of March . But actually who knows ? The only one who could answer you is dead . What a pitty...

Personally I don't think there is a link, although it could be of course. But in that case I think that Tolkien would have provided us with more similar facts don't you think?

I just think that it was one of those strange coincidences that J.R.R. Tolkien didn't think about. But then again, I don't think he was expecting us to analyze his books so deeply.

Considering all the neat unintentional parallels in the Lord of the Rings, it isnt suprising that something like this turned up in the chronology. Was tolkien a fan of Shakespear? Ive never heard anything like that, but he might have planned out the date more because of it's significant affiliation with fate in general than because of it's part in Julius Caesar.

But either way, good call in picking that out!

He could have been a fan of Shakespeare. After all, the old Professor was very well-versed in the classics, and he has said that he drew material from myriad sources, so who knows? He just might have gotten a little bit of inspiration from THE playwright!

It's probably just a coincidence. You could probably find parallels with just about anything if you analyzed the books enough. I think this and other "parallels" with various other stories are just the result of over-analyzing to me.

Actually, it seems that Tolkien was not a fan of Shakespeare at all. Read me to find out more, and also for some really quite compelling parallels between Tolkien's works and those of Shakespeare (Birnham Wood - need I say more? [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] ).