The Breaking of the Hogwarts Fellowship

[Lalwendë]

I'd never have compared Snape to any character in LotR, but the one I would say he is most close to is Saruman, simply as Saruman is one of the few characters who has turned from the 'good' to the 'bad' and yet even here the comparison is flimsy as Snape has seemed evil, found not to be so, and then eventually been revealed as such; Saruman seems to simply turn from good to bad, yet he does retain that quality which manages to seduce people over to his view.

Perhaps rather than LotR being an 'influence' in terms of theme on Harry Potter, it is more that both series of books use themes which in the end are fairly universal and which also admittedly work well in generating an exciting plot!