JK Ripped This Off! How Disappointing!

I think that it may be a coincidence to be honest. I heard that she named the character (first name) after someone she knew. It's only the name that's the same. It maybe a fantasy film as well but it isn't really like the Harry Potter movies -> a boy's sister is abducted by a troll that lives in the basement of a block of flat vs a kid discovers he's a wizard and leave for a magical school.

Also it's happened to me while writing essays and stories over the years. I used to pick random names from a list. I once had characters called Keith Hopkins and Dean Anderson only to discover later that those names already belonged to well known people. Especially since my character of Keith Hopkins was a professsor of Egyptology, who ran a museum. The real Keith Hopkins is a professor of classical civilisations.
See, coincidence! Try googling for your own name and see how many results come up :)

It's not that authors are 'stealing' mythology - everyone writing fantasy is bound to use that kind of thing. Its when you copy an actual scene like the magic mirror fountain one, so that it looks exactly the same, when your audience won't understand the reference.

Whatever you tell me, its gone in three, c'est la vie!

Exactly I agree with the post I just read by "nameundisclosed" (not sure if they put that automatically because the poster didn't use a name or if that is the name this person posts under, but if it is the later it's brilliant).

Anyway the post by this person explains how the elements of fantasy story telling have been around for alot longer than J.K. Rowling the or the movie Troll. But it goes beyond that. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, did not create these ideas. They weren't even the first fantasy writers. Even Lord Dunsay (not sure about the spelling there), even Lord Dunsay who is credited as one of, if not the first fantsy writer, and who inspired the likes of Tolkien and Lewis, did not create these concepts. These ideas are part of the stories and legends of mankind. They are our mythology and history. And they most likely predate even the written word. They certainly were not invented in a B movie in the 80's. So, Rowling used the same name but it may be coincidence, it may not. Either way it's just a name. There are no other paralells to be drawn between Rowling's books and this movie.

Who cares if she borrowed ideas? Every single writer borrows from somewhere I mean Shakespeare borrowed heavily from Greek and Roman drama.


'In my experience the mind which is where hallucinations come from shouldn't be able to make anything up that wasn't there to start with that didn't enter it from experience from the real world. Imagination can't create anything new can it? It only recycles bits and pieces from the world and reassembles them into visions. Am I making sense right now?....nothing unknown is knowable.'
(Angels in America - Tony Kushner)

It's a depressing thought but true.

although yes the harry potter books are probably not copied from Troll, the problem is is that Warner Bros will sue the director of the upcoming Troll remake if they use the name Harry Potter in it.. even though Troll used it first..