Urth Net
The Ring & The Claw
↰ answers Dan Rabin
· by quotation
2 quoted lines
Dan Rabin wrote:
With respect to the recent discussion on Tolkien's influence on Wolfe, I'd like to propose that the Claw of the Conciliator is, in some respects, a Wolfean reversal of the One Ring:
Well, while I don't think I would go so far as this (in the sense of Wolfe deliberately doing so), I think you make (the beginnings of) an interesting case for a comparative discussion of the books, especially wrt a structuralist/poststructuralist discussion of the similar & different ways the two objects fill the paradigm of "ancient, powerful talisman."
Let's add to your list of similarities:
Both objects come into the protagonist's hands by seeming chance. Both objects give the possessor power "according to his stature." Both objects are ultimately destroyed during a battle with an enemy
who seeks to take it from the protagonist.
Neither object looks extraordinary to a casual viewer.
And to the reversal list:
The Ring is destroyed by seeming chance; the Claw is destroyed by
petty malice.
Frodo finds himself unable to give up the Ring; Severian finds
that the "owners" will not accept (the remains of) the Claw.