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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jester47" data-source="post: 1285938" data-attributes="member: 2238">Yes but orthanc is still a tower.  Saruman in Orthanc (as opposed to Isengard) is THE classic wizard in a tower depiction.  An Aside-As for towers in LotR, the places considered towers in that book are several.  The second part, The Two Towers is aptly named because there are several pairings of "towers" in the book.  Orthanc - Barad DurMinas Morgul - Minas TirithCirith Ungol (this one had two watchtowers in the book, one tall one short... I think)Back on topic- I checked with my local authority on literature (my mother is a professor of English with a big concentration in Anglo-Saxon and medieval literature.) and she states that the place to probably look is in Gothic Romance literature.  Likely candidates (but she stresses there is no garuntee) were Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, and Goethe's Faust (marlowe's is older...).  She also suggested Cooleridge, and Monk Lewis.  She mentioned that Owen Glendower (a hermit in Henry IV by Wil. S.) claims to summon spirits and that might show a line of influence from somewhere.  Also she suggested Anne Radcliffe and Charles Brockden Brown (both are no garuntee and serious maybes).Undoutedly the image comes from thinking men throughout the ages that sought higher places to study the heavens.  From Galileo all the way back to Babylonian astronomers.  Hermits on hills and mountains and Martin Luther hiding in a castle in Germany.  But in literature there is a deeper level to it.  While there are very few literal towers and wizards in lit, there is the seeker who muast work in isolation in order to deal with the unknown, the unknowable and the forbidden.  Prospero in his cell, merlin in his cave, hermits, Dr. Frankenstein, Saruman, the Grey Mouser, The secret of Nimh, Frobozz in the underground realm of Zork.  The tower as we know it today (a spire) is somthing that we associate with the inaccessible.  The tower is the symbol of the inaccessible and the wizard is the symbol of one who works there.   (by the way, anyone work in really complicated stuff on the top floor of a skyscraper?).  So, if you look for other symbols that represent the same things (islands, mountains, mad scientists, hermits) then you find a very very long literary tradition that comes from people studying and pulling off amazing things with what they learn from studying.  I just looked up and realised that I had a great resource on my shelf- the dictionary of imaginary places.  Let me look in there.  (looks) Nope, nothing initially.  However I did notice that it is missing anything from Moorcock, Leiber and Howard.  Aaron.</blockquote>

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