This fall, wizards and hobbits rule the silver screen

Ms. Rowling's books are heirs to the fantasy tradition, which grew into its own in the 20th century, thanks to pioneers like Tolkien. Scholars note that Tolkien, along with C.S. Lewis and writers such as T.H. White and Kurt Vonnegut, used fantasy to grapple with the trauma they experienced during the World Wars.

By the time Tolkien was in his mid-20s, he had been wounded in World War I and had lost many of his close friends. "That led to a kind of questioning and doubt, which Tolkien sought to assuage through the vehicle of fantasy, particularly in order to contemplate the nature of good and evil in the world," notes Edmund Kern, a historian at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis.

Like the others, Tolkien wrote about that struggle allegorically, as when he laid out corrupting power of the ring in "The Lord of the Rings." That work was recently voted Book of the Century by British readers. Interest in the movie version is also running high: More than 3 million people downloaded the movie trailer on the Internet earlier this fall, temporarily crashing the movie studio's website.

The message in "Harry Potter" is simpler, and, at least initially, less dark. It highlights the idea that individuals are not powerless and can make a difference in their own lives and others'.

Its clever, made-up words and engaging storyline were enough to make a convert out of nonfiction reader Ruth Sexton. A vice president at a nonprofit educational company in Washington, Ms. Sexton says that when her favorite mode of relaxing - Fred Astaire movies - failed to make her less anxious about recent events, she grabbed the first Harry Potter book.

"By page 25, I was chemically addicted. The intensity of my interest surprises me," she says. She wasn't planning to see the movie, for fear that the richness of the series wouldn't translate. "But now I'm really thinking I must...."

Whether interest will last throughout the movie versions of both series is an open question. Each movie is expected to have several sequels - up to six for "Harry Potter," and two more for "Lord of the Rings" - which, if following the books, will grow increasingly darker and more morally complex. If the war on terrorism is lengthy, as government officials predict, people might find them less escapist.

But initially, scholars say, moviegoers will probably have a cathartic reaction to the fantasy films. "A lot of adults will be comforted by watching Harry Potter defeat evil" says Greg Metcalf, a visiting professor at the University of Maryland. "He defeats a guy [hiding in] a turban. That will take on a deeper significance it didn't have the first time. I think there will be a catharsis for people that we don't get out of the news."

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