Pevensie & pensieve

[Tim Regan]

Hi All,

The Harry Potter Lexicon has lots of sensible things to say about the word "pensieve".

http://www.hp-lexicon.org/magic/devices/devices_n-r.html#Pensieve

<<< The name "Pensieve" is a play on words. In the first place, "Pensieve" is a homonym for the English word pensive. In the second place, the word "Pensieve" is formed from the Latin pens + English sieve. >>>

I'm a bit confused by the Latin "pens" ("to weigh" or "to ponder"?) but let's not dwell on that.

Recently a friend here at work ( http://research.microsoft.com/users/r.harper/ ) was having an argument with another sociology professor in his study in Kings College Cambridge. To illustrate a point, Richard's friend gestured at the wardrobe in the corner and noted that it was the wardrobe that inspired C.S. Lewis when he wrote "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe". Later I noticed a post on the Rutgers' kidlit mailing list noting that "the real piece of furniture upon which Lewis fashioned his fantastical wardrobe lives in the Marion Wade Center at Wheaton College". (Don't worry, I will get to my point soon.) That took me to this website about the authenticity of the Lewis Wardrobe:

http://www.westmont.edu/_academics/pages/departments/english/Pages/cs_lewis_wardrobe.html

which in turn reminded me of the family name of the children, Peter, Susan, Lucy, and Edmund, in the Narnia books. It's "Penvensie". I think that the name probably derives from the English town Pevensey, but it is very difficult to read the wardrobe article without noting that "Pevensie" and "pensieve" are acronyms.

Cheers,

Dumbledad.


		
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