Harry and King Arthur

[Danemead at yahoo.com]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C1596
From: Danemead
Subject: Harry and King Arthur
Date: 6/2/00 7:48 pm  (ET)

I posted this on harrypotteranonymous, but someone reminded me that not
everyone on this list is signed up there as well. I thought this might
be an interesting topic to discuss for Chap 1-4 of the first book:

I was thinking about the first few chapters of HP BOOK I, and how so many
children's fairy tales start out with descriptions of the physical and/or
mental abuse of the main character in childhood. My thoughts jumped to
a comparison of one of the versions of the tale of the young boyhood of
King Arthur, who was apprenticed to a knight as a child, referred to as
"Wart", and treated a little less kindly than the castle dogs. I think
Arthur was about Harry's age in "Sorcerer's Stone" when he pulled the
sword from the stone and learned he was the future King of Britain.

Very much along those lines, Dumbledore explains to Minerva just why he
is placing the baby Harry with the Dursleys. I guess the object of these
literary devices is to teach the child humility or something. BECAUSE
he will one day be so famous and powerful, Dumbledore wants him to grow up
thinking he is lower than dirt? Surely he could have been raised by a
kindly and discreet wizard family out in the boondocks somewhere away
from anything that could clue him in to his fame? I know there are a
great number of people who have managed to turn a bitter childhood into
a character-strengthening asset, but many more whose minds and souls
are corrupted by the experience.

Any thoughts about this phenomenon? Did JKR make Harry an abused child
to gain our sympathy or merely to draw parallels with other great myths
and legends?