Nagini/basilisk/snake ramblings

[Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer]

No: HPFGUIDX 189

Hi --

badgers' kin wrote:

> As I read CoS, I didn't think that a basilisk was anthing other than
> a snake (I'd never heard the term *basilisk*, and since Tom Riddle was
>
> speaking Parseltongue to it, I just assumed that a basilisk = snake).

It is a snake in CoS.  I think JKR must have modified the mythological
basilisk to suit her purposes -- it probably seems (a) more frightening,
and (b) more importantly, far more connected to Salazar Slytherin & the
Slytherin house in general, for it to be a giant serpent (without the
resemblance to a rooster that  a true cockatrice/basilisk is said to
have).  I think it's one of those cases where JKR has taken artistic
license with some known myths to serve her purposes.  The basilisk in
CoS *is* a snake, a giant snake with the powers (kills with its stare,
highly venomous) and weaknesses (the crowing of a rooster is fatal to
it) of the mythological creature (sometimes known alternately as a
cockatrice and a basilisk).

> While the basilisk may not have been in the *plumbing* for all this
> time, it is strongly implied that the basilisk was the cause of
> Moaning Myrtle's death.

I think it was more than implied -- it's pretty clear that the last time
the Chamber was opened, 50 yrs before CoS, Moaning Myrtle was the
student that was killed, and from all descriptions, she died by looking
directly into the eyes of the basilisk.

> This basilisk apparently only needs to eat once per millenium - come
> to think of it, it may not have to eat at all!  (Geez, having said
> that, I seem to recall some passage that proposed to explain how the
> thing could survive so long within a sealed chamber...do I recall
> such a passage?...I look...I can't find anything, Hmmm.)

Now, that is an interesting question.  Although the pathway to the
Chamber had dead rat bones -- since most snakes do subsist on rats, I
think it's safe to say that rats meet their end in the Chamber.  But,
how do the rats enter the sealed Chamber??  Hmmm .. ..  more mysteries.

> Harry sees Tom Riddle as a *physical being* when he gets into the
> Chamber, but was Tom able to embody himself at will?  Or was Tom
> Riddle's diary able to speak?  Or did the diary enable Ginny to utter
> in parseltongue?  As always, the resolution of one question leads to
> the asking of many more.

I think the diary (Riddle) enabled Ginny to speak parseltongue (a power
she wouldn't have retained once out from under the diary's spells).  Tom
Riddle essentially took over Ginny's body to achieve his ends (setting
the basilisk on the school multiple times & then going down to the
Chamber at the end).  My impression is that Riddle's "memory" was
becoming stronger & taking Ginny's life bit by bit somehow -- I never
was too clear if he could have actually become his own 16 yr old self
again had Harry not saved Ginny.  You're right -- answers but many more
questions.

Penny


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