Immortality (was: Voldemort and language)

[naama]

No: HPFGUIDX 6795

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Neil Ward" <neilward at d...> wrote:
> Re 'Voldemort' origins: 
> 
> I know this is getting pretty obscure, but the word 'mort' (with 
the 't' sounded) exists in the English language.  It's a hunting term 
- a noun - meaning "a note sounded when the quarry is killed".  The 
origin, according to the OEnD, is "Middle English from Old French 
from Latin: mors mortis".  
> 

I think I prefer the wholly French interpretation of vol-de-mort, 
which translates both as flight-of-death (I read this one 
somewhere on this list) and theft-of-death. He flies from death/makes 
death fly from him and steals death away/steals himself away from 
death. 
Thinking of Voldemort's project of immortality, I realized that in  
other fantasy literature classics the quest of immortality is also 
viewed as a deep source of evil : In C.S. Lewis the wicked witch 
steals the apple to become (accursedly) immortal (in The Magicians 
Nephew). It is also the central theme of Ursula le Guins' third 
EarthSea book (The Farthest Shore). 
Do you think there's a Christian undertone in this? I mean, I can 
easily imagine that in a lot of cultures (Japanese?) not wanting to 
die is looked down on as cowardly. But here its a terrible sin 
(mortal!). It seems to me related to the symbiotic connection between 
death and salvation in Christianity: The death of Jesus is the source 
of salvation and individual conversions are often experienced as 
rebirth through death of old self; as a Christian you expect eternal 
life - but only after (and through death). So to avoid death is to 
avoid salvation (which explains why Voldemort's unholy resurrection 
feels so deeply horrible and "unnatural"). Reactions?


Naama