Immortality (was: Voldemort and language)

[Christine]

No: HPFGUIDX 6817




--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "naama " <naama_gat at h...> wrote:
> --- 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



One word - WOW!

Sounds to me like you could be right - also in "Magician's Nephew" 
there is the whole issue of the apple been what grants immortality, 
as opposed to the apple being what "takes" immortality away from 
humans in the Bible. 

Christine - realising that this has nothing - whatsoever to do with 
HP!