[HPforGrownups] JKR's cleverness

[Ellimist15 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 1482

Here is the reasoning behind the book authors:

Adalbert Waffling - author of History of Magic and Magical Theory 
Adalbert is one of many saints mentioned in the HP books. He was a Bohemian churchman, known as the Apostle of the Prussians. "Waffling" is debating both for Yes and for No, which makes a good name for a theorist.

Arsenius Jigger - wrote Magical Drafts and Potions 
Arsenic is a poison.
A "jigger" is a small measure for liquor, usually holding 11/2 oz.

Cassandra Vablatsky - author of "Unfogging the Future" 
"Vablatsky" comes from Madame Blavatsky, who is a famous spiritist who founded the Occult Theosophical Society in 1875. (Thanks to The Harry Potter Lexicon)
"Cassandra" was the most beautiful daughter of Priam and Hecuba, the king and queen of Troy. She was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo, who wished to seduce her; when she accepted his gift but refused his sexual advances, he deprived her prophecies of the power to persuade. Her name in Greek means "She who entangles men". At the end of the Trojan War, Cassandra foresaw the danger posed by the Trojan horse; the people of Troy ignored her warnings and the Greek soldiers hiding inside the horse were able to capture the city. During the sack of Troy, Cassandra was raped by the Locrian (or "lesser") Ajax, and was then given as a war prize to Agamemnon. She returned to Greece with Agamemnon, and tried to warn him of the danger which awaited him there; once again her prophecy was ignored, and both she and Agamemnon were murdered by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. (From Encyclopedia Mythica)

Emeric Switch - author of "A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration" 
This is kind of a stretch, but Emeric Pressburger wrote the film "The Boy Who Turned Yellow", and that's tranfiguration in my book!
A switch is a change or shift from one thing to another. 

Vindictus Viridian - author of Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges...(etc) 
"Vindicta" is Latin for "to avenge" or "punish". "Viridis" is Latin for "green" (go figure...)

And, as always, I got this stuff from my name etymology website. In case you want to know more about the origins of different characters' names, the URL is:

http://www.cornishpixie.cjb.net


Ellie

In a message dated Fri, 15 Sep 2000  1:58:05 AM Eastern Daylight Time, "Sam  Brown" <find_sam at hotmail.com> writes:

<< Well, the subject line sort of points out a very obvious fact about 
JKR, but I'm referring to her cleverness regarding the smaller 
details, or to be more specific, the titles of Harry's school books.

Just in the past week I've reread PS/SS and PoA (skipping CoS because 
my younger brother is reading it) and one of the details I picked up 
was the references in the names of Harry's schoolbooks. From PS/SS:

'A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration' by Emeric Switch... switch is 
of course an early clue to the nature of transfiguration!
'One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi' by Phyllida Spore... spores 
being an integral part of fungi!
(i don't know about you, but little 'quirks' like this bring me 
endless delight!)
There are more, but my favourite by far is 'Unfogging the Future' by 
Cassandra Vablatsky, Cassandra being a soothsayer of classical 
mythology. 

Unfortunately in GoF there were no books mentioned (except for the 
next installment of 'the Standard Book of Spells' by Miranda 
Goshawk), but I look forward to what JKR will delight us (well, me at 
least!) with in HP#5. >>