[HPforGrownups] Re: House Elves

[Rowena Grunnion-Ffitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 30661


--- "Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)"
<catlady at wicca.net> wrote:

> Someone in HPfGU did some 
> research in Muggle folklore and found that the
> familiar Brownie 
> Household Elf is called a Dobby someplace in
> England. This 
> researcher, finding that Muggle tradition holds that
> Dobbies, 
> Brownies, and the like leave homes that disrespect
> them, such as by 
> leaving big messes for them to clean up, or not
> putting out bowls of 
> milk for them, concluded that some one has cast a
> spell on all the 
> House Elves, something like a generational inherited
> Imperius Curse, 
> to override their free will and destroy their
> ability to leave a 
> place where they are being abused. She said what
> House Elves need is 
> to have the Curse removed, not to have some human
> form a union to 
> demand pensions for them.

    I think that somebody may have been me :) I do
remember arguing that treating House-elves like
they're just short Human beings with funny ears is a
major mistake. They are magical creatures very
different with needs and desires, a fact which *must*
be addressed if their position in Wizarding society is
to be improved.

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