The Buzz on Dumbledore

[edisbevan]

No: HPFGUIDX 31264

Thinking about the symbolism of bees and Dumbledore ...
"cornflower_o_shea" wrote
> Oh! I like the symbolism of that! The life of bees has been a 
little fascination of mine, and Dumbledore is one of my 
favourites. ...I zipped to my search  engine to find some info on the 
symbolism of bees, (and) found this: "The bee represents perfect 
community, and although it is weak in  body, it is strong in spirit 
and wisdom." <

I doubt whether JKR has researched `bee culture and folklore'
in east Europe but for me there are resonances in Dubledore having 
connections to bees


See the page below for some comments and examples and in particular 
this passage. Basically bees and bee-keepers are associated with 
loyalty and generosity and sharing. Its still a mark of friendship to 
give gifts of honey between friends
 and until about a century
ago in  Lithuania honey was never sold only given (bee-keepers earned 
support  from their community for giving honey).

Mind you of course bumble-bees are solitary not hive living creatures 
so the symbolism may be quite other in JKRs mind


Also see this page for the life cycle of the dumbledore


http://hercules.users.netlink.co.uk/Bee.html


Edis


Bee-Friends loyalty and mythology

http://www.xs4all.nl/~jtemp/LithPict.html

>>>>
(there is)curious word in everyday use by Lithuanians that links the 
Lithuanian culture and language with bees and beekeeping. This is the 
word biciulis, pronounced bitch -ull -iss, with the ull as in "pull". 
Derived from the two-syllable Lithuanian word for bee, bite (bit-eh), 
it was originally used among beekeepers. A beekeeper was a bicius 
(bitch-uss with the uss as in puss). Biciulis is a diminutive and it 
literally means " dear fellow beekeeper". Beekeepers kept bees as 
common property and had close relationships among themselves that 
were almost as close as blood relationships. It is said that there 
was a strong moral code among them. As in other cultures, the 
Lithuanians saw the bee as a fiercely moral creature. She stung 
dishonest people, for example. This carried over to human life. 
Someone who was adept enough and morally good enough to handle bees

 clearly would make a trustworthy friend. It is said that bees
were  never bought and sold among biciuliai. Nowadays, Lithuanians 
commonly  use the delightful word biciulis simply to mean "friend" 
or "pal". 
<<<