Wormtail and Wormtongue

[msl at fc.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 11800

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., coriolan at w... wrote:

> Excellent analysis, but one slight error: Screwtape's hapless nephew 
> is named Wormwood. My dictionary defines it as "A European plant 
> yielding a bitter slightly aromatic dark green oil used in 
> absinthe."  The word has of course become synonymous with bitterness 
> and gall. In Revelations 8:10-11, we read:
> 
> The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like 
> a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the 
> springs of water--the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the 
> waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had 
> become bitter.
> 
> Wormwood was also the name of Calvin's teacher in the Calvin & 
> Hobbes comic strip (Bill Watterson, the cartoonist, stated that he 
> derived her name from Screwtape) - and the Ukranian word for 
> Wormwood is Chernobyl (which, disaster though it was, fortunately 
> did not fulfill the prophecies of St. John)

Ooops.  <blushing>  I guess I need to double check my sources in the
future.  And of course, the name "Wormtail" could easily allude simply
to the somewhat unappetizing look of a rat's hairless tail.  But I'm
determined to find a literary reference, doggone it!  :-)

marvin