Mandrakes (was Names)

[dfrankis at dial.pipex.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 22329

Liz Widger" <macandharm_12 at h...> wrote:
This 
> got me really interested since JK has been known to use Shakespeare 
in the 
> books before (Mandrakes are mentioned in MacBeth).

Er, mandrakes come in lots of places, for example Rachel and Leah 
messed around with them (or possibly, the AV translators decided to 
translate a Hebrew word as mandrakes) in the Bible in the apparent 
belief they would help with conception.  In the past they were 
generally believed to have magical properties because the root is 
shaped a bit like a person: JKR didn't make this up.

More generally, the fact that Shakespeare, or Homer, or anyone else 
used a word or idea that JKR also uses doesn't by itself mean that 
she took it from that source.

She may know, for example, that Krumm means crooked in some germanic 
languages, and may have had the association in mind when naming 
Viktor, but I for one will keep such associations in the 'very 
tentative' category until more evidence is forthcoming.

David