Harry/Henry Potter and Harry/Henry V

[catherine at cator-manor.demon.co.uk]

No: HPFGUIDX 20096

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Rita Winston" <catlady at w...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., Barbara Purdom <blpurdom at y...> wrote:
> > Well, that immediately got me thinking that perhaps
> > Harry isn't a Harold at all, but a Henry 
> 
> IIRC JKR said in an interview that Harry's name (what I call "birth 
> certificate name") is Harry, not Harold or Henry or Harrison.
> 
> I associated Harry's name with the battle cry "For England, Harry, 
> and St. George", which my high school english teacher told me was 
> still used in WWII even tho' it started with the Henrys you cite in 
> the middle ages. 

I am surprised that I haven't thought about this before, as I did my 
final year dissertation on Henry V.  It was used in WW2 - in fact, 
Olivier's Henry V was the first film to be filmed in colour in the 
UK - and one of the reasons for this was to raise morale during WW2.

I am not sure that the parrallel works  though.  I just can't see our 
Harry as the irresponsible, fun loving Prince Hal which is portrayed 
in Henry IV Part 1.  Harry, for me, has a great sense of 
responsibility.  He also doesn't have the father/son issues of Prince 
Hal.  I also don't see Harry having the kind of friends such as 
Falstaff, Bardolph et al.  Prince Hal makes a conscious decision to 
shoulder his responsibilies and in doing so moves away from the 
friends of his youth.  I just can't see Harry needing to make that 
decision.  IMO, their psyches and the issues they have to deal with 
are very different. 

Catherine