Warlocks (long)

[breegenie at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 30325

Diane wrote: 
>Maybe Warlocks are warrior-wizards...that could account for 
>Dumbledore's status as a rather highly ranked warlock, as well.  
>Remember his defeat of Grindelwald (sp?) concurrent with Hitler's 
>defeat. It sounds like the wizards may have had a World War
>too.

Rowena Grunnion-Ffitch wrote:
>Brilliant!! I do believe Diane's got it! Of course'Warlocks' are the 
>wizarding equivalent of soldiers that would explain both their 
>rowdyness and the esteem in which they're held. Even the name war -
>lock sounds militant.

Everyone,

Sorry to drag up an older topic again, but JKR's use of the 
word "warlock" has got me intrigued. IIRC, in the HP series, it is 
only used in reference to Dumbledore (one of his titles on the 
stationery) and the scruffy group in Hogsmeade. 

However, I was re-reading QTTA last night, and the term warlock is 
used several times:

1. pg iv (the "Praise for QTTA" section) "Kennilworthy Whisp's 
painstaking research has uncovered a veritable treasure trove of 
hitherto unknown fact about the sport of warlocks..." Bathilda 
Bagshot, author, "A History of Magic" (a Hogwarts must-read)

2. p. 8 "big Scottish warlock" is used twice. Once within the letter, 
and the "author" uses it, too. 

3. p. 18 "The Noble Sport of Warlocks," an early book about Quidditch.

4. p. 38 "A team of warlocks from Cork..." 

5. p. 45 "Peruvian warlocks are believed to have had their first 
exposure to Quidditch from European wizards"

I may have missed a few references, but that is bulk of them. 

>From all these uses in QTTA, I have formulated a theory. In JKR's 
world, warlock used to be the term used for male wizards, but it has 
lost that usage over time. Instead, wizard has become the standard 
term for male magical people. Possible reasons it fell out of usage: 
Prejudice by Muggles gave the term warlock a negative meaning, so as 
the wizard world became more bureaucratic and tried to protect itself 
from Muggles (Wizard's Council, MoM) the term wizard became more 
popular. Why let a Muggle define who you are?

As the negative meaning would have stuck, even in the wizard world, 
in Harry's time, warlock is probably a pejorative term meaning a 
backwoods, rowdy, oafish, old-school (red-neck?) wizard. There are 
probably some older wizards or hold-outs who still miss the early 
days, so Dumbledore may hold his title because he is member of a 
society that values those old-time warrior/sporting qualities of 
wizardry, when men were men, and wizards were warlocks. 

My reasoning:

a. Quidditch, "the sport of warlocks" probably began as an all male 
sport. Since many things in the wizard world mirror the Muggle world, 
maybe there was a gradual women's lib movement. In fact, the 
formation of schools in the wizard world probably brought this about. 
Hogwarts is very clearly a school of witchcraft AND wizardry. Witches 
would have gained standing in the wizard community through education. 

b. The reference to a "big Scottish warlock." The witch's diary 
referenced is very negative about Quidditch, so perhaps she was using 
the term warlock in a negative sense. Like saying "big Scottish 
lummox."

c. The book titled to "The Noble sport of Warlocks" was written in 
1620, when the term would have still been widely used.

d. The Peruvian warlocks and Cork warlocks that Whisp references are 
probably considered unsophisticated when compared to other "European 
wizards."populations. The Irish are usually considered a rowdy lot, 
and maybe there was bit of prejudice towards South Americans...

e. If warlock meant a dark arts wizard like it does in most other 
fantasies, then the Death Eaters would probably be called warlocks, 
or at least referred to as warlocks occasionally.  

This theory still allows that warlock could also be used for warrior 
wizards, as soldiers tend to be a rowdy lot, and generally male. 
There hasn't been any mention of a wizard army, but maybe there is a 
society of mercenary wizards that are called upon in times of 
trouble. Dumbledore would have been one of them during the Grindewald 
crisis.

Let me know what you think...

Bree
a newbie who is de-lurking today