[Names/kingship connections

[Bernadette M. Crumb]

No: HPFGUIDX 37294


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jennifer Boggess Ramon" <boggles at earthlink.net>


> Hmm . . . Arthur, William, Charles, Frederick, George . . . no
wonder
> poor Ron feels like he's got too much to live up to; his father
and
> all his brothers except Percy are named after kings!

Actually, Percy is also a King's name... a fictional one, but
then so is Arthur!  (I know, shut up with the Wolfram's PARZIVAL
connections, already, Bernadette! *grin*).   I haven't had any
luck finding any kind of connection to kingship with the name
Ronald... the closest I can get is Roland--but he _was_ a
knight--which reinforces the whole Ronald as a
knight/protector/defender of Harry theme.

And if Ginny's full name is actually Virginia, there's a
connection to Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen... Even Harry's name
is a "king" name.  While we don't know if Harry is short for
Harold, or the nickname for Henry, both were Kings in England,
one Saxon, one Tudor.

One thing that has been running through my head while reading the
Harry Potter books is the old idea that every seven years is a
special anniversary year.  One of the anniversary year things
I've read about was the idea of the sacrificial King cycle where
every seven years, the King or a willing substitute spills his
blood to renew the land and refresh the kingdom.  (OT:Katherine
Kurtz played with this theme in LAMMAS NIGHT.) Is it possible
that Harry Potter is the equivalent of the Sacred King whose
sacrifice (either of self or of a willing substitute) will save
the Wizarding world... Could it be that Ron will be Harry's
willing substitute in the end? And--oh my!--I just thought of
another connection... If I've got the math right (no promises on
that!) in the fourteenth year since Voldemort was initially
deafeated by Harry, Wormtail did the spell to give him a body
back.  "Flesh of the servant, willingly given.  Blood of the
enemy..."  A corrupted form of the Sacred King sacrifice...
Hmmmm.  I need to think more on this one too.

Bernadette

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art. It has no
survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value
to survival."
-- C.S. Lewis (1898-1963).