St. Godric - Harry Parallels

[erisedstraeh2002]

No: HPFGUIDX 42191

I'm a new member, but I searched the archives and didn't find 
anything on this, so here goes -

JKR said that there is a relationship between Godric Hollow and 
Godric Gryffindor, so I decided to investigate who St. Godric was, 
and I found a tremendous number of Harry parallels that I think 
strongly support the Heir of Gryffindor theory.

St. Godric had supernatural visions, and the ability to know of 
events occurring hundreds or thousands of miles away.  Sounds a lot 
like Harry's prescient dreams to me!  St. Godric also had the gift of 
prophecy. He foretold the death of Bishop William of Durham and St. 
Thomas a Becket - whom he had never met.  He died after foretelling 
his own death.  During his Divination final in PoA, Harry accurately 
predicts that Buckbeak will not be executed, despite Trelawney's 
efforts to get him to change his mind.  This is portrayed as Harry 
faking his way through the final, but maybe he really has the gift of 
prophecy and we'll see more in the next 3 books.

The part that really gave me goosebumps (yes, I know I *should* get 
out more, but I'm HP obsessed!) was that St. Godric is represented in 
art with a *stag* by him.  There are several stories about St. Godric 
and stags (see http://users.erols.com/saintpat/ss/0521.htm).  In "St. 
Godric and the Hunted Stag," a hunting party is pursuing a 
particularly beautiful stag, which runs to St. Godric's hermitage for 
shelter.  St. Godric lets the stag in, but the hunting party follows 
the stag's tracks and cuts through "the well-nigh impenetrable 
brushwood of thorns and briars" to find St. Godric. They ask Godric 
where the stag is, "but he would not be the betrayer of his guest."  
This strikes me as a strong Fidelius Charm parallel.  However, unlike 
Wormtail, St. Godric doesn't tell the hunters where to find their 
prey, and the stag survives.  And could the "well-nigh impenetrable 
brushwood of thorns and briars" be a Privet Dr. parallel - as the 
Lexicon tells us, a privet is a "bushy plant, often used as hedges?"

And, of course, the stag - James' animagi and the patronus that Harry 
creates.  One of the etymologies of "patronus" is "patron saint."  
St. Godric is perhaps James and Harry's patron saint?  Or ancestor?

There are other fascinating parallels - when St. Godric became a 
hermit, he is said to have been troubled by fiends and demons who 
took various shapes and forms (boggarts?  dementors?).

Before he became religious, St. Godric "lived a seafarer's life of 
the day," and was "known to drink, fight, chase women and con 
customers."  It was the life of St. Cuthbert which influenced St. 
Godric to become religious (I looked up St. Cuthbert and couldn't 
find anything that appeared relevant - at least for now.  But there 
is a Cuthbert Mockridge mentioned in passing in GoF).  Even when 
Godric became religious, he had to struggle to control his impulses.

St. Godric was 101 years old when he died, which makes me hope that 
Harry will have a long life, but since it didn't work for James, 
there may not be much to this theory!

There are four songs that Godric wrote which "are the oldest pieces 
of English verse of which the musical settings survive, and are the 
oldest to show the use of devices of rhyme and measure instead of 
alliteration."  Godric said he was taught these songs in visions.  
They can be found at http://www.lyrichord.come/refe/ref80051.html - 
if anyone reading knows how to translate Middle English 
(unfortunately I do not), there may be some clues here!!  A few words 
are translated, one of which is "green", which is noted as 
meaning "youth."  Any relationship to Lily and Harry's green eyes??

I'd love to hear what you think of all of this -

Phyllis