[HPforGrownups] DE Name Origin, & some Dark Mark

[Amanda]

No: HPFGUIDX 36480

Greeting, Leroyal. Love your name; I'm related to a Ewell Albert Clarke III
and I know a Millard Hill Almon III--thirds of the world, unite!

You said:
>   Anyone out there ever wonder about the origin of the term "Death Eater"?
Why exactly are LV's followers referred to as such?  Could it be that in his
many immortality experiments he discovered a way for others to consume small
doses of his mortality, leaving him, essentially, deathless?  Or, maybe this
could give credence to the argument (from a little while back) that AK
absorbs some part of the witch or wizard it is used on.  Maybe the DE's used
AK to absorb and then deliver to LV a sort of life essence from all of their
victims, thereby making him (LV) one big battery of life (and, therefore,
immortal).
>   Ooh! And, therefore, when LV tried AK on Harry (who was protected by his
mother's self sacrificial charm) AK was twisted into something else when it
rebounded on LV,  either because of the charm or his many experiments.   Or,
I could be wrong.

This is me:
Very interesting ideas, all of them. My husband tells me that the name
"Death Eater" instantly reminded him of Sin Eaters--the name for an old
Welsh practice, whereby a willing person "took on" the sins of a dying
person, and would go to confession and do the penance for them, to save the
dying person from the consequences of their sin (I'm presuming that this was
done when a priest wasn't handy to do Last Rites, or something; it's been
quite a few months since my husband and I discussed this). Any Welsh people
got anything else on this?

Perchance Voldemort's immortality results from the Death Eaters' having
"taken" his death in similar wise--a bit to each...?

This feeds in a tiny bit to my theory of the Dark Mark--I think it is more
than an identifier (it's a lousy identifier, as it seems to be invisible
most of the time). I think the Death Eaters were the Inner Circle, the true
believers, and not all followers of Voldemort *were* DEs. And I think the
bond symbolized by the Mark is far more than it seems. I think it ties the
Death Eaters to Voldemort for life and more; I think it likely that part of
the bond is that if Voldemort dies, they all will, too.

It seems his style, to demand such a commitment, and it would guarantee
their support of him (you'd think), and it would be a very good reason for
Snape to look pale or Dumbledore to look anxious at the end of book 4--even
when you have known for years what you will do, and come to terms with what
will happen, still, walking out the door to begin steps that will lead, if
successful, to your own death, cannot be a thing one does lightly.

This would also explain why Voldemort was so very, very, intensely peeved at
the Death Eaters in his circle, berating them for leaving him to languish.
If the Mark is indeed a bond to the death, they all would have *known* he
was alive somewhere, simply because they weren't dead. And they didn't come
looking for him. No *wonder* he's a bit irritated.

Been a while since I aired this onlist, anybody who hasn't heard it before
got any thoughts?

--Amanda