Arthurian Allusions in "Harry Potter"

[Patricia Morrison]

No: HPFGUIDX 46338

arcum wrote:

>I personally believe it'll be Arthur or Ron who does Lucius in. King
>Arthur did in Lucius, originally, and his lance was named Ron. Of
>course, I also suspect Percy and Ginny are short for Percival (Sir
>Percival), and Genevieve (alt form of Guinevere).

>As far as Draco goes, I'm not quite as sure, given that King Arthur is
>Arthur *Pendragon*, which is a more modern form of "pen draco". Given
>how the dragon standard is associated with Arthur, I suspect we may
>actually end up with Draco working with the Weasleys at some point.


As a longtime fan of all things Arthurian, now THIS is what I like to
see!:D

Okay. First, "Pendragon"...a hybrid of Welsh and Latin, with "pen"
being the Welsh word for "head" and "dragon" from the Latin draco
(dragon), genitive draconis, "dragon's". In Welsh, "draco" became
"dreic", or "drake" in Englsih.
Hence, "dragon's head." Not really applicable to Harry, except that the
Sorting Hat wanted to put him in the dragon's house, Slytherin, but
there it is.

Arthur inherits the title as his only legacy from his father Uther...a
powerful father whom he had never known in life, having been whisked
away at birth (sounding familiar yet?) to protect him from those who
want to see him dead or at the very least incapable of inheriting
anything else from his father, like kingship.

Arthur grows up in a household as a foster child whose true identity
only the parents of the house are aware of. He has a foster
brother(Kay) who gets all the attention and spoiling as the "rightful"
heir. He knows nothing about his parentage, which will prove
problematic, to say the least, once it is later revealed.

He is trained by a wise old magician---Merlin of course---and his true
identity and powers are gradually revealed to him over the course of
some years.

He magically comes into possession of a magical sword that both enables
him to defeat his enemies and confirms him as the true Heir.
(Sorry, never heard of Arthur's lance being called "Ron"...there is an
Irish word ron, with an accent aigu over the o, pronounced rone and
meaning "seal", like, you know, the marine creature.

He assembles around himself a Round Table of loyal friends and
supporters, including the best knight in the world, Lancelot.

He dies in the end, defeating his own son (Mordred), but he
mysteriously doesn't die, and will "come again" when he is needed...

I like the suggestion that "Percy" is short for "Percival", probably
quite correct. "Ginny" is more commonly "Virginia", but we don't know.
"Guinevere" is from the Welsh Gwenhwyfar, and means "white shadow."
"Gwenhwyfar" is also a word used for *a white owl*, the shadow across
the light. Hmmmm.....

Anyone else want to play?


---cloakofgold


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