Why the veil?

[stasiaskasia]

No: HPFGUIDX 77825

I think that the reason for using the veil is quite simple.  One of 
my favorite books, "Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable" 
(originally published in 1870), says:

"Veil, Beyond the: The unknown state of those who have departed this 
life."

I am a member of the pre-personal computer generation when the only 
real outlet for a child's curiosity was the printed word.  I can 
remember seeing innumerable references to "piercing the veil" 
and "beyond the veil" as I grew up and read anything I could lay my 
hands on.

As a newcomer with moderated posting privileges, this information may 
have appeared a dozen times by now.

As I hadn't had this particular book off the shelf for some time, I 
inevitably ended up browsing and came across the following 
under "werwolf":

". . .Its skin was proof against shot or steel unless the weapon had 
been blessed in a chapel dedicated to St. Hubert. . . ."

This makes me suspect, initially at least, that the "silver bullet" 
to kill the werwolf may have been a later contamination because, 
again citing "Brewer's," the precious metal silver  "Among the 
alchemists, represented the moon" and "With silver weapons you may 
conquer the world: The Delphic ORACLE to Philip of Macedon, when he 
went to consult it.  Philip, acting on the advice, sat down before a 
fortress which his staff pronounced to be impregnable, `You shall 
see,' said the King, `how an ass laden with silver will find an 
entrance.'" 

Really makes me wonder whether Wormtail's newly acquired silver hand 
will indeed be significant.

St. Hubert died in 727 and is the patron saint of huntsmen.  He is 
usually depicted as a bishop with a miniature stag resting on the 
book he carries or as kneeling before a stag bearing a crucifix.  A 
passing thought, not yet clearly defined:  whether it is significant 
that Harry's patronus and his father's animagus form were a stag.

Kasia