[HPforGrownups] Re: Titled characters (WAS Voldemort's "lordship")

[Kathryn Cawte]

No: HPFGUIDX 86183


> Geoff:


> The point is that the title Baroness occurs in the news a good deal
> more than Baron. There are a few Baronesses kicking around in the
> present Government by way of example. Perhaps Barons prefer to be
> Lords to remove the stigma of being a "robber Baron". Perhaps the
> Bloody Baron doesn't care.. :-)
>

K

The title Baron isn't used much nowadays as you say (doesn't mean there
aren't any). When members of the Commons are elevated to the Lords the men
are usually referred to as Lord whereas the women tend to be Baroness -
possibly partly because the title Lady tends to make people think that she
is the wife of a Lord or a Sir, why Baroness doesn't conjure up the idea of
her being the wife of a Baron I have no idea. But the general assumption
amongst most people would I think be that if they met a Lady she was the
wife of someone important rather than having earned the title in her own
right.

Baron in this country wasn't even that commonly occurring in the historical
period, let me rephrase that, you don't come across Barons very often as the
title by which people are identified, whether or not that is because they
are called Lord whatever, Baron whatever and therefore the Baron bit tends
to get dropped I don't know. However I think if the Bloody Baron came from
somewhere outside of the UK or possibly Ireland someone would have remarked
on it - possibly Sir Nick, since I doubt Sir Nick is particularly keen on
foreigners, especially if they came from somewhere we had a history of
fighting. If he was 'German' or 'Austrian' then he would predate what we
would mean by those labels and probably be part of the Holy Roman Empire -
either as an inhabitant of one of the Elector States or an Austro-Hungarian
and I just don't see that somehow.

Is his appearance described in detail anywhere (other than the silvery
blood)? Particularly his clothing which might let us date him or locate him.
And as for him having attended Durmstrang I doubt that too. I assumed that
the house ghosts all attended the school as members of that house (same
assumption I make for the House Heads and for similar reasons).

And on a related note is there anything that makes us assume that the blood
on the Bloody Baron isn't his? I've seen several speculations on its origin
but he could have been murdered leaving him covered in blood (and providing
a reason why he would wish to remain as a ghost)

K
*who would find it amusing if the Slytherin ghost was the victim of murder
most foul while Sir NHN turned out to be guilty of treason*