Percy (Was: My "one" most rock solid OoP prediction

[talisman22457]

No: HPFGUIDX 60491

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lilymaid_9" <lilymaid_0 at h...> 
wrote:
> *** I was browsing through my trusty Baby Name 
> Book when I came across Percival.  What do you know?  Here's what 
it > said: "A name invented by the 12th century French writer, 
Chretien de Troyes, for the hero of his romance based on the Welsh 
hero, Peredur, 'warrior of the cauldron'"
 It may or may not be significant, but it does tie in rather well 
with his reporting on thin cauldrons in GoF. ***> ~Fiona~

Talisman responds:
  Yes, Chretien based his work on the earlier Welsh tale,in fact 
Perceval calls himself "Perceval the Welshman" at one point. In the 
change from Welsh to French, the cauldron became the grail.
I like the fact that you can tie your idea to the text, which makes 
it the best pro-Percy argument I've seen so far.  Nonetheless, 
doesn't the comparison--a knight questing for the Holy Grail vs. 
Percy fussing over a functionary report about the comparative 
leakiness of different bottoms--strike you as highly ironic? 
  Still, I'll give you one more. The Welsh cauldron may be seen as 
the goddess Cerridwen's Cauldron of Wisdom.  Once, Cerridwen was 
brewing up a wisdom potion when the boy stirring it got some on his 
finger. Cerridwen wanted it back. The boy took off running with 
Cerridwen hot on his heels and through the shape-shifting chase they 
respectively turned into hare/greyhound, fish/otter, bird/hawk, 
grain/hen.  Finally she gobbled him up, became pregnant thereby, and 
gave birth to Taliesin.
  The cauldron is therefore considered a symbol of reincarnation, 
shape-shifting, transmigration, rebirth, etc.  This can also be 
understood within an individual's life as "change."
  Change in ways of thinking and behaving toward others significant 
enough to amount to a kind of rebirth. 
  Since we've already been shown the consequences of living a 
Crouchian (Sr., that is) life, an end Percy is headed for if he 
continues to espouse the Crouchian ethos, perhaps the permutation 
planned for him does involve a change of heart. You know, just a 
little change of everything he believes; a change of the "Road to 
Damascus" variety.  I can accept a scenerio where Percy gets a 
mighty celestial thwak and and then actually does something right.  
But the longer it takes him to change, the bigger the biff he's got 
coming.
Regards,
Talisman