[HPforGrownups] Re: Voldemort's title (was: the term "professor" and titles in general)

[Patricia Bullington-McGuire]

No: HPFGUIDX 58635

On Sun, 25 May 2003 yellows at aol.com wrote:

> But I've noticed in the canon that there are times when Muggles and the
> Wizarding community communicate with one another. For instance, we know
> that the Prime Minister is aware of Witches and Wizards because he was
> told when Sirius Black escaped that a dangerous Wizard was on the loose.
> This tells me that, under some circumstances, Muggles and Witches and
> Wizards work together, which *may* mean that Muggle titles are also
> given to non-Muggles.
> 
> Also, there are many parallels between the magical world and the Muggle
> world. The Ministry of Magic, for instance, is very similar to any
> Muggle form of government. Do we have any reason to believe, then, that
> Witches and Wizards don't have their own system of giving titles to
> their own people? Perhaps TMR *was* made a Lord within the Wizarding
> community, according to Wizarding standards.

I don't doubt that the Muggle authorities might be willing to give
peerages and such to magical people who have done something to earn them,
just as they would to Muggles who have made great achievements.  It's also
possible that the magical world has its own titles, though we haven't seen
any canon evidence of that so far.  However, I highly doubt Lord Voldemort
came by his "lordship" in either of these ways.  In CoS, Tom Riddle tells
Harry that he started using the name "Lord Voldemort", based on an anagram
of his given name, while he was still a student at Hogwarts.  It seems
highly unlikely to me that a teenage student, no matter how brilliant,
would have yet had an opportunity to earn such a title from either the
Muggle or wizarding authorities.  It seems much more likely that he just
found an impressive sounding moniker in his given name and adopted that to
boost his image and his own ego -- we *are* talking about a teenager here,
after all.

> But, actually, I am of the opinion that LV just put the "Lord" at the
> beginning of his name to invoke more fear in people. Maybe it doesn't
> even mean Lord as in the noble title. Maybe he means Lord as in
> something other-worldly, like a god or a devil.

I like the "other-worldly" aspect.  I doubt LV would object in the least
to people treating him like a god.  

In any case, I'm sure LV thinks that the fact he wielded so much power and
control over the WW (at least prior to becoming Vapormort) legitimizes his
claim to the title.  If he is the one making the rules, who can say that
he's not entitled to elevate himself above others?  In his mind, he
already is better than everyone else, so it's only fitting his name and
title should reflect that.


----
Patricia Bullington-McGuire	<patricia at obscure.org>

The brilliant Cerebron, attacking the problem analytically, discovered
three distinct kinds of dragon: the mythical, the chimerical, and the
purely hypothetical.  They were all, one might say, nonexistent, but each
nonexisted in an entirely different way ... 
                -- Stanislaw Lem, "Cyberiad"