Of snakes and dragons (was Harry's green eyes)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 85178

> Iggy said:
> Well, old lore tells of dragons of great age that were able to
change their
> shape, much like an animagus. Perhaps Harry's ancestry includes a
Welsh
> Green that married / mated into the family many years ago, so Lily's
> bloodline to him carries a modicum of dragon blood.
>  
laurlexis asked:
> Is there any relationship between snakes and dragons?  They may both
be reptiles - or reptilian, not sure exactly where one would class a
dragon - but other than that I don't see a link between Harry's being
a parselmouth and possible dragon lineage.  The theory intrigues me,
however.


While I don't want to speculate on a possible dragon ancestor for
Harry, which seems to me to be getting a little far afield, I want to
mention that, yes, there's a connection between snakes and dragons.
Tolkien, who was influenced by Norse and Icelandic mythology, refers
somewhere to a dragon called Scatha the Worm, with "Worm" meaning
Snake. (Presumably Scatha slithers rather than flies, a wingless,
snakelike dragon.) Also Wormtongue (Saruman's spy, Grima in LOTR)
means Snaketongue, as in the old saying, "He speaks with a forked
tongue," a trait that also applies to Tolkien's dragons. The name
Wormtail strikes me as being a little too similar to Wormtongue, but I
don't think James and company had snakes in mind when they gave Peter
that nickname. More likely it refers to the wormlike appearance of his
tail when he's transformed into a rat. On the other hand, he is
certainly untrustworthy, so maybe there's an element of worm = snake
in that name, too--unwitting prophecy on the part of James and company
and deliberate foreshadowing on JKR's part.

Someone familiar with Norse or Icelandic mythology might be able to
follow up on the snake/dragon/worm connection. Anybody?

Carol