First Riddle on JKR's website (Website Spoiler See it yourself First )

[davewitley]

No: HPFGUIDX 120287


Jen Reese:
>  Here's the riddle (without the answer) after 
> some spoiler space:
> 
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> "I cannot be other than what I am
> Until the man who made me dies
> Power and glory will fall to me, finally
> Only when he last closes his eyes."

moonmyyst:
 
> Another thought occured to me.  If the Prince can only become 
something more if the one who made him dies, then that would lead me 
to believe there is a king of some variety out there.  Who can we 
see that would be a king?  If this riddle holds true, then the 
person has not died yet or the prince would become the king.  Lets 
list all the kings that we know of in the books.

Yes, that was my thought.  The riddle does rather focus on prince-as-
heir-to-king rather than prince-in-his-own-right (after all, there 
have been historical (and fictional) principalities whose head of 
state is a hereditary prince, e.g. Monte Carlo: if JKR's riddle is 
truly a clue she has implicitly ruled this out).

I don't believe there are that many kings mentioned in the books.  
The only thing I can think of is that the references to Merlin's 
beard, and Morgana in the wizard cards, can be taken to imply that 
King Arthur existed historically in JKR's universe.

Given that legend has it that he is still alive, asleep under 
wherever-it-is, waiting to be woken at the time of Britain's 
greatest need, there are a number of intriguing (though IMO rather 
unlikely given JKR's track record so far) possibilities.

In particular, you might want to look at

http://www.kingarthursknights.com/others/mordred.asp

Note especially: "The incest motif in the story of Mordred's birth 
appears only latterly. The earliest occurence is in the Mort Artu. 
In Malory's version, Arthur slept with his half-sister Morgause, not 
knowing they were related and, as a result, Mordred was born."

Malory is IMO the best known telling of the Arthur legend, and 
Morgause was a witch, sister IIRC to Morgana.

David