Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 90442

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "davewitley" 
<dfrankiswork at n...> wrote:
> Sawsan wrote:
> 
> > This motto has always been funny to me. I thought it was supposed 
> to
> > be be funny until recently when I started to take everything in 
> the HP
> > series seriously. SO, does anyone think that this will have an
> > important role in the book? Does anyone think that someone has 
been
> > tickling a sleeping dragon, and that's the cause of all the 
meyhem 
> and
> > Lord Voldie, etc?

David:
> I *think* I've read every post in the latest go-round of this topic.
> 
> Quite what the motto ('Draco is never interesting when asleep') 
> means in the context of the series is tricky to work out.
> 
> Another question is what it is referring to in the context of 
> Hogwarts: why should a school have adopted this motto?  Was it the 
> four founders saying to the Muggle world that the 'sleeping' WW had 
> been stirred up (by persecution) into defending itself by creating 
a 
> school?  (It seems reasonable to suppose that the most fundamental 
> defensive action any culture or distinctive grouping can take is to 
> start a school because that ensures survival through the 
> generations.)  If so it's rather negative, almost implying it would 
> have been better for both parties for the WW not to crystallise and 
> perpetuate a distinctive identity.
> 
> However, *Dumbledore's* actions seem directly contrary to the 
motto, 
> because he is consistently poking at the underbelly of the sleeping 
> identity of the WW, criticising it and undermining 'wizarding 
> pride'.  It makes one wonder if Voldemort's following came into 
> being in reaction to Dumbledore's activity, even if V himself was 
> set on his path for more personal reasons.  Perhaps Hermione was 
not 
> the first to form a liberation movement with less wisdom than 
> enthusiasm.

Geoff:
It's fascinating the different line a thread can take when it 
resurfaces. Folk might like to drift back to a previous set of 
discussions which began at message 84472 with a thread 
entitled "Caput Draconis" and continued under a couple of other 
headings beginning with "Never tickle a sleeping dragon" at message 
84482.