Does the prophecy suggest that both have to die (was: Harry will die)

[carin_in_oh]

No: HPFGUIDX 104426

> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dzeytoun" <dzeytoun at c...> 
> wrote:
> > I agree with this reading.  The use of "either" clearly indicates 
> > that the deaths are SINGULAR and EXCLUSIVE OF EACH OTHER.

And Wanda replied:
> > 
> I disagree - I think it's deliberately ambiguous, so that we won't 
> know until the end just what the outcome will be. 

Now Carin chimes in:

(To quote the section we're discussing, for reference: "and either
must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other
survives")

I agree with Wanda on this one. I recently had a look at what the OED
has to say about "either", and without quoting dictionary-babble at
you, I can report that it documents both either = "both", "each of
two" and either = "one or the other". The former is verging on the
obsolete, but was the original meaning of the word. The language of
prophecy is typically tinged with the archaic anyway, which I think
admits the obsolete meaning "both" here, and I think any ambiguity in
the prophecy probably hinges on the interpretation of "either". When
JKR says that both she and Trelawny phrased the prophecy very
carefully, I take her to mean that she deliberately chose the
ambiguous "either" (rather than saying "ONE must die at the hand of
the other or sim.) to keep open the possibility that both will die. 

What seems unambiguous to me is the second half of the bit quoted
above: what is absolutely precluded by the prophecy is that both would
survive. One or the other or both will die, but Harry AND Voldy living
happily ever after is not in the cards. Dumbledore is pretty
unambiguous, too, about a death being involved when he answers Harry's
question about what the prophecy means.

What puzzles me, though, is how the prophecy is to be reconciled with
the years we're currently reading about, in which both of them _are_,
for the moment, surviving. My literary take on this is that the
prophecy points to the fact that this situation (both H and LV alive)
is fundamentally unstable and untenable, and we are hurtling (but not
fast enough!) towards some kind of restoration of order in the
Potterverse. But my literal-minded take is a little frustrated by the
(existence of the) prophecy.

Carin