Vortigern = Voldermortist? was Re: Snape taking over for Dumbledore

[alshainofthenorth]

No: HPFGUIDX 99943

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Eustace_Scrubb" <dk59us at y...> 
wrote:
> potioncat wrote:
> <snip> 
> > I just read through that site on Mugglenet and found the 
background 
> > to Voldemort's name  even more interesting than the one for Albus.
> > Potioncat
> 
> I have wondered about the "dark wizard in medieval times named
> Voldermortist".  What is the source for this information?  It is
> repeated on numerous web sites, but I can find no reference online 
to
> "Voldermortist" that does not also include our dear Dark Lord
> "Voldemort" as well...in other words the only on-line references to
> Voldermortist are Harry Potter-related.  So I'm beginning to be a 
bit
> suspicious about Voldermortist--is he related to the crocodiles that
> live in the New York sewers?
> 
> Can anyone enlighten me?
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Eustace_Scrubb

Alshain:

Dang, there are times I wish I weren't on the "no e-mail" option, 
because this misunderstanding has cropped up before. Finding the 
original post that refuted the idea some 40,000 messages ago, with a 
search engine that might, or might not, work, is like searching for 
the proverbial needle, so I'll just recapture the main gist. The main 
point is that Voldemortist ought to be served with orange sauce like 
the canard he is.

AFAIR, the original post, which I was looking for in vain, made the 
argument that since the stories that the websites told about this 
mythical wizard Voldemortist (e.g. that his name actually 
means 'overlord', he was an evil king and all-round bad guy, he was 
defeated by Arthur, or Merlin, or both) almost to a T fit the legends 
about one Vortigern, 5th century King of Britain and one of the great 
villains of Celtic legend. It's more than likely that someone 
initially mistook Vortigern (alternate spellings Vortimer or 
Vorteneu) for Voldemortist. Vortigern *is* a figure in the Arthurian 
legends and likely a historical person as well (as you know, it's 
difficult to tell what is fictional and what is cold hard facts with 
the accounts of the Dark Ages. Historians and linguists suggest that 
Vortigern might not be a name but a title.) It's a classical case of 
misinterpretation of data because you have a pet hypothesis you want 
to prove.   

This is what happens when several HP websites uncritically borrow 
their facts from one another, and I as a RL researcher get mightily 
peeved when people don't bother to double-check their facts and don't 
mention their sources. I hope the website makers do better at their 
school homework. Couldn't someone with more time on their hands and 
more knowledge of Early Medieval Studies than I write a short and to-
the-point refutation of this rumour and ask Steve to add it to the 
lexicon?

Alshain the Peeved