The Strange Case of the Altered Spelling

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 92650

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "snapesmate" <snapesmate at h...> 
wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "hp_lexicon" <steve at h...> 
wrote:
> > <snip> Am I correct in thinking that it's spelled 
> > differently in the US editions than it is in the UK ones? My US 
> > books say Sibyll, while someone emailed me that it's spelled 
Sybill 
> > in the UK version. Can anyone verify this for me? <snip>> 
> > Thanks
> > Steve
> > The Lexicon

Lynnette:
> Yes your thinking is correct!  Although, I have known several 
> American Sybills (yes here in the USA) and they ALL spelled their 
> name Sybill or Cybil.  I had never seen the named spelled with 
an "i" 
> first and the "y" second before reading PoA.  

Geoff:
When I first read about this in POA, my mind went to the Sibyl, the 
classical seer, (which seems logical, considering the good 
professor's specialty) having  being reminded of it by the words of 
Verdi's Requiem and the second section, the "Dies Irae":

Dies irae, dies illa,
Solvet saeclum in favilla, 
Teste David cum Sibylla.

The day of wrath, that day will
Dissolve the world in ashes
As David prophesied with the Sibyl.

More pertinently, I consulted our book of names (it's amazing what 
you put into the loft in the hope that it will come in useful 
someday). The book advised me:

Sibyl. In classical times, the Sibyls were prophetesses and some of 
them were supposed to have foretold the coming of Christ. Because of 
this, Sibylla came to be used as a first name, the Normans bringing 
it with them to England. Sybil or Sibyl had a revival in the second 
half of the 19th century after Disraeli had published his political 
novel of that name (1845). The actress Cybill Shepherd has introduced 
another form of the name.

Whatever the spelling, the name seems to carry the same meaning.