NAGUAL (was: Re: Voldemorts snake)

[lolita_ns]

No: HPFGUIDX 139693

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "biggee_87" <law at p...> wrote:
> Do any of you think it's possible that the snake Harry freed at the 
start of PS/SS is Nagini, 
> Voldermort's snake? 
/.../
I know this snake was a brazilian boa bred in captivity, but maybe 
> on being freed she met Voldermort.


Lolita:

I don't think that this snake is Nagini. 

First of all, that would mean that she's been with LV for how long - 5 
or 6 years? And DD says that she is the only thing LV is fond of. I 
don't think that anyone could make their way into LV's graces in such 
a short time, not even a snake. 

Second, LV was in Albania at the time - how did the snake end up 
there? Jumping over the Channel and slithering across Europe to the 
Balkans? She may have been taken by LV during the PS adventure, you 
could argue. But no snake is ever mentioned in connection to either 
Quirrel or Quirrelmort (and it would have been quite crowded inside 
Quirrel's turban if he had kept her there, as well :) ), and in the 
end of the whole unholy affair, Vapormort made a beeline for escape, 
without any snake being mentioned harrying after him. It would mean 
that the snake would have to follow him to Albania, again (rewind to 
jumping the Channel & slithering through Europe thing again).

AND, Harry has SEEN Nagini. There is no dialogue in 3200+ pages of the 
saga along the lines of:
Harry (to Nagini): Hang on! Haven't I seen you somewhere?
Nagini: I have no idea what you're talking about. I haven't got a clue 
as to who you are. I have never ever in my life been in a zoo (oops!)


Biggie also wrote:

The one thing I've noticed from JK's books is that almost every thing 
has a meaning, 
> granted its sometimes to throw us off a little, but I think there 
could be something more to 
> this than meets the eye. >

Lolita:

Yep. Precisely. The Zoo Snake prepares us for Harry's parseltongue. 
There's been something fishy about that snake from the moment it 
winked at Harry, for snakes haven't got eyelids - when one reconsiders 
it, it must have been the same thing that allows for Harry to hear 
snakes speak, since snakes don't have vocal cords either. I guess it's 
some kind of mental transmission that makes Harry interpret both 
snakes' 'speech' and 'gestures' in terms familiar to him (i.e. voice & 
wink). But delving deeper into this would mean crafting a whole theory 
on how the parseltongue actually works, and I'm not prepared to go 
there at the moment. 

In short - The Zoo snake is the first instance of Harry's ability to 
understand snakes. Pure and simple. 

HOWEVER, an interesting thing about Nagini popped into my head as I 
was reading Frazer's The Golden Bough for my paper on The Phenomenon 
Of Harry Potter. While trying to find folklore bases for Horcruxes, I 
found the chapters in Frazer which refer to the External Soul. I'm 
sorry, I'll have to babble a bit on anthropology, but please bear with 
me, cause I find it quite interesting, once we eventually get to the 
point I'm trying to convey :) Be patient, please.

It goes like this - many primitive peoples across the world (from 
Russia to South America) have had the notion of external soul - the 
soul which does not have to be inside a person, but is bound somewhere 
outside of him - from his body's peripheries such as nails or hair ( 
The Old Testament's Samson, anyone?) to inanimate objects (the best 
example is the Russian folktale on Kocshei the Deathless) to plants to 
ANIMALS. As long as this external soul is safe, the person it belongs 
to cannot die - you can do to him whatever you want, he'll remain 
deathless. However, if the external soul were to be destroyed, the 
person dies too. 

Now, the animal part is interesting, since it is the basis for 
Totemism, most usually connected with African and South American 
peoples. This external soul in animal works in a way to make the said 
animal a kind of part of the person, but outside him/her (I think this 
also partly inspired Pullman's Daimons, for instance), so that it 
becomes a kind of a doppelganger to the person in question. And now, 
finally I come to the point where I can connect this whole 
anthropology lecture to Nagini. This Totem, this Doppelganger, this 
extternal soul is called NAGUAL by one of the South American 
aboriginal peoples. 

This whole issue was dealt with by Kastaneda in his crazy-mushrooms 
induced babblings about Don Juan, but I think that it may have 
inspired JKR as well. Whatever her artistic flaws as a writer, Rowling 
DOES know her folklore.

Any thoughts on this?


Cheers,
Lolita 

PS I AM quite aware that 'naga' means 'snake' in Sanskrit, so you do 
not have to point that to me, thanx.