Gaelic Prince? Lupin's Boggart (Was: Re: Etymology of Lupin's name)

[littleleahstill]

No: HPFGUIDX 148066

  


Potioncat wrote:
>OK, here it is, a runaway over analysis of all things Potter.

>Not too long ago it was suggested that rather than looking like a
>giant bat, Snape more likely resembles a Hebridean Black Dragon.

>In a rather futile attempt to broaden my reading interests, I turned
>back to some Mary Stewart books. (Loved her Merlin books!) Th
>particular book I was reading takes place in the Hebrides and there
>is a little island, mentioned over and over, named Eilean na Roin.
>(Seal Island)

>I've no idea if the island is real, though I doubt it, but the
>similarity to the name Eileen caught my attention. If I Google the
>name, I get lots of hits....all in Gaelic.

So, any thoughts that Eileen could be Eilean and could come from the
Hebrides?


Leah:

I agree with Saberbunny's reply that Eileen is a version of Helen, 
and perhaps there is a subtle joke at the expense of Ms Prince's 
looks.  Googling on Eileen and myths doesn't produce anything of 
interest, and I suspect the name was used because it was quite 
fashionable in England at the time our Eileen could have been born- 
turn of the last century.  I had a couple of aunt Eileens and know 
of relatives of friends with the same name, none of whom had any 
discernable Irish/Scottish connections. I also have an aunt 
Kathleen, born 1916, again no Gaelic connection in the family.  
Possibly the names became trendy because of Yeats poetry, Celtic 
revival etc. 

Shame really because silkies could change into human form and a man 
who hid a silkie's seal skin could prevent her return to the sea and 
keep her as a human wife, which has some resonance perhaps with 
Eileen and Tobias. 

Leah (noting that Biblically, Tobias was a man who had to cast a 
demon out of his wife before marrying her)