Origins of Avada Kedavra WAS:Re: My thoughts on some things.......

[lolita_ns]

No: HPFGUIDX 148358

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "fuzz876i" <fuzz876i at ...> wrote:
>
> Adzuroth wrote:
>  Avada Kedavra
> > (which sounds suspiciously like Abracadabra........anyone
> > know why?).
> > 
> 
> Fuzz876i wrote:
> Avada Kedavra (uh-VAH-duh kuh-DAH-vruh) 
> 
> "Killing Curse" 
> 
> Aramaic: "adhadda kedhabhra" - "let the thing be destroyed". 
> NOTE: Abracadabra is a cabbalistic charm in Judaic mythology that 
is 
> supposed to bring healing powers. One of its sources is believed to 
> be from Aramaic avada kedavra, another is the Phoenician alphabet 
(a-
> bra-ca-dabra). 
> 
> I found this on the Harry Potter Lexicon I hope this helps you 
> understand the pronunciation of this spell. I can't find anything 
> else that might help but this is why it sounds like  Abracadabra.
> 
> Fuzz876i


Lolita:

IIRC, Rowling mentioned in an interview (I am too lazy now to go and 
try to find it, if anyone else has enough time on their hands,it 
would be nice if they went to QQQ to search for it) that in 'let the 
thing be destroyed' by 'the thing' the practitioners who used these 
spells meant 'illness, ailment, etc.' - i.e., AK was an incantation 
believed to have the power to heal. Rowling thought it would be fun 
if she reversed this and turned it into a killing curse. 

She *is* quite liberal with mythology and other primitive beliefs, 
and, as an author, she has every right to have fun with it (just look 
at what she has done with Brownies & house-elves, or the notion of 
the external soul & Horcruxes).

On the other hand, I find it interesting that this is the only spell 
in HP (as far as I remember) that isn't based either on sth that 
resembles English or on broken Latin. It is in Aramaic, which 
belonged (since it's a dead language now) to the Semitic branch of 
the Hamito-Semitic family of languages, and had no connections at all 
with any of the IE languages, which developed from Proto Indo-
European (I took a course in historical linguistics during my 
studies). This may suggest that this is one of the older spells, 
originating from North Africa/Middle East, and it tends to support 
the idea that Dark Magic preceded Light (Yes, it *was* Dark Magic 
from the start - it was used as a healing spell in the *real* world, 
not in the Potterverse - it has been a killing curse in the 
Potterverse since it was invented). 

Or, it could just mean that Rowling came across it, really liked it 
and decided to use it :) 

Cheers,
Lolita


P.S. 

Somebody asked why Harry didn't just accio the egg. I will refer to 
it here, because I haven't got the time for several posts now - 
T.S.Eliot is waiting for me to finish and turn to the Four Quartets - 
IIRC, wasn't the task about getting *past* the dragon to get the egg? 
Wouldn't the summoning of the egg be something like cheating, because 
you could do it from almost anywhere? I am not either knowledgeable 
in football or a fan of it, but somehow, accioing the egg sounds to 
me like taking the ball into your hands and then marching to the 
opponents' goal and depositing it there. Like a foul of sorts.

Cheers,
Lolita