The new questions, and Peverell

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 148591

Deborah wrote:
>
> I hesitate to say that anything anywhere in the HP books is what it
> seems ... and things that look pretty obvious are especially
> suspicious. However, I rather wonder if the Peverell reference isn't
> simply a geographical one. <snip>
>

Carol responds:

The coats of arms on Marvolo's ring appears to be that of a family,
not a village. In fact, I suspect that it's the family crest rather
than the complete coat of arms (probably the ring was originally a
signet ring). At any rate, it clearly reflects the Gaunt family's
ancestry.

Marvolo shows Ogden the ring and says, "See this? . . . Know what it
is?  . . . Centuries it's been in our family, that's how far back we
go, and pure-blood all the way! Know how much I've been offered for
this, with the Peverell coat of arms engraved on the stone?" (HBP Am.
ed. 207).

So pretty clearly, the Peverells are ancestors of the Gaunts, most
likely an extinct line like Slytherin. I had guessed that the Peverell
ancestor was Marvolo's grandmother, but clearly she's farther back (a
ring with the Peverell family crest could not have become a Gaunt
family heirloom if there had been a male Peverell to inherit it).

The surname Peverell could have been derived by JKR from a place name,
as Snape was, but it also appears to be a variant of Peavey. Here's a
site with the Peverel family crest (one "l"):

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jalanne/Peverell.html

Whether this is the same crest that appears on Marvolo's ring (which
apparently shows the complete coat of arms, though that may be a
mistake on JKR's part), I don't know, but the swords are interesting,
and it looks both old and crude. It contains the motto, "Deo non
fortuna" ("God, not fortune," if I'm translating correctly), which
doesn't sound very Gauntish. But, then, the Muggle House of Gaunt,
which produced the Lancastrian kings of England, doesn't much resemble
them, either (says Carol, tolerantly ignoring her Yorkist sympathies
for the moment, ;-) ).

Other, more elegant versions, are shown here:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=%22Peverell%20family%20crest%22&btnG=Google+Search&sa=N&tab=wi

(If the link doesn't work, just do a Google image search for "Peverell
family crest.")

On a side note, I wonder if Marvolo's refusal to accept letters (he
ignores the Mom's owl) indicates that he similarly ignored the letters
inviting his children to attend Hogwarts. Seems likely to me.

Carol, wondering what kind of a mother Mrs. Gaunt was while she lived
and whether she was wall-eyed like her children (Best not to know!)