Harry Vanquishing LV without killing him.

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 146509

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "a_svirn" <a_svirn at y...> wrote:
>
> > Geoff:
> > Yes, but with respect, Shakespeare also gives us the other side 
of 
> > the coin:
> > 
> > THIRD APPARITION: 
> > ....
> > Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be, until
> > Great Birnam Wood, to high Dunsinane Hill
> > Shall come against him. 
> > (The Tragedy of Macbeth, Act IV, Scene I)
> > 
> > The way in which Shakespeare worked this prophecy out - as a bit 
> of a 
> > con - absolutely incensed J.R.R.Tolkien and was a factor in his 
> > creation of the Ents.
> > 
> > An interesting point which crossed my mind when typing this quote 
> was 
> > the use of "vanquish'd"....
> > 
> > Familiar?
> >
> a_svirn:
> Actually, that's what I meant when I said that the Prophesy was 
> literal – that it was a bit of a con. Macbeth thought that "no man 
> of woman born" meant *no one*, and since trees aren't capable 
moving 
> and climbing hills the "Birnam Wood prophesy" meant *never*. Thus 
> interpreting both prophesies metaphorically. Yet they were both 
very 
> much literal – implied cesarean section and a bit of cover-up 
> military action respectively.

Geoff:
Hm. My comment was intended to point up that the  prophecies differed 
in that the second was more literally fulfilled than the third. 

Being the father of three offspring who were all born by Caesarean 
section, I can see what the prophecy was driving at; it was open to 
being considered true whereas the third definitely wasn't.