Parallels in Prophecy (long)

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 146583

Geoff:
> By way of example, the 
> Oracle at Delphi in ancient times was renowned for its obfuscatory 
> messages.

Ceridwen:
Yes, white dancers and all.

Geoff:
> In group discussions which involve other books, the most commonly 
> occurring comparisons are with LOTR and the Narnia books and both of 
> these, as well as Macbeth, have prophecies in places. 

Ceridwen:
There is also the one about Oedipus, which was another one where a 
concerned individual (the king and father of Oedipus) tries to 
circumvent the prophecy, which of course ensured its coming true (or 
did it just come true in a different way than it otherwise would have?).

I was following your posts about the MacBeth prophecies.  And I'll just 
slip my own thing in here: while the Wood couldn't move, the wood from 
the Wood could.  I think Shakespeare was playing with language there, 
as a lot of writers do.

But, the point is taken, too, that the prophecies we hear in HP could 
have more than one meaning attatched to them, and it could go line by 
line.  We've had speculation that there is a third party not named in 
the prophecy (Snape and Neville have been suggested), or that 'must die 
at the hand of the other' might mean 'next to', not 'via'.  We've 
already seen one Trelawney prophecy fulfilled, the one in CoS about the 
servant returning to his master.  That was pretty straightforward 
(maybe because of the shortened time?), but it was misinterpreted all 
the same, because Harry didn't have all the information.

Ceridwen.