a lot of Names, interrupted with a lot of Traitors, Lily's Crush, McG/Hooch

[Neri]

No: HPFGUIDX 154742


> Geoff wrote in
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/154313>:
> 
> << First witch: I come, Graymalkin.
> 
> All: Paddock calls anon;
> Fair is foul, and foul is fair,
> Hover through the fog and filthy air."
> 
> (Macbeth Act 1: Scene 1)
> 
> Paddock is apparently an old name for a toad.
> 
> Seeing Catladfy's comment in reply, I've never heard of a cat called
> Malkin. The only place I've come across this is in the Shakespeare
> quoted above. >>


Catlady wrote:
> I wasn't clear. Male cats are called tomcats because it was popular in
> the twentieth century to name male cats Tom. Female cats were called
> malkins in the past because it was popular to name female cats Malkin
> in Shakespeare's time, not now.
> 

Neri:
In John Macefield's "Midnight Folk" (BTW, a classic British witch
story, highly recommended and had probably influenced JKR somewhat)
there's a cat named Blackmalkin and a cat named Greyalkin, both males,
which serve the witches in the story in their rituals and schemes.
Macefield was perhaps alluding to Shakespeare's Macbeth, or they were
both drawing from and older tradition, as suggested below. 

Some of the confusion may arise from the word Malkin coming from two
different languages, Scottish and Hebrew. "Malkin" is probably a
Russian form of the Hebrew word "Melech", which means "King". In the
Hebrew translation of Midnight Folk (one of my favorite books as a
kid) Blackmalkin and Greymalkin were translated "Black King" and "Grey
King".

According To Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malkin
 
Malkin may refer to:
    * a cat, or a hare in Scotland
    * an old woman, especially if unpleasant, or a woman who is
slatternly, lewd, or drab (also called maukin)
    * In European folklore, a demon pretending to be a cat [1]
    * Evgeni Malkin (1986 – ), Russian ice hockey player
    * Michelle Malkin (1970 – ), American political columnist
    * Myron Samuel Malkin (1924 – 1994), director of the NASA space
shuttle program
    * Peter Malkin (1927 – 2005), Israeli secret agent

Also according to:
http://www.takeourword.com/TOW126/page1.html

Between 1543 and 1661, Matthew Hopkins the "witchfinder-general"
ordered the executions of three to four thousand women.  One of these
was accused of having a dog called Grizzel-greediguts and a cat named
Grimalkin, both of which were (of course) demons in disguise. 
Grimalkin, is grey + malkin, that is, "a gray cat".   In a drama by
Middleton [1604], Hecate, Queen of the witches, exits with the line
"Now I goe, now I flie, Malkin  my sweete spirit and I.".  Even
Shakespeare used this cliché in Macbeth, when one of the three witches
says "I come, Grey-malkin."


Neri