Prophesies Re: Who calls Voldemort "Lord"

[darqali]

No: HPFGUIDX 149730

Large snips:

> > Geoff:
> > This does in fact raise a question in my mind. Where do 
prophecies come
> > from? Why are they sent?

> > 
> > I prophesy that this might start a new thread.
> 
> When she prophesies in POA, it is during the exams and occurs at 
the very end of Harry's 
> individual session with her. She has been testing students from her 
group for some long 
> time and, although she seems to be her usual slightly detached 
self, no one suggests 
> anything more sinister than that. When she met with Dumbledore in 
early 1980 at the 
> Three Broomsticks, she was applying for a teaching post and would 
hardly be inebriated 
> for such a meeting.

Addressing  issues:  1] "Where do prophecies come from?"  2] "What is 
the nature of Prophecy in JKR's books"  3] "What is Sibyll 
Trelawney's role {Good?  Bad?  Out for Herself?} in the HP series?"

Dumbledore tells Harry that Trelawney is descended from a very 
reknown Seer; he {Dumbledore} seems to have respected the "powers" of 
Trelawney's  ancestor ... he calls Trelawney's Great Great 
Grandmother "a very famous, very gifted Seer"; though in the same 
conversation, Dumbledore also tells Harry, ".. it was against my 
inclaination to allow the subject of Divination to continue at all 
...."  {OotP, U.S. Hardcover p 840}

So Dumbledore, who is our source for many explainations about the WW, 
tells us he hasn't much use for Divination, yet that there are some 
Seers who have real powers, and Trelawney is descended from one such 
Seer; and that he [Dumbledore] considered her Prophecy concerning LV 
of value.  [In the same conversation, Dumbledore remarks,"I had not 
dreamed, when I set out to meet Sibyll Trelawney, that I would hear 
anything worth overhearing ....." Meaning, Dumbledore thinks the 
Prophecy had value to LV, and {presumably} to himself, *even though* 
Dumbledore is generally disinclined to give much value to the "art" 
of Divination.

This seems at odds with Dumbledore's  view of "Prophecy" in general; 
he later tells Harry that if LV had not *acted upon* the part of the 
Prophecy he knew {reported to him by Snape} it wouldn't have *been* 
true.  By going after Harry, he gave Harry some of his own Power 
{"Marking him as his equal"} and also, that in making Harry an 
orphan, he gave Harry the desire {as well as some of  Powers} to seek 
LV out to destroy him.  By believing the Prophecy, and acting upon 
his belief, LV helped it to come true {helped make Harry into 'The 
Chosen One'}.

But where did the content of the Prophecy come from to begin with?  
Does its content, such as the term "The Dark Lord", come from some 
source external to Sibyll Trelawney, so that the choice of words 
{such as, "The Dark Lord" to designate LV} are not of her choosing?  
Or does it come from the depths of Sibyll's own mind?  If she is 
"channeling" some exterior source, does the choice of words reflect 
the "good vs bad" orinetation of that source?  If the "source" is 
"bad"  {designated by the use of "The Dark Lord" for LV}, why would 
it channel through a "good" character?

Remember, her *second* Prophecy concerning LV, made to Harry at the 
close of his Divination exam, came true.  No one acted as they did 
"because they believed" her words.  Harry hadn't told them to anyone 
{before Pettigrew "broke his chains" and went off to re-join LV}, and 
he didn't understand them himself, save after the events which 
followed, in hindsight and with considerably more information than he 
had at the time he heard Sibyll's words.

If the Prophecy comes "from Beyond" or "out of the ether waves", from 
what force is it drawn?  And why, if that Force is "good" and sending 
information, or "warnings" to "the good side", does this force name 
LV "The Dark Lord", which is the Death Eater's term for Tom Riddle?

One should not discount the import of Trelwaney's use of the name.  
*Names are almost always important in Fairy Tales*, and this is a 
Fairy Story {the old name for Fantasy Fiction}.  Powerful figures 
almost always have many names, and very often, the true name cannot 
be spoken {I mean, even in the Bible, in the origional text, one 
could not speak the name of God, it was "I Am that I Am" instead}.

Trelawney's character is drawn much like Quirrel's was.  He affected 
a Turban, she her huge glasses, many beads,  and shawls.  Quirrel 
spoke with a stutter, Trelawney with a "soft misty voice".  While 
Quirrel was known to be very intelligent, he is thought to have had 
his brain addled by bad experiences with vampires and a hag, and was 
regarded as something of a joke by most of the other Hogwart's staff 
when Harry meets him .... just as Sybll Trelawney is clearly regarded 
as something of a fraud by most of the staff {and many students} as 
well.

I myself wonder what "side" Trelawney serves.  We are led to discount 
her by her odd manners; we may laugh, or pity her.  But see her as an 
agent of evil?  No, we are led to disregard Sibyll.  Yet again, I 
note, her last name is Cornish, usually a signal of an "evil" 
character in English tales.  And her first name is no accident, 
either.

Well, how about it, folks?  What is the nature of Prophecy?  Does it 
come *from* some person, or just *through* the person?  Does the 
choice of words {such as "The Dark Lord"} have significance?  Has JKR 
been *consistant* in her  use of the concept of Prophecy in the HP 
series?  After all, she tells us Prophecies don't have to come true; 
that often, when they do, it is because people *believed* what they 
said, and acted to *make* them true ... yet, we see Sibyll's second 
Prophecy about LV come true at once .....

Darqali.