Thomas Marvolo Riddle

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 161518

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Charles Dias <deepblue972000 at ...> wrote:
>
> Cindi:  
> <snip>                         
> If Tom Riddle hated his father and his father's name so much, why did he make an 
anagram out of that very name when he decided to create a new name for himself? A name 
he hoped would someday strike fear into the heart of everyone who heard it. In one of the 
books (CofS?) He comments to the effect "Do you think I was going to keep my filthy 
muggle father's name"? But really, he did keep his father's name, even though he could 
have called himself anything. So in a way, he's paying homage to a person he supposedly 
hated.  
> 
> 
> Charles Dias:
> I think his problem was about using the father's name clearly within his own name 
(Thomas Marvolo RIDDLE) but as it's not clearly seen on the anagram (Lord Voldmort) it's 
not a problem for him. But I partly agree with you about the indirect homage to his so 
hated father's name.

Geoff:
His construction of the anagram seems to be a bit of a con really. His name, which by the 
way, is TOM Marvolo Riddle becomes "I am Lord Voldemort:" He had to do something with 
the odd i, a and m!

An interesting speculation is how he actually arrived at the name. We have discussed it on 
numerous occasions here and I lean to a fairly widely accepted view that it's from the 
French "flight of death" or "theft of death" but was that in his addled mind or not? Or did 
he just cut the letters out of a piece of paper and just twiddle them around on a tabletop?

Perhaps we shall never know.