Thomas Marvolo Riddle

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 161526

---  "Geoff Bannister" <gbannister10 at ...> wrote:
>
> ---  Charles Dias <deepblue972000@> 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?
> > ...
> > 

> 
> 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!
> 


bboyminn:

I'm somewhat in agreement with Geoff here. I suspect that
perhaps this was Tom's idea of an inside joke. Sort of,
'Hey everyone, I'm hiding right here in plan sight, and
you are all too stupid to see who I really am'.

Of course, it goes beyond that, to some extent I think it
might have been about transformation or transmogrification.
Tom took who he was and transformed that into the most
feared name in the history of the wizard world. In a sense,
he transcended his old Self, and became a new greater Self.
I think there is some symbolic connection to his past that
is important to him, and that fuels this 'transcendent'
process.

On a side note, I wonder which came first 'I am Lord 
Voldemort' or 'Tom Marvolo Riddle' from the perspective 
of the author? Also, has anyone worked out any alternative
amagrams? Does anyone know of a anagram generator on the
Internet that might help?


> Geoff:
>
> An interesting speculation is how he actually arrived
> at the name. ... fairly widely accepted view that it's 
> from the French "flight 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.
>

boyminn:

That's an interesting question. In a sense, in asking what
Voldemort did, we are asking what JKR did. To some extent
all names have meaning, for example, my name 'Steven', or
more historically 'Stephen', means 'Crown', but I doubt
that my parents had that in mind when they named me.

So, JKR many have simply come up with a name that sounded
cool, and realized the implications later. Or she may have
constructed the name based on those implications and worked
back to the name Tom M. Riddle. Note, she did have to
fudge the name slightly to make it work (/I AM/ Lord 
Voldemort).

Could we work back to a better name than Tom M. Riddle if
we change it to 'Call Me Lord Voldemort' or 'The Honorable
Lord Voldemort' or whatever?

I don't recall JKR ever having been asked this question.
Though I can't imagine why not, it seems a very obvious
question. And, I refer both to Voldemort's motivations,
and to the authoral construction of both names.

Perhaps you are right 'Perhaps we shall never know'.

Steve/bboyminn