Snake Lore

[Pamela Rosen]

No: HPFGUIDX 161577

An old interview from 2002 with JKR has surfaced on The Leaky Cauldron, in
which she states that "snake lore" will have something to do with book 7.  I
did a little research on snake mythology and basilisks in my old copy of
Bullfinch's Mythology, Chapter 36, and even I was surprised by what I found.
I would like to humbly share this with you and see if anyone thinks there's
some major clues here:
 
"...Jonston, a learned physician, sagely remarks: "I would scarecely believe
that it kills with its look, for who could have seen it and lived to tell
the story?"  The worthy sage was not aware that those who went to hunt for
the basilisk of this sort took with them a mirror, which reflected back the
deadly glare upon its author, and by a kind of poetical justice slew the
basilisk with its own weapon."
 
Even more interesting about a basilisk's death in battle:
 
"There is an old saying tht everything has its enemy--and the (basilisk)
quailed before the weasel.  The basilisk might look daggers; the weasel
cared not, but advanced boldly to the conflict. When bitten, the weasel
retired for a moment to eat some rue, which was the only plant the basilisk
could not wither, returned with renewed strength and soundness to the
charge, and never left the enemy till he was stretched dead on the plain."
 
And,
 
"The basilisk was some use after death....its carcass was suspended in the
temple...and in private houses, as a sovereign remedy against spiders."
 
I am not sure if this means anything, but surely JKR is aware of this text,
because we've seen some of it already in CoS, but if the theory that Nagini
is making Voldemort come back more snake-like than human holds, backed up by
JKR's 2002 comments, then we have set ups for mirrors, battles, a plant that
the basilisk can't kill, eaten by a Weasel for strength, and who survives
the battle.  And finally, there is a passage in Bullfinch's that describes
the death of the basilisk: "...a certain holy man, going to a fountain in
the desert, suddenly beheld a basilisk. He immediately raised his eyes to
heaven, and with a pious appeal to the Deity laid the monster dead at his
feet."
 
These are three different legends, but any of them could apply. I don't make
any claims to knowing anything, and I am sure this learned group is aware of
this book, but this seems too cooincidental in my mind and I was just
wondering what anyone thought.  Please don't flame me...I'm fragile as it
is, unemployed at the holidays, with enough time to research snake lore and
to wonder. :-)
 

Pam



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