"Elf" etymology and Albus Dumbledore

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 160737

Carol:
> But what caught my attention was the connection of "elf" 
> to "albus."
> Did JKR know? Did she name Dumbledore Albus for this reason? Might
> the Dumbledore brothers have a distant house-elf ancestor, which
> might account for Albus Dumbledore's ability to do wandless magic?
> (I say distant because, unlike Flitwick, whom JKR has stated 
> somewhere has a goblin ancestor, the Dumbledore brothers are normal
> sized. In fact, Albus, at least, is described as tall and I believe
> that Aberforth is as well.)

Jen: You reminded me of a clever theory on TLC postulating 
Dumbledore was the king of the house elves.;) The poster proposed he 
was an actual house elf though, maybe a transfigured one. Wish I 
could find it now but I'm not a member and can't search. 

I couldn't agree with the theory literally, but Dumbledore *is* king 
of the disenfranchised and the enchantment-bound house elves, with 
limited free will, must be high on his list (thus the socks 
Potioncat referred to). That could be the connection in JKR's mind 
for the etymology, a symbolic one. Since Dumbledore can't break the 
enchantment himself--my theory is that will require both lines of 
Slytherin and Gryffindor dying out--Dumbledore does the next best 
thing by providing sanctuary for as many elves as possible at 
Hogwarts. 

Preferring the symbolic relationship to the literal, even a distant 
one, I like the explanation that DD's wandless magic is a product of 
his own power and years of magical training. Besides Carol, we're 
both banking on the Godric Gryffindor connection for Dumbledore and 
that might be too many ancestors to tot up if we add in elves <g>.

Jen R., hoping someone else remembers that theory and can off-list 
her with the link.