Will the Real Severus Snape please step forward?

[Goddlefrood]

No: HPFGUIDX 167705

Part 3 (b)

Goddlefrood:

First, I want to just tidy up a little matter that arose 
during the earlier discussion. A hole in the hole in my theory, 
if you like. The eventual theory, which is far from expounded 
on yet, does not depend at all on Snape's teaching ability or 
lack thereof. The comments I made on Snape's teaching were due 
to (i) my own dislike of formal education, which could be easily 
divined from matters contained in 3 (a) that comes about 
partially due to my having been out of it for a long time and 
(ii) my opinion that Snape was an ineffective teacher and could 
have done more to assist his charges in DADA lessons and also in
Occlumency lessons with Harry.

Further to that, there would, as far as I'm concerned, be a 
simple expedient to assist in the learning of Occlumency. One 
word: Compartmentalise. I am of the view that Harry will not 
take the advice regarding closing his mind too seriously, 
although he will almost certainly have to learn non-verbal 
spells rather more thoroughly than he has done to date, but 
not because Severus advised it, only because it will be 
necessary. He hasn't actually done too badly previously at 
casting spells non-verbally, and that includes his various 
efforts before he got to *know* he was a wizard. There is one 
small point to address from a correspondent first.

In:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/167691

> Magpie:

(Very Large SNIP)

> But if Snape's being an intentionally bad teacher of 
Occlumency and DADA is supposed to be a factor, you need a 
magnifying glass and a protracter to see it, it seems to me.

Goddlefrood:

This does not tally with what I have said. I do not recall 
saying that Snape was intentionally bad, just that he was bad :). 
There may or may not be anything intentional about this, but as 
stated above it does not alter the theory itself, which I am far 
from getting to.

---------------

The following portion is a little exposition on the name Severus. 
JKR to start us:

"There are lots of Latin names in the book and Roman names like 
Severus Snape - did you do Latin at school and enjoy it?

JKR: No I didn't do Latin at school, I did classics at university."

>From JK interview Part 4 - questions and queries, cBBC Newsround, 
8th July, 2000, available here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/tv_film/newsid_2353000/2353727.stm

There are a number of historical Severuses, saints, emperors and 
so forth. Do any of them give us a clue as to ours?. Perhaps, 
perhaps not. He's a dificult character to divine. That is, I'm 
almost certain, something we can all agree with.

What follows are some suspects for having been the precursor to 
his forename with a few small comments on each. I'll take these 
in no particular order. Prior to that one definition:

"SEVERO  
Gender: Masculine 

Usage: Italian, Spanish 

Pronounced: se-VE-ro (Italian, Spanish)
 
Italian and Spanish form of the Roman family name Severus which 
meant "stern" in Latin. The name Severus was borne by several 
early saints."

From:

http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=severo

It was indeed borne by several early saints, these include:

One of the Four Crowned Martyrs. This from The Golden Legend by 
Jacobus de Voragine, p. 292:

"The four crowned martyrs, who were beaten to death with leaded 
scourges by order of Diocletian, were named Severus, Severinus, 
Carpophorus and Victorinus."

This beating to death took place in around 285 BC. Not much help 
for us here, I think. The next sainted Severus is Saint Sulpicius 
Severus, a biographer of St. Martin of Tours who himself is the 
patron Saint of soldiers, interestingly enough. This namesake of 
our Severus lived in the late 4th and early 5th centuries AD.

Saint Severus of Antioch is a third. He is also known as St. 
Severus the Great and appears in several of the HP sites that 
include name origins. He lived in the late 5th and early 6th 
centuries AD. Here is a link to a short biography of this Saint:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severus_of_Antioch

There is also a Severus Ibn al-Muqaffa, who died in c. 987, 
around the time of the founding of Hogwarts. This one is not 
a Saint himslef, but a coptic bishop and historian. Not much 
relevance there either.

Onto the Roman Severuses and Severans. The emperors with Severus 
as part of their name include, in date order, Lucius Septimius 
Severus who allied with Decimus Clodius Albinus to defeat 
Pescennius Niger in the late 2nd century AD. The link has been 
made between these three to the HP books. The problem with it is 
that Black was not defeated by Albus and Severus, they may have 
had some complicity in Sirius's death, but they did not team up 
to beat him. It is, IMO, a tenuous link at best. The alliance 
between Severus and Albinus did not actually last very long 
either and Severus's army ended up by killing Albinus at the 
Batlle of Lyons (Lugdunum), another link that others have made. 
Interesting, perhaps, but still tenuous.  Septimius himself died
of a disease in York. Here is a link to show some of these facts:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/romanbritain_timeline_noflash.shtml

The next chronologically is Alexander Severus. Both he and his 
relative above were part of the Severan dynasty. Those interested 
may find these links of value:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severan_dynasty_family_tree

http://www.severusalexander.com/

This Severus was young when he ascended as Emperor. His mother 
and grandmother controlled his early career. Here's a further 
piece on the Severan women, including these, but as I have said 
before I doubt if Augusta Longbottom has a great deal to do with 
Snape. The link:

http://www.roman-emperors.org/sevjulia.htm#Note_jd

Our next Emperor Severus is Flavius Valerius Severus of the 3rd 
and early 4th centuries AD.He was known as Severus II, here's 
some biographical material on him for you:

http://www.roman-emperors.org/severus.htm

So he is linked to Diocletian, who also had another Severus (see 
above) beaten to death. An odd coincidence possibly. This Emperor 
Severus was murdered. Our Severus may be also ;), but there is 
little more link than that.

Finally, in terms of Emperors anyway, there is Libius Severus 
who reigned in the 5th century AD. More on him can be found here:

http://www.roman-emperors.org/libius.htm

I liked this little line from the epilogue in this link "Severus 
is eminently deserving of his place among the "shadow" emperors.". 
As is our Severus well deserving of his place as a shadowy 
character and hard to pin down.

There is also a character by the name of Severus in Jane 
Austen's Mansfield Park. Take your pick as to which one of the 
above many and varied Severuses gave rise to ours, in terms of 
his naming anyway.

----------------------

Back now to the analysis, theory will come eventually, sorry to 
continue in this vein, but it has certainly already brought about 
some useful discussion :).

I'm not going to go too deeply into some of Severus's specific 
actions or imputed actions of which we are aware, the whole MoM 
business for one. There is plenty of discussion going on 
regarding that already. It is arguable either way and would not 
altogether either support or refute my basic premise. Neither, 
in that sense, does a great deal that happened at Spinner's End 
with Snape and the Black sisters. There is some suggestive 
material there though, and possibly some reasonable conclusions 
to be made about his background.

If, for instance, it is accepted, which it needn't be, that 
Spinner's End was Snape's childhood home, then some few comments 
on the locale of the house may be useful. From the descriptors 
available the location is suggestive of being in the North East
of England and to me personally more particularly to County 
Durham. There is no solid evidence for this view, but experience 
of the area does lend some support to what I say. My grandmother 
was a Geordie from South Shields, my surviving Great Aunt, who's 
now 93 still lives there. My grandmother lived near Selby in the 
North Riding of Yorkshire and another nearby town, namely Goole, 
could also be considered a place that would contain a street such 
as Spinner's End. I myself spent many of my formative years in 
the North West of England and that part of the country would not 
typically contain a street such as Spinner's End in a small town 
or village, at least not recently.

It's obviously more of a feeling than anything else and it could 
well turn out that Spinner's End is in the industrial part of 
the Midlands or even in Swindon :). I do not think it will be 
all that relevant except insofar as it further supports the 
conclusion, which is also unsupported, except due to a little 
phlegm, that Snape is from a lower class background than many 
other Death Eaters. It is also not strictly relevant to my 
theory, that will eventually be reached.

Part (c) will, I assure you all, contain the theory and will 
hopefully let me move forward to the silly part of this series, 
that being part 4 in case you wondered :)

Goddlefrood