The Knight of Walburga

[Goddlefrood]

No: HPFGUIDX 169503

> Pippin:
> Maybe Kreacher's company was no more salutary for Walburga or
> her portrait than hers was for him. Not to mention that at the 
> time of her death she had lost her husband, one of her sons 
> had been murdered and the other was considered the worst 
> outlaw, next to Voldemort, that the wizarding world had ever 
> seen. Stress like that would make anyone old beyond their 
> years, and she must not have been terribly stable to begin 
> with. 

Goddlefrood:

It's a possibility, but Walburga was really not old at all by WW 
standards. The degeneration noted in her portrait is, IMO, far 
more than simply stress or worry induced. I also would disagree 
that she was unstable. A pure blood extremist and married to her 
second cousin, yes, but not necessarily unstable.

One surprising link that I kept in reserve follows. Mrs. Black's 
first name is found at thinkbabynames (although there are rather 
few Walburgas around apparently). That is here:

http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Walburga

The pertinent part says:

"The girl's name Walburga \wa-lbur-ga, wal-bu-rga\ is of Old 
German origin, and its meaning is "strong protection". Saint 
Walburga (eighth century) was a missionary in Germany.

Walburga has 3 variant forms: Walberga, Wallburga and 
Walpurgis."

I found this intriguing as JKR has said that the Death Eaters 
were once called the Knights of Walpurgis. Was this a name LV 
himself dubbed them in homage to Mrs. Black for whatever reason?

The relevant snippet:

"But some of it has backstory in it like this - in here is the 
history of the Death Eaters and I don't know that I'll ever 
actually need it - but at some point - which were once called 
something different - they were called the Knights of Walpurgis."

Extracted from:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/uk/newsid_3004000/3004878.stm

Add to that the fact that Mrs. Black's namesake Saint Walburga 
died in the year 777 and we have some ties to Tom that lend 
some weight to my theory that she knew a little more about the 
situation with LV and one of his Horcruxes than might be so far 
suspected. Perhaps she knew quite a lot about it and as I said 
before encouraged or assisted Reugulus to destroy / retrieve 
one.

Perhaps the name was changed only after LV announced his 
agenda and prior to that Walburga had found some amusement 
in the similarity of her name to LV's followers. I'll go 
even further and say that because of that Regulus was 
urged by her to sign up with the Knights bearing her near 
name (in blood or otherwise).

Is this completely off the wall (not Dorien Grey's portrait ;-), 
or does anyone think there may be something in it?

Goddlefrood