The Knight of Walburga

[Goddlefrood]

No: HPFGUIDX 169550

> In:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/169506

> Jen (on Knights of Walpurgis / Death Eaters): 

> I find it interesting in a symbolic way although since 
> Voldemort's Death Eaters were named that as far back as 
> when Dumbledore first took office as headmaster, I don't 
> see how it could have literally been true.

Goddlefrood:

A valid point and well made. While Dumbledore did refer to 
LV's Death Eaters back when Tom applied for the DADA post it 
may have taken a while for that name to take hold in the wider 
wizarding world. The Blacks may have only known the group as 
the Knights of Walpurgis, or still thought of them as such, at 
least up to the point of their discovering LV's true motives.

It's nice to speculate on these things, whether or not there 
is thought to be merit in them :-)

> In:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/169506

> > Goddlefrood:

> > 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. 

> Pippin:
> What degeneration? She's described as "old", with yellowing
> skin (the artist in me thinks the varnish must be deteriorating 
> -- the curtains would indicate that the medium is sensitive to 
> light) and drooling.

Goddlefrood:

Right on, but also she had rolling eyes. Degeneration is 
meant in that it is defined: "Gradual deterioration of 
specific tissues, cells, or organs with corresponding 
impairment or loss of function, caused by injury, disease, 
or aging." This simply means the agedness noted by Harry 
and others. As a comparator the extant Minerva is quite a 
little older than Ma Black was when she died and she shows 
little signs of aging. I do not recall any occasion when 
Minerva has been decscribed as old in canon. JKR as at 1995 
for Minerva told us she was "a sprightly 70".

No more nor less than old and degenration are practically 
synonyms, in other words.

Also we have no information that portraits in the WW deteriorate 
in the same way as they may in the real world. I'd actually 
suggest that the portraits remain much as they appear throughout 
their time as portraits. This is due to the fact that the 
subjects within the frames move, while those in the real world 
do not, iirc. Always excepting La Giaconda's eyes, naturally ;-)

> Pippin:

> If she was ranting like that in life, and she must have been, 
> because she was apparently acting much the same when Sirius 
> left home at sixteen, then surely she was unstable. 

Goddlefrood:

I disagree and leave it there on this point, having said my piece 
earlier.

> Pippin:

> Madness in the family would make it easier to understand why 
> people thought Sirius had gone mad, too.

Goddlefrood:

There are no indicators of madness in the Black family, where 
did this come from, may I inquire? Sirius himself perhaps? He 
was hardly an uninterested witness. Sirius was thought mad, IMO, 
only due to his having been widely believed to have destroyed 
a street full of Muggles and Peter Pettigrew, which would make 
a view that *he* was mad precisely because of that incident 
understandable.

There is no need for any prior knowledge in the WW for a firm 
and natural conclusion to be made that Sirius were mad.

> Pippin:

> I thought JKR meant the Knights of Walpurgis were the Death
> Eaters in an earlier version of the story, not in an earlier 
> time *in* the story, if you know what I mean. Like Strider 
> was once a Hobbit called Trotter.

Goddlefrood:

Your meaning is crystal clear. Let's take a look at the full 
quote, which I had omitted previously, although not because I
wanted to mislead. Here it is:

"Jeremy Paxman: And these scraps of paper which you've filed 
elegantly in a carrier, they're plot ideas or... 

JKR: Well some of them are totally redundant now because its 
been written and I keep them out of sentimentality's sake, I 
suppose. 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. I don't know if I'll need it. But I like knowing 
it. I like to keep that sort of stuff on hand."

That makes it abundantly clear that the Death Eaters *were* 
known as the Knights of Walpurgis in the wizarding world at 
some point. The tenses used by JKR also lend support to this. 
Other matters JKR had in mind may have been discarded as she 
says but my interpretation is prescient in this instance.

The Knight of Walburga aka Goddlefrood