[HPforGrownups] Meaning of all the Aberforth goat jokes?

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 177256

career advisor:
>  A pun by JKR? Were the charms that Aberforth performed on goats a 
>refernce to dark magic. Was Aberforth at one time playing with dark magic? 

Bart:
I have believed, and continue to believe, that it was an homage to Marion Zimmer Bradley, who was a pioneer in getting women openly accepted as fantasy writers. In her series of short stories, LYTHANDE THE STAR-BROWED (originally created as a THIEVES' WORLD character, but later withdrawn for private use), secrets kept by Lythande's order of wandering mages were each vulnerable to a secret they kept. When Lythande uses a local insult against her arch-rival, calling him a despoiler of young goats, she realized that she had discovered his secret. 

Bart