The Deathly Hallows: Myth and Reality

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 177471

---  "prep0strus" <prep0strus at ...> wrote:
>
> I've been thinking about the Hallows, and how strange
> they are, both as items to include as part of a 
> children's fable, and as real objects. I really wonder
> about what JKR's thought process was in including them,
> so I'd welcome any thoughts people might have on the
> matter.
> 
> ...

bboyminn:

I want to interject a point that I think has gotten lost
in this thread. The Three Brothers were real, however,
the 'Legend of the Three Brothers' is merely a myth of
fairytale that has sprung up around them. 

As an illustration, let's say a simply Englishman is
walking though the moors late at night and sees some
glowing swamp gas. He then, frightened out of his
wits, rushes back to the local pub to tell friends
and family a rousing tale of having encountered 
['insert name of magical creature here'].

My point is, while we might derive moral messages or
at least stimulate moral thought and analysis from
the 'Legend of the Three Brothers', it is not in
fact reality. It is symbolism based in reality.

Likely the three brothers did exist, likely they
were brilliant wizards of the highest order, and 
likely they did invent the three object in question.
But we must notice that none of the real objects
quite lives up to the fairytale, any more than
glowing swamp gas lives up to a rousing tale of
an encounter with a magical creature on the moors. 

I think in analyzing the Hallows we can symbolically
interpret the Legend, but we must also be aware that
the Legend is just that, and does not truly reflect
the reality of the situation. 

The Wand was a very powerful wand brilliantly conceived
and brilliantly executed, but it was not the Wand of
Legend. Nor did it bestow the power implied by the
Legend. It did not make you invincible as the unnatural
and untimely death of many of its owner will attest. It
did not make you Master of Death. But it could make you
an overconfident braggart who didn't have the good sense
to know when to keep his mouth shut. In a sense, that
is how Dumbledore mastered the wand. He was able to 
quietly use it, and to further restrain himself from
using the ultimate power of the wand to cause death. 

Only Harry realized that the Stone could only be used
to temporarily view the dead under appropriate 
circumstance. I could not actually be used to literally
bring people back, and it should never be used to hold
the death and 'at peace' to the pail imitation of life
that the Stone provided.

Harry used the Cloak for mischief making and in 
dangerous situations as an aid, but he could have 
applied it to much more selfish and darker purposes.
But he didn't.

As I see this discussion go on, I see people treating
the Hallows of Legend as if they were the Hallows of
Reality, that is simply not true, and is also made
crystal clear in the books. 

I'm not sure if my comment adds, subtracts, or alters
the discussion in any valuable way, but I think it
is an important factor to consider.

Steve/bboyminn