House Elves

[Goddlefrood]

No: HPFGUIDX 180819

> Carol's plaintive cry:

> > still wondering what this glorious "freedom" to be imposed on 
> > the House-Elves against their will would consist of

Goddlefrood, with belated greetings from the South Seas to Carol 
for a post from 9th January. I get there eventually.

This house-elf business. I don't think we can go away from the 
plain fact that house-elves, like slaves (whether Roman, Greek, 
African or other), are servile to a master and exist at the 
master's whim. This in the sense that if a master is unhappy 
with their elf for whatever reason (like Winky), or is tricked 
into releasing the elf (like Dobby) or even voluntarily frees 
the elf (like no elf in the books), then the elf would find him 
/ herself freed.

Also, having thought about this a little since the last time I 
posted on the subject, there is one quite big difference between 
house-elves and human slaves. That is the fact that they at no 
time during the course of the books are traded. They belong to 
a family, or perhaps, like hobs, to a location. This latter 
would explain why there are concentrations of elves in certain 
spots, Hogwarts being the one location in the books that we are 
aware of that has multiple elves.

>From Dictionary of English Folklore by Jacqueline Simpson and 
Steve Roud:

"hob. In the north of England and some Midlands counties, 
hob was the most common name for rough, hairy creatures of 
the brownie type, whose work brought prosperity to farms; 
like brownies, they might become mischievous nuisances if 
annoyed, and would leave for ever if given new clothes. On 
the other hand, it might prove impossible to get rid of a 
troublesome hob"

Should the elves be freed en masse, and there is no indication 
that they would be in the books, then I don't think they would 
actually have much of a change in their circumstances. They 
would undoubtedly continue to work as domestic servants for 
witches and wizards. Whether they were paid or not would depend 
on the individual elf. Dobby's being paid in GoF was repugnant 
to most of the elves, iirc, and it was he who had to do a good 
deal of, if not all, the cleaning of Gryffindor Tower because 
of Hermione's attempt to trick elves into taking clothes. They 
did not want to be freed in that manner. This simply means that 
the elves are content - even if unenlightened about other 
possibilities - with their lot. Whether they should be content 
or not is probably hardly worth getting into because:

(i) They are fictional, even if based on those real hobs (with 
which many have had tremendous problems throughout history); 

(ii) They are unlike real world slaves in that they are not 
tradable; and

(iii) They are fundamentally bound to the wizarding world as 
constituted in the books whether they like it or not pursuant 
to various laws for concealment.

Also, if they were freed, the Elf Relocation Office and 
whatever other support groups there might be would no 
doubt assist in ensuring that the elves were taken care 
of. Each country's Ministry is apparently responsible for 
the hiding of magical creatures and, thus, there is an 
obligation to continue to hold the elves within the WW. 
Basically there would be little, if any, effect of freeing 
the house-elves, except that they would no longer be slaves 
but servants.

Goddlefrood