Mead in HBP

[bluesqueak]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, Waldo wrote:

> Mead (Rosmerta's Oak matured, in particular) seems to
> be DD's favorite and I wonder if it is intended as
> part of his Odin-like persona. The wise, old bearded
> guy seems to try (rather persistently) using mead to
> seal an agreement with the sad mortals on Privet
> drive, although they were ... unreceptive. Mead seems
> to be the drink of heroes in the Norse tradition (as
> well as Odins elixir of poetic inspiration), and it
> may also be a fitting toast as one "step[s] out into
> the night ...[to]pursue that flighty temptress,
> adventure."  

Pip!Squeak
Heroic imbibing of mead is in the Norse tradition, but also in the 
English tradition - the Anglo-Saxon and Danish people have something 
of a mixed relationship, the Danes being the last successful 
invaders before William the Conqueror. [Google 'Jorvik' for more 
details]. 

Actually, most Northern European countries have an ancient tradition 
of mead drinking. The reasons behind this can be briefly summarised 
as: 'Grapes don't grow in this climate, dammit!' {g}

Anyway, the first mention of mead in England that I know of is in 
Beowulf (which while set in Denmark is a 7th Century Anglo-Saxon 
poem - told you the Anglo-Saxons and Danes had a mixed relationship 
{g}). 

I wouldn't associate Dumbledore with Odin, myself. He might be old, 
wise and bearded, but he's lacking in the only one eye department - 
and Ravens are associated with Odin, not phoenixes. Also it's Snape 
who gets to hang upside down, which was another Odin thing. But JKR 
may well be intending a reference to heroes who drink mead. The 
other possible reference is that mead used to be more expensive than 
beer in the days when honey was the *only* European sweetener; so it 
was drunk in large quantities only by gentry, nobility and royalty. 
So she might be punning on Dumbledore's 'nobility'.

Other reasons JKR might pick mead? Well, while it is commercially 
produced on a small scale (and is indeed matured in oak barrels), 
most English mead is home-brew. Mead is right up there in the 
amazing list of alcoholic things English home-brewers will make  (I 
did mention the thing about grapes not really growing here, didn't 
I? You haven't lived until you've drunk English Parsnip Wine. And 
you may not live *after* you've drunk the Parsnip Wine ...). So she 
may be joking that, yes, Madam Rosemerta's pub is basically a home-
brew/Real-ale sort of place, and a truly superb mead is one of the 
home brews supplied.

Sounds a heck of a lot better than my grandmother's mead, anyway. My 
chief memory of that is the tendency it had to make the bottles 
explode...

Pip!Squeak
"Where do you think I would have been all these years, if I had not 
known how to act?" - Severus Snape