[the_old_crowd] Resolving (?) the Riddle

[Charme]

"naamagatus" uttered:


> Since reading OoP, I've come to (slowly) realize that the main
> questions in HP revolve, not Harry Potter, but Voldemort. Aftera all,
> JKR often signals the reader via names (Sirius Black, Remus Lupin,
> Dolores Umbridge, etc.) - surely "Riddle" must be significant?!

> Then came the interview, where JKR directed us to think of the two
> questions:
> 1) Why didn't Voldemort die in GH?
> 2) Why didn't DD try to kill him in the MoM?

 <snip>


Charme:

FINALLY, a topic which has some bite (pardon the pun) and not the same old 
"Harry this, Snape that."  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! :) Forgive me 
for having to snip so liberally what I felt to be one the best 
thought-provoking posts on any of the groups I frequent in many months.

>At the end of PS, in what seems almost a
> fulfilment of this cryptic utterance, we get to actually see
> Voldemort - and he is indeed described as having inhuman, *snake
> like* features.
>
<snip>

>We know, from
> Voldemort's words in the graveyard, that his transformations had one
> purpose - immortality. From this we can conclude that his snakiness
> is linked to the search for immortality.
>
> So, in contradistinction to the phoenix,
> the snake would symbolise immortality achieved through fake dying or
> cheating death .
>
> Thinking of Voldemort in this way - one person, two essences, it
> struck me quite forcefully how similar it is to the orthdox creed
> regarding Christ - that he is one person, but two natures - human and
> divine.

> The negative parallels are striking. Where Christ is human and
> divine, Voldemort is human and snake - where snake is the negative of
> divine both in that divine is more than human and snake (as an
> animal) is less, and in the Satanic connotations of snakes. Secondly,
> Christ is *fully* human and fully divine. Voldemort is *partially*
> human, partially snake. His double natures are both flawed,
> imperfect, debased.


Charme:

I noticed you were specific about the negative connotation of the snake in 
Voldemort's case and I agree with you.  Here's a "did you know" for the rest 
of you. Did you know that the early Christians called Christ 'the Good 
Serpent' because of his words to Nicodemus in the Bible? Serpents in the 
Bible and early myths and legends were sometimes equated with wisdom. And 
the Book of Kells, (Ireland's illustrated manuscript of the 4 Gospels in 
Latin preserved from the Middle Ages) depicts many illustrations of Christ 
with interlocking or intwined serpents. At Monasterboice, Louth, Ireland, 
the Cross of Muiredach has carved upon it two interlocking serpents, one 
heading downward, the other upward. The popularity of the book The Da Vinci 
Code has brought about much speculation about the Holy Grail, which oddly 
enough uses symbols of serpents frequently in reference to the Grail 
bloodline, and often in somewhat unexpected instances.

<snip>

> The theory of Voldemort was meant to be a "theory of everything". But
> while this prespective does reveal a coherent structure, I am still
> very unclear as to it's final significance:
> What does it *mean* that Voldemort is a dark Christ figure - when the
> narrative is clearly about Harry?
> How does the mysterious force that is Harry's (Love, I'm sure) fits
> with this Voldemort theory?
> The whole scar thing - the connection between Harry and Voldemort -
> how will that play out?
> Finally, how will Voldemort be vanquished?

Charme:

I believe Voldemort took steps to "rebirth" himself in GoF initially by 
possessing an "baby" of Nagini's which after birth he sustained with unicorn 
blood and snake venom. Thus, this would appear to make him half snake and 
half human per Harry's description in GoF when he sees him at the graveyard 
before his final incarnation in his "original form." Interestingly enough, 
this "original form" (if a true representation of the the way LV was prior 
to the incident at GH) brings to mind some Egyptian/Norse myths which 
claimed snakes could restore life to the dead or incarnate the soul of an 
ancestor.  What if Voldemort used snakes in some way to incarnate the soul 
of his ancestor prior to GH? If we go back to your concept of DD asking the 
""divided in essence" question, Voldemort could be the one who has a dual 
nature: Tom Riddle's and the soul of his ancestor's.  I don't think Harry's 
powers came from Tom Riddle (WRT to being a Parselmouth), I think they came 
from either Salazar Slytherin or *his ancestor* as JKR supposedly 
deliberately typo'd in CoS. How many times does JKR beat us in the head that 
Salazar Slytherin was a Parselmouth (and so is Tom Riddle) - from whom did 
they get that trait? These are questions which I feel might be answered in 
Book 6, and could be that "storyline" which was eliminated from CoS.

The scar? You want my take on it all?  Here goes: that scar binds Harry and 
Voldemort as an incompleted AK curse.  I don't believe it has finished its 
work.

Maybe the scar is a physical manifestation of the AK curse which couldn't be 
effectively rebounded on to Voldemort. JKR has said, in interviews, that the 
shape of the scar is not it's most important feature (although mythically 
and symbolically, snake shapes were also equated with lightening or 
thunderbolts.) We know that curses can "bounce" (the Stunners cast by the 
Ministry officials in GoF at the Trio, for example or Draco and Harry's 
curses in GoF which bounce *off each other* onto Hermoine and Goyle.)

Voldemort protected himself so a curse couldn't bounce back on him (think 
dragon's blood or snake venom which mythically is supposed to protect one 
from such things), but once he cast the AK in GH at Harry, Lily's sacrifice 
rendered Harry protected from it too. His curse bounced between the 2 of 
them until his protection slightly failed him and that resulting failure was 
enough to drive Voldemort apart from his body. However, it left the curse 
still strong enough to have finally rebounded from him to Harry in the form 
of the scar (mark). This fits the line of the prophecy which states "and the 
Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have a power the Dark Lord 
knows not" - other than love and a different disposition, Harry has the 
power and it's on his forehead just waiting to be freed in the form of an 
interrupted and not yet completed AK curse.

The line in the prophecy which refers to one of them dying at the hand of 
the other could be all about who has the better protection when that curse 
is freed from it's limbo state.  How it gets released I haven't quite 
figured out yet...but it does get JKR out of having Harry perceived as a 
"murderer" if something happens to release it and LV is vanquished.

Charme