"Voldemort" (Re: Dumbledore's Unspeakable Word)

[GulPlum]

At 10:23 03/06/05 , David wrote:

>It's my belief that there *is* good reason to be careful about
>saying 'Voldemort'.  We know that correct pronunciation is important
>in magic: intention is important, too, but it isn't everything.

Although pronouncing his name clearly isn't because the two official 
audiobooks use different pronunciations and JKR has never forced either one 
to change. :-)

>I suspect that in defined circumstances (which Dumbledore understands,
>and knows do not apply most of the time) it is best not to say the name, 
>and wonder if Hermione is going to fall foul of this in the  coming book.

I'm extremely dubious about that one. Don't forget that "fear of a name 
increases fear of the thing itself". Bear in mind that DD said this, 
without qualification, at the end of Harry's first year at Hogwarts, when 
Harry had little idea of the importance of Voldemort himself, his name, or 
indeed much grasp of magical incantations in general.

I would add, though, that while that sentence has often been repeated in 
discussions on all kinds of topics, there's also the preceding sentence: 
"Always use the proper name for things". Dumbledore insists on referring to 
Tom Riddle to his face by his original name, though it's interesting that 
(for plot reasons and no other) he hides this particular fact from Harry at 
that point. So just what *is* Voldemort's "proper" name?

Of all the occasions Harry's used Voldemort's name (in vain?), no reaction 
has ever been quite as strong as that of DEs (including Snape). Is the DEs' 
attitude one of reverence, or simply of fear? Snape's reaction during the 
Occlumency lesson would indicate the latter:

'Do not say the Dark Lord's name!' spat Snape. [...} 'Professor Dumbledore 
says his name.' said Harry quietly. 'Dumbledore is an extremely powerful 
wizard,' Snape muttered. 'While he may feel secure enough to use the name . 
. . the rest of us . . .'  (ch. 24, p. 470 UK ed).

A couple of further observations. In all kinds of mythologies and other 
sets of belief, names have a huge power. Most famously (as has been noted 
already) the Jewish unpronounced Holy Name, but also real and fictional 
worlds in which, e.g. saying a name three times makes the entity appear, 
or, for instance, in the Earthsea books, where knowing an entity's real 
name gives you power over it. Also in the Potterverse, words (generally 
backed by a wand) really can do more damage than a bullet.

But is Voldemort's name one of these? It hadn't escaped my notice that a) 
during the Occluemncy lesson, Harry gets to say the name twice (would a 
third time have made any difference?); and b) Snape looks down on his Dark 
Mark as if expecting something to happen. Does the name serve as a 
summoning call if a DE uses it? Questions, questions....

A further question is, at what stage did the name become "unmentionable"? 
Tom Riddle changed his name for a reason. If nobody uses it, and his own 
followers call him the "Dark Lord" anyway, what was the point? What 
happened to make people think that using the name might bring down 
misfortune on themselves? Is it pure superstition or did, as David implies, 
something happen to somebody "unworthy" who used it?

All superstitions have some kind of basis or explanation (for completely 
unrelated reasons, I recently found out that it's apparently bad luck to 
carry bananas on boats and there are at least 3 separate suggested reasons 
for this, from different parts of the world); I am far more interested in 
what started people being scared of speaking his name rather than why 
people currently refuse to say it. Or is it simply a case of refusing to 
speak a name somehow distancing oneself from the entity?

I somehow fear that we're never going to get sufficient answers to those 
questions, and as someone who rarely embarks on theories and limits himself 
to observations, I'm open to ideas.

--
GulPlum AKA Richard, 149 posts down, 537 to go...