[the_old_crowd] Re: Think about Neville

[Randy Estes]

I have often wondered if Neville's ineptitude as a
wizard is the result of some protective spell to hide
his true identity from the bad guys.  

I do think the "Ugly Duckling Scenario" is right up
JKR's alley.  She make me think that she would want to
tell kids that they can become greater than they are
now by perseverance.(SP?)

I also think Dumbledore is an allusion to Beowulf
because he defeated Grindelwald and his name means
bumble bee.  I found this on the internet under
mythology names:

"BEOWULF 
Gender: Masculine 
Usage: Anglo-Saxon Mythology 
Pronounced: BAY-u-woolf   [key] 
Extra Info: Websites 
Options: Contribute Information 

Possibly means "bee wolf" (in effect equal to "bear")
from Old English beo "bee" and wulf "wolf". This is
the name of the main character in the anonymous
8th-century epic poem 'Beowulf'. The poem tells how
Beowulf slays the monster Grendel and its mother, but
goes on to tell how he is killed in his old age
fighting a dragon."

I think this means that Dumbledore will die fighting a
dragon but since he knows the 12 uses of Dragon's
blood, he will find a way to save Harry or someone
else with Dragon's blood while he is mortally wounded.
 This would give him a dramatic exit suitable of his
character.

Randy



--- "Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)"
<catlady at ...> wrote:
> 
> --- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, Barry
> Arrowsmith / Kneasy wrote
> in
>
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/1418
> :
> 
> << When you think about it,  prophecies are funny
> things. The odds 
> are that some sort of self-fulfillment will occur
> rather than the 
> ineluctable progression of events outside the
> control of those 
> concerned. >>
> 
> Maybe the bias is in selection of which prophecies &
> their 
> fulfilments make good tales. A tale, like that of
> Oedipus, showing
> that the prophecy was fulfilled ONLY because of the
> efforts people
> made to prevent it is attractively ironic and has
> the moral: you can't
> escape your fate. 
> 
> Tales of prophecies which came true because they
> were misinterpreted
> (which was easy because they were ambiguous) are
> also popular -- was
> it the King of Lydia who asked the Oracle of Delphi
> if he should
> invade the Persian Empire and the Pythia said "If
> you do, a great
> empire will be destroyed" and he did and it was --
> the Lydian Empire
> destroyed by the Persians? Or "the Lydians will
> dance with noisy
> feet", which was being marched off in shackles as
> slaves rather
> celebrating a victory dance? 
> 
> I think modern people find the latter attractive
> because of the
> sneakiness of the Oracle and the foolishness of the
> querent, but I
> don't know what the Classical Greeks (who apparently
> DID believe in
> Oracles as well as in Fate) found attractive about
> them.
> 
> Tales of a prophecy uttered by the Pythia which came
> true even tho' 
> no one at all involved in it even knew there was a
> Prophecy only make
> good advertisements for taking your questions to
> Delphi, not good stories.
> 
> << Looked at objectively Neville seems a much more
> sympathetic
> character anyway - honest, upright, honorable - and
> he doesn't whine.
> Harry seems flashy and flawed in comparison. >>
> 
> Maybe Neville would seem less sympathetic and Harry
> more admirable if
> the reader was inside Neville's head instead of
> Harry's head. 
> 
> Some of Harry's 'whining' (I admit, only some) is
> just his own
> thoughts that he doesn't speak out loud, and I'm
> sure Neville has 
> some thoughts like that, too.
> 
> If the readers were inside Neville's head, we would
> KNOW whether him
> saying "I'm nobody" when Ginny was introducing him
> to Luna was a sign
> of extremely low self-esteem (as so many people read
> it) or an attempt
> to avoid interacting with Loony Luna (as I read it).
> How admirable
> would he seem if we "heard" him glancing into the
> compartment and
> observing: "Urggh, that's Loony Luna from Ravenclaw.
> She's *weird*; I
> don't want to be near her" and then Ginny forced him
> into the
> compartment and he thought: "No! If she learns my
> name, she might call
> 'Hi, Neville!' in public and then everyone will be
> saying (singsong)
> 'Neville's got a girlfriend. Numpty Neville and Luna
> Loon holding
> hands under the moon' ... " 
> 
> (Thanks for teaching me the word 'numpty' which
> alliterates so nicely.
> I suppose it's related to 'numbskull" and
> "numb-nuts", common USAn
> insults.)
> 
> If Neville is the Prophecy Boy and the heroic
> vanquisher of LV after
> Harry has *failed*, EpitomeOfGoodness!DD was wrong
> (not unusual) or
> Puppetmaster!DD was using Harry as a decoy to
> protect Neville.
> 
> 
> 
> 


		
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