Naughty, Guilty! DD ( was Connecting the dots

[mgrantwich]

> Magda:
> I'm not sure that's true, though. Fawkes is probably about 400 
> years old (if he was only named for someone who lived in the early 
> 17th century) and might have given up those two feathers anytime 
> over the centuries. And the wands themselves might be a couple 
> hundred years old too, just sitting on the shelves collecting dust 
> before their destined owners show up and claim them.
> 
> So DD might not have been involved at all, except for the rather
> passive involvement of being Fawkes' most recent owner.
> 
> Talisman:
> The problem is, Magda, that while Rowling gave us the information 
> that signals a connection, what you suggest is a matter of a-
> canonical invention.  Explaining away canon with invention is the 
> antithesis of literary analysis.  Why not invent that the phoenix 
> is 2000 year old and used to be called Nefertiti, but received the 
> name Fawkes from his most recent owner?


Well, for one thing, because Fawkes is a boy-Phoenix and Nefertiti 
is a girl-phoenix name.  (As my neice would say: "DUH!") 

What you call an "a-canonical invention" I call a credible 
supposition based on information given to us in canon.  Phoenixes 
have a continual loop of birth-aging-burning-rebirth (according to 
Dumbledore, COS, Chapter 12).  Therefore it's plausible (and imo 
quite likely) that Fawkes is hundreds of years old and therefore 
could have given up those feathers for the wands at any point during 
that time, rather than giving them up during the relatively short 
period that Dumbledore has owned him.

A complete invention of the kind you're suggesting would be that 
Fawkes was in fact owned by Nicholas Flamel and given to Dumbledore 
just before Harry arrived at Hogwarts.  No, nothing in canon 
contradicts it (Dumbledore never says how long he owned the bird) 
but I think it would raise an important question at the publishing 
house (editor: why bother to make something so complicated?  just 
have Dumbledore own the bird; JKR: okay).

I distrust complicated theories; I prefer the simpler ones.

Magda