Non Humans: (was: A Simpler Scenario

[Barry Arrowsmith]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)" <catlady at w...> 
wrote:
> Kneasy wrote in http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_
> old_crowd/message/3146 :
> 
> << Interestingly, Jo's metaphysics are somewhat limited, if not tinged
> with with partiality. GoF chap. 14, The Unforgivable Curses. "The use
> of any one of them on *a fellow human being* is enough to earn a life
> sentence in Azkaban." >> (Emphasis added, to remind all of Kneasy's
> point.)
> 
> Last week I noticed that the hag Malodora Grymm has a Famous Witches
> and Wizards card. Today I checked The Lexicon for other non-humans
> with FW cards and found other hags, some goblins, some vampires, some
> giants. (Vampires crossed my mind during the week, when I heard
> something on the news about an Italian playing in US Open named
> Sanguinetti; I wondered if he were a vampire.)
> 
> In GoF, Percy mentions "the Guidelines for the Treatment of Non-Wizard
> Part-Humans –" in reference to vampires. If they're non-wizards,
> why put them on Famous Wizards cards? 


That's worth following up - for a nit-picker like me.
I have to admit that I've never seen the FW cards, except for those
repeated on Jo's site - at least I assume that they feature the same
characters and haven't been specially composed. 

No, that isn't the nit-pick, this is-
It's canon that non-humans aren't allowed wands.
How then can they become witches and wizards?
Magical they may be, even Dobby is magical - but is he a wizard?

> 
> I also wonder if hags are the females of a spedies whose males are
> called another name. Trolls? Ogres?

Could be a case of Jo playing around with mythology to suit her own
purposes. Wouldn't be the first time - traditional ghouls don't hang
around attics banging on pipes and eating moths, they're found
down in the graveyard lunching on the dearly-departed.

Trad hags are evil old women, sorceresses thought to be in league
with the devil, or alternatively nasty sprites, elves or goblins; depends 
which mythology you consult. Gliding, always-covered, raw meat eaters
with infantiphagic enthusiasms seems to be Jo's twist.

The possible goblin connection is intriguing. Have we seen or heard
of a female goblin? Extreme sexual dimorphism. Possible, I suppose.
 
I remember a post from way back, can't remember who from, where
it was suggested that they shared an evolutionary line with Dementors.
Mostly it was based on locomotion and the fact that we've never seen 
one uncovered.

Kneasy