Walpurgis in the wind?

[mooseming]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Catlady (Rita Prince 
Winston)" <catlady at ...> wrote:
>
> --- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Barry Arrowsmith"
> <arrowsmithbt@> wrote:
> >
> 
> > Kneasy
> > She renamed them.
> > It was in the Paxman interview before OoP, I think.
> 
> I always read that quote as meaning that Voldy renamed them. On one
> hand, my track record is such that betting against whatever I 
think is
> obvious might possibly be a winning strategy.
> 
> But on another hand, I'm going to enjoy my few remaining days of
> believing that the Knights of Walpurgis formed as a wizarding
> 'self-defense' group sometime between one thousand and a couple of
> hundred years ago, during one of the times when there 'was great
> oppression' of wizarding folk, which the founders of this 
particular
> secret club thought could be discouraged by quick retribution 
whenever
> a wizard or witch was harmed, so they undertook to deliver said
> retribution. Good intentions, violence, anti-Muggle-ism ... very
> suitable for Voldy to join, take over, change the purpose 
from 'keep
> the Muggles subdued' to 'kill the Muggles' to 'kill the Muggle-
born'.
>


The eleventh hour and something new (for me) to play with. A quick 
trawl through the Lexicon and Wiki and all sort of interesting 
connections crop up!

"Walpurgis Night (in German folklore) the night of April 30 (May 
Day's eve), when witches meet on the Brocken mountain and hold 
revels with their gods..." 

May day is opposite halloween in the calendar.

Named after Saint Walpurga  born in Wessex in 710 and surely a 
candidate for the founding of Durmstrang. (We will be hearing more 
from Krum.)

The Brocken mountains are in Germany, as is the Black Forest where 
Quirrell went looking for vampires and found Voldy.

Dumbledore may well have defeated Grindlewald there as the allies 
bombed Brocken on April 17 1945.

>From 1957 the Brocken constituted a military security zone, not a 
bad place for Voldy to go to after disappearing from Borgin and 
Burkes (the cold war in full swing and all).

Karkaroff (an eastern block sounding name) could well have met Voldy 
during this time.

Voldy has hidden his HRX in significant places, those missing years 
must surely hold somewhere that's special to him, possibly the 
creation of the DEs.

Helga is a Germanic name and her cup may well be a HRX, vapour!mort 
would surely have been drawn to a HRX and the diary, ring and locket 
were all too close to home.

If I were Harry I think it would be worth a look-see, wouldn't you?

...and there be dragons nearby too!

Regards
Jo