One of the things I like about the books is the way Rowling names things. For example, The Philosopher’s Stone is an actual legend and it’s supposed creator really was Nicholas Flammel. Sirius is the ‘Dog Star’; and indeed, Sirius Black can change into a black dog. ‘Albus’ is Latin for ‘white’ (a symbol of purity) and is the root of ‘albedo’ which is the reflectivity of an object, especially a celestial body. ‘Mal’ means ‘bad’. I don’t know what ‘foy’ means, except that it’s a Scottish word for a farewell feast. So ‘Malfoy’ means ‘bad [something]’, and Lucius (‘Light’ – related to ‘Lucifer’, which means ‘Light Bringer’, a name of the devil) is a Death Eater. ‘Draco’, of course, means ‘dragon’. (Incidentally, I went to high school with a kid named Malbon. ‘Bad-good’?)
These are just a few examples. What literary/historical/mythological niceties/references do you like in the series?
My favorite little touch is in the descriptions of Professor Trelawney, her eyes are magnified by her glasses. Because of the type of lens needed to do this, we can conclude that she must be farsighted, as appropriate for her character.
Other members of Sirius’ family include Bellatrix and Regulus, also stars. For other names, we have Prof. Vector teaching Arithmancy and Prof. Sprout teaching Herbology.
One must wonder how such names come about… Sirius has an inherent doggishness to him (an Animagus does not choose his form; it’s something inherent which only becomes expressed with the animagus training), and maybe his parents recognized that, but Lupin was afflicted shortly before coming to Hogwarts, so there’s no reason his parents should have given him a wolfish name (or, for that matter, had a wolfish name themselves).
Also Nicolas Flammel was a real person, and Rowling reported his age correctly (had he still been alive) and also the name of his wife I believe.
The names James and Harry Potter are probably a nod to James Henry Trotter, from “James and the Giant Peach”, while Harry’s aunt and uncle derive from James’s two aunts.
I just discovered this week, while teaching Paradise Lost, that Mulciber the Death Eater is named after one of the fallen angels. And I suspect Cornelius Oswald Fudge owes his middle name to King Lear, although I’m not willing to bet money on it.
er… am I the only one who thought the bits of Harry Potter mentioned in the OP were heavy handed and obvious? Those kinds of things are neat if they’re done subtly and creatively… Rowling names just about every other character with some sort of high-handed literarly allusion, and it just gets old.
Then again, I despised Harry Potter, so maybe I oughta just stay out of this thread.
It depends. Naming a werewolf Lupin is a total giveaway, especially when it’s supposed to be a revealation. However, it was years after reading the book that I went, duh, Romulus and Remus. :rolleyes:
Perhaps, but the books are written for a younger audience than yourself. The allusions are clumsy to an adult reader, but children would enjoy discovering the meanings behind the names.
Of course there’s Fluffy the three-headed dog from the first book–obviously Cerberus.
And what’s more, Hagrid got him from a “Greek fella”. This was completely screwed up in the movie, where Hagrid says he got him from an Irishman. I understand when the movie versions change the plot somewhat for time or dramatic effect, but I was infuriated that they changed the one word in a direct quote from the text that gave it any sense at all. An Irishman?!? That’s just stupid.
Well, if we imagine that the Lupin family just happened to have that name, then Mum & Dad might have thought it would be cute to give their new baby a wolfish first name to go with it.
What about place names? I confess that until I heard them aloud, I totally missed the puns in Diagon Alley (diagonally) and Knockturn Alley (nocturnally).
Harry’s maternal grandparents were fond of flower names: their daughters were Lily (Potter) and Petunia (Dursley). I’ve seen this lead to fanboyish speculation that nurse Poppy Pomfrey may be a relative, but I don’t buy it.
Rowling seems to have a thing about flower names, in general – there’s also Lavender Brown, Narcissa Malfoy, and Pansy Parkinson (none of whom are related to each other, unless Pansy and Draco have eloped over the summer).
Another thing I’ve recently learned is that St. Mungo (of St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries fame) is an actual saint, and according to legend he was a descendant of King Uriens of Gore – who was married to Morgan le Fay, so there’s a bit of a magical-history connection. Neat.
