mythology, symbols… JK Rowling’s sources of inspiration

2023-04-19 10:16:46

JK Rowling loves names, and many elements of the series become clearer by studying their etymology (a science called onomastics). In 1999, she confided in this regard: “I collect unusual names. I have notebooks full of them. Names of saints, places, war memorials, tombstones. I also invent some. Names interest me so much! »

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“Harry Potter has the traits of a messiah. I decided it knowingly. He is one of a million people who can stand up against power and give up power himself. It makes him the wisest of all “, said JK Rowling. She named her hero Potter, potter. This craftsman refers to the balance between man and the universe, between the fragility of clay and the ability to shape the world. God, in Genesis, being the first potter, the one who kneads man.

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Godric Gryffondor : Godric means “force of God”, and Gryffindor recalls the griffin, chimera of the medieval fabulous bestiary with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion, symbolizing both the human and divine natures of Christ and the qualities of strength and wisdom. It is the home of Harry and his friends Hermione and Ron.

Salazar Slytherin : The house of Draco Malfoy (for “bad faith”), enemy of the same age as Harry. In Spanish, salazar means “saviour”. The serpent is associated with cunning and deception.

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The Headmaster of Hogwarts is Harry’s guide throughout the series, reminiscent of the wizard Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings. I’m not Latin, albus means “white”, a symbol of purity and asceticism. Dumbledore means “bumblebee” in Old English, similar to the Christian symbol of the bee. His brother is called Aaron, like the brother of Moses in the Old Testament.

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The professor who keeps Hogwarts stable with Dumbledore is named after the Roman goddess of wisdom, Minerva.

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Harry’s godfather is named after the Dog Star, considered sacred in ancient Egypt, where it embodied the goddess Sothis (or Sopdet), whose name derives from the Egyptian “sharp”, “precise”.

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This gentle giant character is inspired by the Greek god Dionysus, a mischievous colossus who loves wine and parties.

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The three-headed dog that belonged to Hagrid guarding the philosopher’s stone is inspired by Cerberus, the three-headed dog guarding the entrance to the Underworld in Greek mythology.

An existing symbol in many traditions, the cross is for Christians the sign of Christ’s victory over death. Saint Paul, in the letter to the Ephesians, prays that they be “rooted in charity and founded on it”. Voldemort, the big bad of the series, wishes to defeat death through hatred and selfishness. To do this, he placed his soul in seven artifacts (including the hero’s scar) to make himself immortal. He subverts this symbol and transforms the cross of life into a cross of horror (hor-crux). Another source, in Hindu mythology, souls can be divided into many parts, and each part can live a different life.

In the last volume of the adventures, during the visit to the cemetery of Godric’s Hollow, a verse from the Gospel according to Saint Matthew is engraved on the tomb of Kendra and Ariana Dumbledore, mother and little sister of Albus: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (6, 21). And on that of Harry’s parents, a verse from the First Epistle to the Corinthians (15, 26): “The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. »

Patronus is a spell that invokes protection in the form of an animal, chosen based on the personality and character traits of the spell caster. He is a personal spiritual guide approaching angels or animal totems. Harry’s patronus is the same as his father, a silver deer that often appears near the waters. In the Bible, the deer hungry for water symbolizes the thirst for God, for the source of life. It is also the animal which, according to Saint Augustine “kill the snakes”symbol of the vices and ally of Voldemort. “Destroy the serpents of iniquity, you will more earnestly desire the source of truth”he wrote.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secretsa basilisk, often associated with Satan and deception, is killed by Fawkes, Dumbledore’s phoenix, the animal being a symbol of resurrection and rebirth.

The Death Eaters are once-respectable wizards who sided with Voldemort and dark magic, a choice leading to their moral downfall and their exclusion from the wizarding community. They can be seen as fallen angels. Within Hogwarts, on the other hand, many ghosts, benevolent towards the students, can be seen as guardian angels. This recourse to angelology is frequent in Anglo-Saxon literature, like the Lord of the Rings the Tolkien.

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The name of the fortress where wizards are imprisoned is a combination of Alcatraz, the prison island off San Francisco during the first half of the 20th^e century, and Hebrew abaddonwhich means “place of destruction”, or “depths of hell”.

A key element in defeating Voldemort, Gryffindor’s sword is reminiscent of Excalibur, which only a pure man can wield in Arthurian legends. Harry finds the sword at the bottom of a frozen lake, reminiscent of the Lady of the Lake. The character of Merlin, the famous magician, is mentioned several times in the series, and Dumbledore’s full name, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, explicitly refers to the Knight Percival of the Round Table.

Three relics allow you to overcome death: an elder wand, a resurrection stone and an invisibility cloak, reminiscent of the cloak offered by Merlin to King Arthur in his legends. They are represented by an emblem combining three geometric shapes: the line, the circle and the triangle.. The line is the sign of the axis between heaven and earth, or cosmic axis, present in most religions of the world. Associated with the wand, it symbolizes omnipotence. The meanings of the circle are multiple: perfection, mastery of time, spiritual world… The equilateral triangle symbolizes divinity, harmony, proportion. Cut in two by the vertical axis, it is divided into two right-angled triangles representing the man.

The quest for the stone of wisdom and the elixir of life, subject of the first novel, is one of the fundamental elements of alchemy. To find her and reach theâme-or (love), the material must theoretically go through multiple operations, embodied in the series by the adult characters helping Harry: the work of black (Sirius Black), white (Albus Dumbledore) and red (Rubeus Hagrid). Harry’s final fight with Voldemort would complete the alchemical transition: the theologian Origen speaks of the “Stag Who Fights the Serpents at Dawn” or “golden hour”.