Names and their underlying mythology in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter-NovelsSeminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Leipzig (Institut für Anglistik), course: Harry Potter and The End, language: English, abstract: The Harry Potter series display such a complex set of plots with so many references to history, legend and literature, with so many playfully arranged puns according to the names of characters, creatures, items or places that one cannot easily decide where to begin with an examination that may befit the extent of a seminar paper. The finally chosen scope of this paper refers to my general interest in mythology and legend as well as to Rowling’s admiring aptitude to equip her characters from an extraordinary variety of backgrounds. Names are the most obvious means of depicting literary characters and their intended personalities. Yet, considering the multiplicity of those characters in the ever further developed seven novels, further specification appears to be necessary to meet the demands of this paper. Therefore, its focus is limited to character names and in that to several selected characters only, whose names demonstrate mythological background most efficiently. To that effect, I am not exclusively following a selective principle regarding the characters’ significance in the books. Surely enough, there are several major characters bearing names grounded on mythology, yet Rowling placed so many according hints and links on minor characters and on figures not even acting in the story(ies) themselves that it would seem a squandering of her labour to concentrate on particular ‘significant’ characters only. [...] |
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2.1 The Combat Albus Dumbledore Alecto allusions Amycus ancient Andromeda Arthurian assimilated associated background became befits Bellatrix Black family black wizards brightest star Cassiopeia character names character’s charactonym Charity Burbage Colbert constellation context Daly Dark Arts Death Eaters Dedalus Diggle deity Discworld display Divination Draco Malfoy dragon evil family name functions Ginevra Ginny Goodrich Greek mythology Grimal Gryffindor house Harry Potter series Harry’s headmaster Heracles Hermes Hermione Hogwarts killed Latin word legend literary Lord Voldemort loyalty Luna magic Major Characters Merlin Merope Minerva McGonagall moon Muggle mythology and mystery Mythology behind Major myths name’s Names in Harry Names in Literature Narcissa nickname non-magic Olympian Padfoot Parvati Penelope Clearwater Percy personification Phineas Nigellus Poseidon professor prophecy prophetess qualities refers reign of Voldemort Riddle Roman goddess secret sibship Sibyll significance Sirius Black Slytherin symbolic traits Trelawney Tripp Walburga Black Weasley family witch Wizengamot wolf Zeus