CHL137: Wednesday, March 12

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CHL137Wednesday, March 12

• Midterm review
• Christian symbolism in HP
• Legend of Vortigern and Merlin

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1. Midterm Exam March 17

• 75 blanks _at_ 2 points each
• 150 points

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Questions will be drawn from

• Reading,
• Lecture,
• Group Presentations,
• Group Work, and
• Class Discussions.

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Students will be expected to demonstrate
knowledge of

• Literary terms
• Concepts discussed in essays weve read
• Characters, plot elements, and themes in the HP
  books
• Characters, plot elements, and themes in the
  myths, legends, and folktales weve read and
  learned about in class.
• Allusions in the HP books

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Literary Terms and Concepts

• Anne Alton wrote an essay describing the ways
  that the books in the Harry Potter series are a
  combination of a variety of ______________________
  __.
• A characteristic of this genre is that writers
  use techniques of realism (like characterization)
  to retell older stories (myths, legends,
  folktales) _____________________________.
• In our class discussion about character, we
  focused on figuring out whether characters were
  1-dimensional or 3-dimensional and whether they
  were static or _______________________.

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Characters

• He did it, he did it! said ________________.
  He knows Im a squib. I dont even know what a
  squib is, said Harry. Rubbish! He saw my
  Kwikspell letter!
• _________________________________, from British
  legend, pulled a sword from a stone.

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Allusions

• Professor McGonagalls first name is a reference
  to _____________________, a Roman goddess.
• Fluffy is a reference to _____________ from
  Greek mythology.

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2. Christian Symbolism in HP

• Weve discussed in class the specific allusions
  (direct and indirect) to Greek and Roman
  mythology, British and European legends, and
  European folk tales.
• The HP books also contain direct and indirect
  allusions to The Bible.

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Good vs. Evil?

• Isnt that the case in just about EVERY belief
  system ?!
• Allusions need to be more specific . . .

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Some allusions weve already discussed . . .

• Harry dies and then comes back to life to save
  mankind, like Christ.
• Voldemorts pet is a serpent, he has sold his
  soul, and he has rejected death (and, therefore,
  an afterlife)
• D/evil is conquered by love.
• The Lily is often used as a symbol for the Virgin
  Mary in medieval literature.

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But, arent the books satanic and anti-Christian?

• In his article, Harry Potter and the Fire
  breathing fundamentalists, Christian commentator
  Jerry Bowyer says, "So much of the religious
  right failed to see the Christianity in the
  Potter novels because it knows so little
  Christianity itself . . . The gospel stories
  themselves, the various metaphors and figures of
  the Law and the Prophets, and their echoes down
  through the past two millennia of Christian
  literature and art are largely unknown to vast
  swaths of American Christendom."

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He argues that

• Many readers miss a lot of the allusions to
  Christianity, much in the same way that people
  miss the allusions to myth and legend if they
  dont know the original narratives.
• Here are some examples . . .

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Harrys parents tombstone

• The last enemy that shall be defeated is
  death.
• (I Corinthians 1526)

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Dumbledore's family tomb

• "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be
  also.
• Matthew 621
• Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,
  where moth and rust destroy and where thieves
  break in and steal but lay up for yourselves
  treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
  destroys and where thieves do not break in and
  steal. For where your treasure is, there your
  heart will be also.

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Jerry Bowyer also notes that

• Harrys descent in the Chamber of Secrets and
  rescue by Fawkes is an example of descendit ad
  infernum, the descent into hell.
• The Proto Evangelium, the first gospel in which
  God told Adam and Eve that He would send Someone
  who would rescue their descendents by crushing
  the head of the serpent.

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• In other words, the Phoenix (as we learned last
  class) is a symbol of Christ.

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Jerry Bowyer also writes

• The most powerful spell in Harrys world is the
  Patronus, in which the wizard forcefully says
  Expecto Patronum. Thats Christian Latin for I
  look for the Savior. . . . Harry uses the spell
  when ghastly evil spiritual beings called
  DEMENtors (caps mine) attack him and another
  innocent man near a lake.

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Furthermore, he claims,

• A stag (which just happens to function as a
  common Christ figure in medieval art) walks
  across the water dispelling the vile
  soul-destroying creatures.

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3. Vortigern and Merlin

• You read about King Vortigern in your course
  packets, which included some bits from Geoffrey
  of Monmouths The History of the Kings of Britain
  (written in 1136).
• This text combines history with myth and legend,
  piecing together older narratives from various
  traditions.
• It is one of the main texts that serves as a
  basis for later narratives about King Arthur,
  Merlin, etc.

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Vortigern

• (Possibly) A warlord in Britain during the 5th
  century, who has been elevated to the status of
  evil king through legend.
• As I tell an abridged version of his story, make
  notes about connections to HP.

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One version of the legend (with much detail left
out!)

• Vortigern was King Constans trusted advisor, but
  he tricked Constans out of the crown.
• He invited a horde drunken Picts (Scottish) to
  London and convinced them to kill the king.
• When they delivered the head of the king to him,
  he pretended to be horrified and had the Picts
  beheaded.
• He then ordained himself as a Bishop, and crowned
  himself King.

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Invites the Saxons

• When the Picts found out what he had done, they
  started attacking Britain.
• Vortigern invited the Pagan Saxons (German
  tribes) into Britain (something Geoffrey equates
  with inviting the devil into Britain) to help him
  fight off the Picts.

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Rampaging Saxons!

• After they defeat the Picts, he invites even more
  Saxons into Britain and marries a Pagan girl
  named Rowen (or Rowena, depending on the legend).
  
• The Saxons engage in much pillaging and killing,
  so much so that Vortigern is afraid and goes into
  hiding.

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Vortigern summons his magicians.

• They tell him to build a big tower on Mount
  Erith.
• The masons gathered and began to lay the
  foundations of their tower. However much they
  built one day the earth swallowed up the next, in
  such a way that they had no idea where their work
  had vanished to (course packs 150).

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Emrys

• The magicians told him to look for a lad without
  a father, and that, when he found one, he should
  kill him, so that the mortar and the stones could
  be sprinkled with the lads blood. (coursepack
  150)
• This boy, who had been teased his whole life for
  being a bastard, was Emrys. Emrys was troubled by
  dreams and often was able to foretell the future
  and predict the weather, gifts that frightened
  him.

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Emrys

• Soldiers bound Emrys and brought him to King
  Vortigern so they could spill his blood to mix in
  with the mortar, but Emrys said, Better that you
  have my dream. Only my dream can guide you so
  that your tower will stand (from Merlin and the
  Dragons by Jane Yolen).

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Emryss vision

• I have dreamed that beneath your tower lies a
  pool of water that must be drained. In the mud
  you will find two hollow stones. In each stone is
  a sleeping dragon. It is the breath of each
  sleeping dragon that shakes the earth and makes
  the tower fall. Kill the dragons and your tower
  will stand (Yolen).

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White and Red Dragons

• The soldiers drained the pool and cracked open
  the stones.
• Out of one flew a white dragon and out of the
  second a red dragon.
• The dragons flew into the sky before the soldiers
  could kill them, and began to battle one another.

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• The white dragon killed the red dragon and flew
  away.
• Just so the red dragon of Vortigern shall be
  defeated, Emrys said, but not so loud the High
  King could hear (Yolen).
• The next day thousands of soldiers, under the
  flag of the white dragon, attacked and killed
  Vortigern, burning him up in his own tower.

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Merlin

• The boy, Emrys, grew up to be the powerful
  wizard, Merlin.
• Did you note any connections to the HP novels?