A sqishy on myth storylines

[Dumbledores Master]

On jk`s personal website it says she won`t be following myths and legends in the stories so sorry to all those people with myth threads out there somewhere

[paintballdecoy]

Like what? The Romulous and Remus myth? I think it would make the story too easy to guess. She still does stick to somethings, you know the vampire and warewolf and that sort of thing. the well known things

[Athena Appleton]

I read what you're talking about, and I walked away from it with the feeling that she's not following the myths exactly. However, she certainly does draw from mythology and many other resources for characters (McGonagall's first name is the Roman goddess of wisdom, learning and war; Sirius is the name of a star or constellation called the "Dog Star") and storyline plots (the Sirius thing I just mentioned). She's just not telling an exact replica of the old stories.

For example, she could still be loosely following the Remus/Romulus theory if you consider that the Marauders were like brothers. Since Wormtail was a marauder (brother to Lupin), then just like the mythological Remus, Lupin will most likely be killed at the hand of his brother (or his brother's people).

Also, with the Percy/Percival theory, Percy acts very like Percival did in the mythological story (or legend, or whatever you'd call it). Percy is, in my opinion, indirectly responsible for the death of Sirius, much like Percival was indirectly responsible for the death of an uncle, so I will continue to worry about Mrs. Weasley until she survives the end of the books or is killed.

In fact, unless you found something I didn't find, she only said that Remus doesn't have a twin brother. She didn't say she doesn't draw from mythology for ideas. If you did read that exactly, please, let me know.

[peterbb]

She said that she didn't ALWAYS mimic mythology, but she didn't say never. Also, general myths about werewolves, etc. are often true, such as werewolves are only wolves during the full moon. It's just that having the name of Remus doesn't automatically give you a brother named Romulus. Did that make any sense?

[Athena Appleton]

Absolutely. You put it better than I did.

I am unable to get on that website on my computer, but I do seem to remember that the only myth storyline she squishied was that Remus doesn't have a twin brother. Not that Remus doesn't have a brother. Not that the legendary Remus has zero significance. Only that there's no twin Lupin.

[Dumbledores Master]

The Romulus-Remus thing is bogus. For example take the story of Adam and Eve, much more well known than the story of rome`s founding, everyone would assume that all people named Adam (myself included bcse I am named Adam) would go out with an Eve which is totally untrue.
I can`t really remember it that much now after a retreat so I will post more tom.

[Athena Appleton]

Okay, you do get the concept of inspiration, right? Obviously, Rowling used the story of the legendary Remus to develop the character of Lupin (Remus and Romulus were raised by a she-wolf, therefore hinting to the wolf references with Lupin).

To try and say that Rowling uses no mythology or legend in her stories is just ignorant, because she obviously does. There are tons of references to mythology, legend and previous ficticious (sp?) works in her books.

I don't believe, nor have I ever believed, that everything should be taken completely literally, but those references are there, and there's no use in trying to pretend they aren't.

[Dumbledores Master]

Did I say she used no mythilogical influences? I think not. I think that the Pettigrew killing Lupin thing would be far too influential towards the story and would be a bit predictable.

[pallas artemis]

I will be very upset if Lupin dies at all. I realize that it is highly possible, but he is the last real close personal contact Harry has with what his parents were really like, not just their heroic story, and if he dies then it will seem like Harry really is all alone with Ron and Hermione again just like book one and two.

[Courtney Piddle]

wow athena appleton,
i think the way you've thought about this is really great. i like trying to work things out like this i know nothing follows in a set way but sometimes JKR uses myths with a flip side on reality. you phased it better than i did

[paintballdecoy]

The Romulus and Remus is hardly bogus. How about we look up the facts, and I will condence it for you;

Mars, the god of war, has two twin sons

Afraid they would overthrow him, they were placed in a trough and thrown in the Tibus River

They were raised by a wolf mother

Romulus founded Rome

Remus was killed by his brother

Romulus then ruled with king Titus Tatius, ruled until Tatius was killed, then Romulus ruled solo and did his thing

-------

Now, the things that are similar----The Name Remus for one. Then the obvious wolf referancing. Okay now lets amagine Rome as the group of Sirius, James, Remus and Peter. Okay, rome founded by crooks and thieves, possibly a referance to the Marurders, And there is the Mars referance, Mars..god of war...war of good and evil..

okay, now going along with the Rome thing, the history of the Roman empire. Things were great for a while, then things started to get too big for some people and it splits in two....good and evil in the sence of Harry Potter. Now, getting away from the Romulus and Remus thing.. Lets say the good friends, ie; Sirius, james and Remus were the western Roman empire, while the evil was eastern half, ie; Peter and his friends.

The western half of Rome was done away with by the Goths of the North. These barbarians ran down the western half, in this case, good. Now, barbarians, sounds a little like the Death Eaters in the sence they like violance and senceless killing.

So there may be a little bit too the obvious referances to mythology, rather then dismissing them entirly. Yes, this ramble, was obvious in my mind, but thats a rather scary place to go, my mind, that is.





Probably my most ludicous theroy yet, and I know most people could do without a history lesson

And I typed that pretty fast, so please excuse the spelling mistakes.

[han lin]

no i like it, i know little to nothing about roman history so i think its really interesting.

especially trying to guess how these things could be related

[Dumbledores Master]

Sorry if I sound a bit rud paint ball decoy but if you look at my last post (maybe 2 posts ago) you would see me saying that would be a bitt obvious with any writer and with JKR I thinnk its a definite no-no

[paintballdecoy]

really, did you think my theory was that obvious? Do I really think that is what she is going on? No, I don't, but that is a logical thoery, well more logical then saying "there is no mythology."

sorry if I sounded rude

[Athena Appleton]

Paintball: well, I probably wouldn't take it that far, but I like what you had to say

DM: It sounds to me like you're contradicting yourself. You start up a thread going "J.K. Rowling doesn't use myths in the storylines, so BLAH on all you guys who have mythological theories," then, when we come up with mythological storylines already used, you say "Did I ever say she doesn't use mythological storylines?"

The answer to your question: yes, you did. In the very first post of this thread.

The Remus/werewolf storyline is a mythological storyline (she used the myth to define the character and the story). I also think there's something to the Remus/Romulus theory, although I agree with you that there is no twin brother in the Harry Potter books named Romulus. I think that if you look at the relationships, and stretch things a bit, though, that the outcome will be similar to the outcome of the Remus/Romulus theory (Remus will be killed by someone he once considered as close as a brother).

Another thing: J.K. Rowling doesn't just pull storylines out of her backside. She drops hints all the time, and I think the silver hand thing is a hint. I think it's almost definate that Wormtail and Remus will go head to head. I'd like to think that Remus comes off the best in a dual, and the story is switched around from what would be the obvious one, but I think probably Remus will die at the hand of Wormtail, or as a result of something Wormtail does.

If the latter proves to be true, it's a not-obvious ending, but it still used the hint of the silver hand.