Harry Potter and the Bestiary of Christ Part Five: Weasley Is Our King!

This is the final blog post of “Harry Potter and the Bestiary of Christ.” If you have not done so already, please read parts 1-4 of this series.  (Note: This final installment is an updated version of a blog post that I originally made in the summer of 2010.)

Weasley is Our King!

The Unicorn Is Found.

          In The Hunt of the Unicorn as an Allegory of the Passion, the tapestry entitled “The Unicorn is Found,” depicts the unicorn dipping its horn into a stream to purify it. The unicorn, a Christ figure, is surrounded by other animals, some of which are Christ symbols as well, such as the lion and the stag. But standing near the stream closest to the unicorn’s horn is a small, slender creature which may represent a genet, an ermine, or a weasel. The much-maligned weasel is a favorite animal of author J. K. Rowling.

The Weasel, Enemy of Serpents

“Ron was the only one of three major characters whose surname never changed; he has been ‘Weasley’ from start to finish. In Britain and Ireland the weasel has a bad reputation as an unfortunate, even malevolent, animal. However, since childhood I have had a great fondness for the family mustelidae; not so much malignant as maligned, in my opinion.”–J. K. Rowling in “Some Random Facts About the Weasley Family” at http://www.jkrowling.com/

Generally speaking, calling someone a “weasel” is usually an insult. Indeed, there are numerous examples of Draco Malfoy calling Harry’s best friend Ron Weasley such insulting names as “the weasel” or “the weasel king.” In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the Slytherins mock Ron Weasley with badges that proclaim “Weasley is Our King!” sarcastically and sing a song by the same title which has lyrics that insult Ron’s Quidditch-playing skills and make fun of his family’s poverty.

     The Bestiary of Christ reveals a totally different perception of weasels. “Although the weasel is the smallest of carnivores, it can win combats with much bigger animals than itself,” thus “the weasel is the perfect symbol of a Christian who, no matter how weak in himself, can still triumph over Satan, the most terrifying monster of hell.” (Bestiary 147) This passage calls to memory the scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in which Ron must confront his deepest fears and insecurities when he is tempted by the locket of Slytherin Horcrux, which contained a fragment of the Dark Lord’s soul. Voldemort spoke to Ron in this scene as a deceiver and a tempter, just as the Father of Lies, Satan, deceives and tempts the Christain to sin. But like the Christian who is weak in himself and yet with God’s help can triumph over Satan, Ron, with Harry’s encouragement, rejected Voldemort’s lies and used the Sword of Godric Gryffindor to destroy the locket Horcrux.

Ron Destroys the Locket Horcrux.

          The Bestiary of Christ also describes the weasel as the “symbol of the perfect disciple;” Ron is Harry’s devoted follower, sidekick, and best friend. The weasel is also described as a “symbol of paternal affection,” reminding the reader of Molly and Arthur’s great love for their children.

Weasels are said to be the enemies of rats (Peter Pettigrew) and snakes (Slytherin bullies, Death Eaters, and Lord Voldemort himself). The Bestiary also describes the weasel as “the most implacable vanquisher of that terrifying reptile, the basilisk…” (Bestiary 148-149).

      According to this legend, the weasel must sacrifice its own life to slay the basilisk. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Ginny Weasley almost loses her life in the basilisk’s lair. She is saved only when Harry slays the basilisk with the Sword of Gryffindor and uses one of the creature’s fangs to destroy the diary Horcrux, thus freeing Ginny from Tom Riddle’s enchantment.

 

          Another bit of weasel lore known to J. K. Rowling is that “Weasels are careful to feed on rue before fighting with snakes…” (Bestiary 150)  In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the poison that Draco Malfoy intended for Dumbledore was mistakenly consumed by Ron Weasley (an example of a weasel being poisoned by a serpent). During Ron’s recovery in the hospital wing, Madame Pomfrey gave Ron essence of rue as an antidote to the poison.

 

Weasels who have been poisoned by serpents must ingest rue in order to recover.

          The Bestiary also mentions a type of weasel called the ermine, whose brown coat turns white in the winter. The ermine, due to its white color, symbolizes purity, especially feminine virtue. The ermine’s white coat disappears into the snow in the winter months and re-appears in the spring when its fur turns brown again. For this reason the ermine was a symbol of death and resurrection.  Please make note the presence of the letters e-r-m-i-n-e in Hermione’s name. What do you think of when Ron mumbles her name in his sleep as “Er-my-nee”?  Er-mi-ne?

          Otters are also part of the weasel family, so it’s no surprise that the Weasleys live near the village of Ottery-St.Catchpole, and that Hermione, the eventual wife of Ronald Weasley, has an otter patronus. In Christian art, the otter is sometimes used as a symbol of Christ’s righteousness. (Apostolos-Cappadonna 263).

 

Hermione's Otter Patronus by milkydreamsxxx on Tumblr.

          In The Unicorn Tapestries the weasel appears alongside its peers: it is as courageous as the lion, as pure as the unicorn, as nurturing as the deer, and like its fellows, it is the sworn enemy of the serpent. Ron and his family have been well named indeed.  

 

If you would like to read more, you can obtain a copy of The Lord of the Hallows: Christian Symbolism and Themes in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter from my publisher’s website at www.outskritspress.com/thelordofthehallows.

Comments on this post are welcome!

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Christian Imagery in the Half-Blood Prince Film

I’ve blogged about Christian imagery in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows films here:

http://phoenixweasley.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/christian-imagery-in-deathly-hallows-film-photos-of-godrics-hollow-churchyard/

 and here: http://phoenixweasley.wordpress.com/2010/10/17/harry-potter-film-wizardry-christian-imagery-in-deathly-hallows-rhr-moments-more/ 

This post is about the Christian imagery in the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince film. A cross can be clearly seen in this screencap, taken from the scene in which Harry and Dumbledore are apparating away from Horace Slughorn’s village.

Then there is the scene at the end of the film in which Harry, Ron, and Hermione are having a conversation at the top of the Astronomy Tower in the aftermath of Dumbledore’s death.

Look on top of the castle turret on the right side of this screencap. The decoration at the top of the turret appears cross-shaped from this distance, although a closer inspection may reveal that it is not a cross, it certainly looks like one. What are Harry and Hermione looking at in this scene?

They are watching Fawkes the Phoenix soar joyfully into the blue, of course. The phoenix is a symbol of the Resurrection whose origins I explained in my book, The Lord of the Hallows: Christian Symbolism and Themes in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter.

      The mythology of classical antiquity described the phoenix as a majestic bird which flew to foreign lands to gather fragrant herbs and spices to heap upon an altar, set fire to them, and then burn itself to ashes, only to rise from the pyre after three days time. The early Fathers of the Church logically saw this myth as a typological symbol of the death of Christ, who rose from the tomb on the third day.

          The phoenix was adapted by the early Christians as a symbol of the Resurrection as early as the first century A.D. Drawings of the creature appear amongst the Christian murals and “graffiti” that identify the tombs of the martyrs in the catacombs beneath the city of Rome. St.Clement of Rome, who was pope at the end of the first century, wrote of the legend of the phoenix in his First Letter to the Corinthians. He used the story of how the bird died and rose again as a new phoenix to explain the Resurrection of the Christian faithful which will occur at the end of time. –quote from pages 37-38

The symbolism of the phoenix has been important throughout the series. Harry met Fawkes, Dumbledore’s pet phoenix, in the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Fawkes saved Harry’s life by crying healing tears to heal a mortal wound Harry received from the deadly basilisk. The tears of a phoenix are the only known cure for the basilisk’s poisonous venom. Fawkes’s song gave Harry renewed strength and courage in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire when the young hero had to face Voldemort in the flesh during the wizard’s duel in the churchyard. Dumbledore’s patronus is a phoenix, and the name of the Anti-Voldemort league that Dumbledore established is called “The Order of the Phoenix.” All of the good adult wizards that Harry admires—Dumbledore, McGonagall, Hagrid, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Tonks, Mad-Eye Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley—are members of the new Order of the Phoenix. Harry’s deceased parents, James and Lily, along with Ron’s deceased uncles, Gideon and Fabian Prewett, and Neville’s parents, Frank and Alice Longbottom, were all members of the original Order of the Phoenix during the First Voldemort War. We even witness Fawkes the Phoenix saving Dumbledore’s life when Voldemort tries to use Avada Kedavra, the Death Curse, to defeat him: “Fawkes swooped down in front of Dumbledore, opened his beak wide, and swallowed the jet of green light whole.” (OP 815) Only the phoenix, like Christ, could take the curse of death upon himself and rise again in glory, unharmed. From the earliest days of Christianity, the phoenix was a symbol of the believer’s hope of Resurrection at the end of the world. Its ascension into the heavens, like that of the eagle, symbolized the soul’s desire for union with God. At the funeral which concludes the sixth book, Harry saw smoke rising from the white flames around Dumbledore’s body, and “Harry thought, for one heart-stopping moment, that he saw a phoenix fly joyfully into the blue.” (HBP 645)–quote from pages 40-41.

Here’s another screencap from the sixth Harry Potter film.

The tapestry behind Ginny is based on a very famous work of art, “The Unicorn in Captivity.”

It is the seventh in a series of tapestries entitled The Hunt of the Unicorn as an Allegory of the Passion. The unicorn is captured, killed, and resurrected in the series of tapestries, and is thus a Christ symbol. In The Lord of the Hallows, I wrote:

Another set of famous unicorn tapestries, currently housed in the Cloisters, the Medieval exhibit of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, is a set entitled The Hunt of the Unicorn as an Allegory of the Passion. These tapestries, woven in 1495-1505 in the Netherlands, depict the betrayal and passion of Jesus Christ as a unicorn hunt. Although the unicorn is killed in the sixth of the seven tapestries, he appears alive and well in the seventh tapestry. Here, the unicorn is a collared beast in a small enclosure, surrounded by a field of colorful flowers. “The Unicorn in Captivity” is symbolic of the resurrected Christ. A unicorn tapestry copied from this famous work of art appears in the film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), and can be seen clearly behind Ginny Weasley when she takes Harry by the hand in front of the Room of Requirement. –quote from pages 29-30.

If you would like to read more about what I have written about the phoenix and unicorn, as well as the symbolism of the lion, serpent, stag, griffin, eagle, and the weasel, please consider ordering a copy of my book from www.outskirtspress.com/thelordofthehallows. Other topics covered in the book include the influence of Inklings C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien on Rowling’s writing, Harry Potter’s Christian themes (such as free will, the immortality of the soul, and the power of self-sacrificial love), Horcruxes and Hallows, the Arthurian legends of the Grail Hallows, a belief in God in Harry’s world, the Biblical quotations in Godric’s Hollow, Aslan, Frodo, and Harry Potter as Christ figures, and much more!

The book is also available from http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Hallows-Christian-Symbolism-Rowlings/dp/1432741128 I noticed that Luke Bell’s Baptizing Harry Potter and Travis Prinzi’s Hog’s Head Conversations are listed as books that people also buy when purchasing my book. I’ve read both of those volumes, and I would definitely recommend them to all of the Harry Potter fans who follow this blog. Both books are excellent!

You might want to read these posts if you haven’t done so already:

Harry Potter and C. S. Lewis’s Silver Chair: http://phoenixweasley.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/exciting-narnia-news-and-the-deeper-meaning-of-the-silver-chair-and-harry-potter/

The Deeper Meaning of the Quest for the Deathly Hallows (a Grail Hallows Comparison) http://phoenixweasley.wordpress.com/2010/09/26/the-deeper-meaning-of-the-quest-for-the-deathly-hallows/

Weasley Is Our King! (The Weasel as a Christian Symbol) http://phoenixweasley.wordpress.com/2010/08/08/weasley-is-our-king/

The Power of Love and Self-Sacrifice in Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings: http://phoenixweasley.wordpress.com/2010/08/03/the-power-of-love-and-self-sacrifice-in-harry-potter-and-the-lord-of-the-rings/

An Excerpt from My Mythcon 41 Paper on Horcruxes and Sauron’s Ring: http://phoenixweasley.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/mythcon-41/

Melissa Anelli’s Unpublished Rowling Interviews (“Hallows of Hogwarts” and other possible titles for Book 7, and the Dumbledore as “God” & Grindelwald as “Lucifer” quote)  http://phoenixweasley.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/melissa-anelli-and-j-k-rowling-interview/

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Deathly Hallows Trailer Photos (Spoiler Alert!)

Spoiler alert! USA Today has photos from the new trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows posted at http://mediagallery.usatoday.com/%27Harry-Potter-and-the-Deathly-Hallows%27-trailer-released/S99932. This film is going to be amazing!

The Gringott’s dragon looks spectacular! J. R. R. Tolkien warned us not to laugh at live dragons, C. S. Lewis learned to steal past the watchful dragons, and  J. K. Rowling warned us to never tickle a sleeping dragon. Harry, Ron, and Hermione do not laugh at it, sneak past it, or tickle it. They are going to rouse this brute and ride it to escape from Gringott’s.

Although this one is described as an “electrical storm around Hogwarts” I think this may be a depiction of the the magical wards that protect the school, which are breaking down just before the battle begins.

Fans have been speculating about this fellow’s identitiy. I think it is Gregorovitch the Wandmaker.

Voldemort and his Death Eaters. He is holding the Elder Wand!

Bellatrix looks as deranged as ever.

Hagrid and Harry on the flying motorcycle, a vehicle which we haven’t seen since the first movie. Harry was brought to Number 4 Privet Drive as an infant via Sirius’ magical motorcycle, and now he’s leaving there forever by the same method of transport. I know that they have filmed “The Seven Potters” because Daniel Radcliffe mentioned it in an interview recently. The question is, will the fate of Hedwig be the same as in the novel?

This isn’t a scene from the novel that I remember. What is Harry wearing? A straight jacket? It looks like he is restrained, perhaps magically bound by Voldemort. USA Today reveals an interesting exchange of dialogue here:

In this ultra-tense confrontation, Harry’s creepy, noseless nemesis, Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), hisses: “Why do you live?” And Harry responds with characteristic bravery: “Because I have something to live for.”

 

This reminds me of Harry’s last line at the end of the Order of the Phoenix film, as well as Sam Gamgee’s emotional line at the conclusion of The Two Towers: “There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.” The good that Harry is living for and fighting for is love. I suspect the much-discussed Harry/Ginny kiss must take place before this confrontation.

 

Hermione casts spells of protection and concealment around the trio’s hiding place.

We have seen one similar to this one before. Harry is kneeling next to Ron, who splinced himself during the escape from the Ministry of Magic. What I am wondering is, why aren’t Hermione’s hands and Ron’s shoulder bloodier? Compare this one to a previously released photo of this scene.

Notice the difference?

This one wasn’t on the USA Today site. It was released on several Harry Potter fansites on Sunday evening. In this scene Harry realizes that in order to defeat Voldemort, he must sacrifice his own life. I open at the close. Harry is his mother’s son, having the Power the Dark Lord Knows Not….

Here’s another shot of Harry in the Forest.

“I am about to die.”

I am really looking forward to this scene: Ron destroys the Locket of Slytherin Horcrux with the Sword of Gryffindor. Awesome! I was recently discussing this quote with some Harry Potter fans online:

“Ron is the most immature of the three main characters, but in part seven he grows up. He was never strong footed, people see him mostly as Harry’s friend; his mother had actually wanted a girl and in the last book he finally has to acknowledge his weaknesses. But it’s exactly that which makes Ron a man.” — JK Rowling

The fragment of Voldemort’s soul in Slytherin’s Locket will tempt Ron with lies and deceptions, preying upon his fears, weaknesses,and  insecurities. It will torment him, and he will destroy it. That Old Serpent and Father of Lies should indeed fear its mortal enemy, the Weasel.

 

Voldemort in the final duel.

Harry defends himself from the Dark Lord.

This is the most shocking one of all: Harry and Voldemort’s final duel is supposed to take place just before dawn in the Great Hall, but changing the setting to the ruined courtyard strewn with the dead bodies of the Hogwarts students that were killed in the battle is much more poignant. I think we will see the sun rise over the mountains and the castle when the Dark Lord is at last defeated. Harry, as the story’s Christ-figure, is the Sun (Son) of Justice who rises to triumph over the Lord of Darkness. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

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