These themes reappear in each book. Harry receives new amulets each time, such as the invisibility cloak in Stone and the Marauder’s Map in Azkaban. He learns how to call on forces such as his Patronus. In Phoenix, he receives training in Occlumency to prevent Voldemort from reading his mind.
Harry’s Patronus appears as a stag, because that was his father’s Animagus form.
The hero is abducted or must take a journey at night or by sea.
Harry is literally kidnapped in Goblet when he touches the Triwizard Cup, which has been turned into a portkey. In Phoenix, he feels as though he has been kidnapped while he sleeps.
The hero fights a symbolic dragon. He may suffer a ritual death, perhaps even dismemberment.
Harry battles a basilisk, Dementors, and, of course, the greatest symbolic dragon of all—Voldemort.
And it seems that in each adventure Harry suffers new, crippling injuries—for instance, he is literally dismembered in Chamber, when his arm breaks during the Quidditch match and his bones are accidentally removed with an incompetent spell.
The hero is recognized by or reunited with his father. He comes to understand this source of control over his life.
In every adventure Harry experiences a deeply touching moment of contact with his parents, such as when they appear in the Mirror of Erised in Stone and as ghost images released from Voldemort’s wand in Goblet. He sees them again when he retrieves Snape’s memory from the pensieve in Phoenix. That vision suddenly makes clear why Snape has hated him from the moment they met.
The hero becomes nearly divine. He has traveled past ignorance and fear.
Harry conquers fear in each adventure. Though he seems surprised to do so again and again, he has a sense, which grows after each confrontation with Voldemort, that the Dark Lord will not defeat him. As Dumbledore says at the end of Goblet, “You have shouldered a grown wizard’s burden and found yourself equal to it.” Rowling has Dumbledore make almost the same speech at the end of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: “You rose magnificently to the challenge that faced you . . . You fought a man’s fight.” Dumbledore is almost unspeakably proud.
The hero receives “the ultimate boon,” the goal of his quest. It may be an elixir of life. It may be different from the hero’s original goal because he is wiser.
A commoner may be revealed to be the descendant of a great hero upon receiving the hero’s sword. King Arthur pulled Excalibur from a stone; in a Norse saga, Sigmund is given a sword by the god Odin, who later gives it to Sigmund’s son. Harry pulls Godric Gryffindor’s sword from the Sorting Hat.
In Stone, the Mirror of Erised places “the ultimate boon”—which in fact does make an elixir of life—right in his pocket.
In Chamber, he defeats the monster that has lived underneath Hogwarts for decades, saving Ginny Weasley (and countless other students who might have become the basilisk’s victims).
In Azkaban, he “finds” the prize all the wizards are seeking: Sirius Black. But having learned the truth about Black, he finds a way to spare him an apparently inevitable death sentence—just as if he had given him an elixir of life.
In Goblet, the goal is obvious: the victory in the Triwizard Tournament. But what Harry discovers is much deeper. He
fights Voldemort wand-to-wand, and escapes death again—this time by virtue of his own skills. He begins to realize just how powerful a wizard he is.
In Phoenix, he learns about the powerful prophecy made about him as a baby, finally learning why Voldemort wants to kill him.
III. Return
The hero takes a “magic flight” back to his original world. He may be rescued by magical forces. One of his original protectors may aid him. A person or thing from his original world may appear to bring him back.
Harry is miraculously saved in Stone, and travels back while still unconscious.
In Chamber, he is rescued by Fawkes. The phoenix brings the Sorting Hat to deliver Gryffindor’s sword, then attacks the basilisk.
In Goblet, speaking to the image of Cedric Diggory released from Voldemort’s wand, Harry makes a solemn commitment to return Diggory’s body to Hogwarts. He is then transported back by the Triwizard Cup, which has been turned into a portkey.
In Phoenix, Dumbledore turns the head of the wizard from the Ministry’s statue into a portkey, then hands it to Harry to magically speed him back to Hogwarts.
The hero crosses the return threshold. He may have difficulty adjusting to his original life,
where people will not fully comprehend his experience.
After each school year he must return to the Dursley home on Privet Drive, where understanding is impossible. Even other wizards have trouble comprehending, as J. K. Rowling describes at the end of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: “Nobody at Hogwarts now knew the truth of what had happened . . . As the end of term approached, Harry heard many different theories about what had really happened, but none of them came close to the truth.” Rowling revisits the same idea at the end of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: “Perhaps the reason he wanted to be alone was because he felt isolated from everybody since his talk with Dumbledore. An invisible barrier separated him from the rest of the world.”
The hero becomes master of two worlds: the everyday world, which represents his material existence; and the magical world, which signifies his inner self.
Simply being in the presence of Voldemort is the worst nightmare of most wizards. But Harry has been there often, seeing things no other wizard has seen. These encounters have made him aware of a part of his psyche that other wizards never consider. One can be sure that eventually—even if he is doubtful—these experiences will help him become a greater wizard than even Dumbledore. (No doubt Dumbledore is aware of this, and pleased by it.)
The hero has won the freedom to live. He has conquered the fears that prevent him from living fully.
Fear, we are told, is Harry’s greatest enemy—even greater than Voldemort. Professor Lupin did not let Harry practice fighting the boggart because he did not want an image of Voldemort flying through Hogwarts. But Harry tells him, “I didn’t think of Voldemort . . . I remembered those Dementors.” Lupin is impressed by Harry’s insight. “That suggests that what you fear most of all is fear. Very wise, Harry” (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling).
ACTING THE HERO
In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Rowling herself pokes a bit of fun at the repetition of these ideas: Ron challenges Harry about “acting the hero” and Hermione asks if he might have a “saving-people thing.” But Rowling does not follow a step-by-step diagram. These patterns appear in each of Rowling’s books, as they have in mythology and folklore for centuries, because the quest of heroes stays the same. To battle the dark forces in the world, heroes must face the dark forces within, and rediscover in each adventure that they are worthy of victory. We understand Harry because, as Campbell says, “every one of us shares the supreme ordeal.”
See also: Dumbledore Voldemort
Why Are Runes Carved on the Pensieve?
DUMBLEDORE HAS SO MANY MEMORIES HE stores some in a pensieve, “a shallow stone basin” with “odd carvings around the edge.” (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). J. K. Rowling created the name from the French word penser (“to think”) and sieve, which is a tool used to strain liquids and separate out desired things.
Harry recognizes some of the carvings as runes. So what are runes, and why would they belong on a pensieve?
Runes were the first alphabet of the tribes of northern Europe, used in Britain, Scandinavia, and Iceland. They appeared about the third century AD and endured more than a millennium. The first six letters were f, u, th, a, r, and k, so the alphabet is sometimes called “futhark.”
Rûn is Gaelic for “secret,” and helrûn means “divination,” suggesting that the alphabet wasViking runes carved on a rock.
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Runes appear often in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the
Rings. The all-important ring mentioned in the title is engraved with a runic message. Tolkien, who loved creating new words as much as J. K. Rowling does, created an entire runic alphabet and language.
A tablet carved with runes, from about A.D. 1000.
used in magic rituals. They are said to come from the gods themselves. Odin hanged himself for nine days from Yggdrasil, the great ash tree that holds earth, heaven, and hell, to earn knowledge of the runes. Odin’s sacrifice to gain knowledge for humankind symbolizes how greatly learning was valued. In fact, when runes were first used there was little distinction between scholars and wizards. Runes were sometimes used for divination, and in recent years this practice has become popular again. Their symbols are read the way some fortune-tellers read tarot cards.
In Phoenix, Hermione takes Ancient Runes and worries that she confused two of them, ehwaz and eihwaz, on her exam. She did. The definitions Rowling mentions are actually used by people who cast runes to tell fortunes: ehwaz signifies partnership and eihwaz signifies defense.
Why Does the Sphinx Ask Harry a Question?
DURING THE THIRD TASK OF THE
Triwizard Tournament, as he nears the center of the maze, Harry meets a Sphinx—“an extraordinary creature,” part lion and part woman, with “long, almond-shaped eyes.” She tells him, “You are very near your goal. The quickest way is past me” (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling). But instead of fighting her, as he would a dragon, he must
The face on the Great Sphinx at Giza was actually modeled on a king of Egypt. answer a question.
The Sphinx’s strange form and enigmatic manner make it the very symbol of mystery. William Shakespeare once asked, “[I]s not Love . . . subtle as a Sphinx?” Love’s Labours Lost (Act IV, scene iii)
EGYPTIAN ORIGINS
The Sphinx is a creature from Egyptian mythology. The huge stone sculpture of the Great Sphinx in the Egyptian desert at Giza, built about 2500 BC, is evidence of the creature’s ancient origins and importance. Thousands of smaller Sphinxes were built around Egypt, occasionally with heads modeled on birds of prey.
In the thousand years after the Great Sphinx was built, the legends of the creature moved to Greece. There it was described as having a female body and wings. The Sphinx Harry meets is the Greek version.
THE SPHINX OF THEBES
A particular Sphinx of Greek legend is especially well known. It was sent by the goddess Hera to punish Laius, the king of Thebes, who had kidnapped a young man. That Sphinx challenged travelers on the road to Thebes with a three-part riddle similar to the one Harry was asked to solve:
What animal goes on four feet in
the morning,
Two at noon,
And three in the evening?
Any traveler was permitted to turn back without answering; but the Sphinx killed anyone who answered incorrectly.
One day it was approached by a young man named Oedipus. He happened to be Laius’s son and heir. (But, like Harry, he was unaware of his noble origins.) Oedipus displayed his exceptional qualities by answering the riddle correctly: “Man creeps on hands and knees in childhood, walks upright in adulthood, and in old age uses a cane.” Having been beaten, the Sphinx killed herself.
Another type of sphinx, with the head of a ram, was known as the Criosphinx. (Krios is ancient Greek for “ram.”)
The Sphinx questions Oedipus.
See also: Beasts Centaurs Fluffy Mazes
In another version of the story, the questioner is not a creature but Oedipus’s sister. They don’t know each other because Oedipus had left home at an early age. But she has been told about a secret prophecy that Laius’s son would return to Thebes, so it was her habit to question all men who came to the city. Oedipus had been told of the prophecy in a dream, so he answered her questions correctly and claimed the kingdom.
How Do You Scare a Spider?
ALL SORTS OF SPIDERS—SOME ORDINARY, some unusual—live near Hogwarts. Most of them are common and harmless. A few, like Aragog, Mosag, and their children, are huge, intelligent, and gifted with speech.
ARAGOG’S NAME
The source of Aragog’s name is the same as the source of “arachnid,” the scientific name for spiders. They both come from a mythical woman, Arachne, who was especially gifted in spinning and weaving. Being a bit too proud,
The goddess Athena.
Arachne challenged Athena, Greek goddess of handicrafts, to a contest. Arachne beat Athena, but the goddess was so annoyed that she turned Arachne into a spider, forcing her to weave only webs. The names Aragog and Mosag also echo the names of the giants Gog and Magog. As well, mosag is a Gaelic word meaning “dirty woman.” And in what is probably just a nice coincidence, it’s also nearly an anagram of “gossamer”—something light as air, like a spider’s web.
MAN-EATERS
In Chamber, Aragog seems perfectly willing to let his children eat Ron and Harry. He is following a long tradition. Many authors have enjoyed creating man-eating monsters out of spiders. By comparison, J. K. Rowling’s spiders, though perfectly happy to eat humans, seem more understanding than most. They’re much kinder than Shelob, the one created by J. R. R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings, who ate any humans or elves unlucky enough to stumble into her cave and thought of little except her next meal.
THE USEFULNESS OF SPIDERS
Evil spiders are common; but there have been many instances of spiders helping humans. In the early 1300s, Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland, was inspired to resist the English one last time when he saw a spider tenaciously struggling to build a web. He and his followers went on to win their full independence. As a result, a legend arose that no kinsman of Bruce could kill a spider!
Often spiders enjoy powerful knowledge. Native Americans tell stories of Iktomi, a trickster spirit, who imparted his wisdom to a Lakota while spinning a web. There is both good and bad in the world, Iktomi explained. Wisdom is heeding the good while letting the bad pass by. He told his student to use the web to catch the good while letting the evil pass through the hole at the center. Thus was created the custom of hanging dreamcatchers, rings strung with webbing, over a bed to catch good dreams. Among the legends of the Pacific Islands is the story of a spider called Areop-Enap, who existed at the beginning of time, when there was only the sea and himself. Then Areop-Enap created all the other things in the world—the moon, the sun, and humankind. The legends of Ghana include another trickster spider-god, Anansi, who creates the world and then delights in playing jokes on humans.
See also: Basilisk
Aragog and his family are good examples of what seem to be important rules in Harry’s world: appearances can be deceiving; and most creatures, like humans, tend to treat others only as badly as they’ve been treated.
It makes sense that underneath the ugliness and anger of Aragog is a feeling creature that can be good rather than evil. In fact, he gives Harry an important clue to the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets. For a time, Aragog was mistakenly believed to be the monster set free from the chamber fifty years before Harry’s adventure. But that monster, says Aragog in Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was actually “an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others.” Harry later learns Aragog is referring to the basilisk; and when he sees spiders fleeing Hogwarts he knows the great snake is loose.
Why Do Trolls Stink?
TROLLS ARE A RACE OF OGRES—UNPLEASANT in both appearance and personality. Professor Quirrell, who later claims “a special gift with trolls,” secretly lets a mountain troll into Hogwarts: “It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite grey, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet. The smell coming from it was incredible” (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling).
Legends of trolls originated in Scandinavia, where the creatures alarmed residents of the countryside with their size and magical
ability. According to some legends they lived in castles; other stories had them living in underground palaces. They only came out at night, and could be turned into stone by sunlight.
As Scandinavians moved to Britain, trollsMagical creatures expert Carol Rose says that in Norway, female trolls were beautiful.
Certain large rocks in the British north lands are said to be trolls who stayed out until daybreak.
See also: Goblins
were said to have tagged along, making their homes under bridges. That may explain why they reek of sewer water.
Their bad reputation among humans is based on a variety of legends. They dislike the noise humans make, so they are often cranky; they snatch women and children; some of them are cannibals. In Peer Gynt, a famous play by Norwegian author Henrik Ibsen, the title character lightheartedly acts like a troll, warning: “I’ll come to your bedside at midnight tonight. If you should hear someone hissing and spitting, you mustn’t imagine it’s only the cat. It’s me, lass! I’ll drain out your blood in a cup; and your little sister, I’ll eat her up.”
Perhaps trolls, like giants, are judged unfairly. Later in Ibsen’s play, Peer Gynt actually meets a troll, who tells him, “We troll-folk, my son, are less black than we’re painted.” It’s hard to believe that trolls are actually kind, though they may be no worse than humans. At one point Gynt’s friend asks him, “What difference is there ’twixt trolls and men?” Gynt replies, “No difference at all, as it seems to me. Big trolls would roast you and small trolls would claw you; with us it would be likewise, if only men dared.”
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