What Is In a Name?
| I just thought of this in connection with what I said about the serpent in the post on "Cunning." It is in a different connection, more from the "academic" side of my own studies on the passages in Genesis, which I will not go into in any depth here. Briefly it is that I have changed my view on the first sin from thinking that there was a particular concrete nature to the sin in the mind of the Hebrew author to think that there may have been a "void" there for that author. It is like when Virgil covers Dante's eyes from seeing the gargoyle on the gates of Dis ... there are some evils upon which one should not even look. That is not to say that there was not an idea in the Hebrew author's mind of a distinct event of a singular first sin ... i.e., I am not saying the author was just "symbolizing the general problem of evil in the world," but I think the author was probably justly concerned about not having a concrete idea of the details of the sin in his mind, justly for the pre-Incarnational Hebrew setting although the Incarnation has radically changed things ... and thus Christian interpretation also considers the Christian taking up of the original Hebrew Scriptures. Anyway, on to the post: I recently watched the movie "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" with mine and Pauli's friend Nathan. After the movie Nate asked me a specific question about the movie, and that question was why the priest was so insistent in asking the demon its name. For Exorcisms the name is very important; identification and direct address is very important. Keeping this in mind, think about "he who must not be named." Dumbledore and Harry are the only ones who will name him - unless Snape does, which to me would be a strong indicator of his being on the good side. In order to fight Voldemort one must be willing to call him by his name, like the exorcist. Tom Riddle, Jr. was the boy, Voldemort is the man that boy has become. In a sense he is the rejection of natural naming. A name is a gift from a parent to their child, a gift tied to their personhood. In the Old Testament the name of God is a symbol of unique presence of God - in later Jewish books, such as a Siddur, which contain the Torah, or the first five books of the OT, the "tetragrammaton" name of God, YaHWeH, has been replaced with "HaShem," which means "the name." Voldemort has rejected his natural name and has thus made himself a symbol of rejecting the natural, and in order to fight him one must name this central part of him by calling him by the name he chose in doing this ... Lord Voldemort. NOTE: If any perceive a discrepancy between my statements about the Hebrew author of Genesis not wanting a concrete idea in mind of the first sin, which might be seen as a "naming" of the sin, and what I have said about Lord Voldemort, keep two things in mind: 1. I noted that the approach to some things change radically with the Advent of the Incarnation. 2. Voldemort is not an "event" or a concrete detail of a particular type of event such as sin ... Voldemort is a human person. |
Comments on "What Is In a Name?"
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Anonymous said ... (January 05, 2006 6:48 PM)
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Merlin said ... (January 05, 2006 9:24 PM)
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Merlin said ... (January 05, 2006 9:29 PM)
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post a commentthis puts me in mind of the le guin / earthsea concept ('borrowed' it seems by the author of eragon) that the true name holds the very essence of a thing, so true names are hidden and only given to those who are deeply trusted.
do you know if le guinn borrowed this from elsewhere in literary or other traditions?
jkr (in australia)
I think that there is probably another source back there, but I don't know how far in relation to le guinn since I'm not really familiar with that.
But off the top of my head two things come to mind. I seem to remember (and it is a very hazy memory) something of that same thing in the "Elf Quest" comic series a long time ago. A friend in college had the books and I read through them. I think I remember that there was something of the elves sharing their secret name in some way ... but that may be post le guinn and borrowing as well (I am currently trying to read Eragon and have certain thoughts about it and the author's dedication in the front flap, thoughts of a not-so-positive character, but it's something I don't really get into here)
But the other thing is the name of Yahweh in the Old Testament (recalling here my fascination with the closing song on U2's Atomic Bomb album). Certain key figures and events surround names and naming in the Pentateuch/Torah (the first five books of the OT). Cain rejected his punishment of exile for killing Abel (there would have been more hope for him had he humbly accepted it and trusted Yahweh's promise of protection) and moves to the land of Nod, East of Eden, and builds a city which he names for his son Enoch ... a city which culminates in the heights of "civilization" but also in the murderous and polygamous descendant Lamech. (Genesis 4) The "giants" or "mighty warriors" who were born of the union of the "sons of God" with the "daughters of men" were "men of reknown" or literally "men of the name" (Genesis 6:1-4 - I recently turned in a 25-30 pp exegesis of that passage as a writing sample for PHD programs). Those who try to build the Tower of Babel are seeking to build "a name for themselves." (Genesis 11) In fact, the first "first-born son" (not simply listed first in a list of sons, although there may have been others before - there is a special word in Hebrew for the "first-born son") to actually fulfill what first-born sons were supposed to be was named "name," - Shem, the son of Noah. In fact there is a theory based in the listing of lifespans in the genealogies that Shem outlived Abraham (who was born much later) and that Shem was actually the Melchizadek (king of righteousness) who blesses Abraham, who was also a faithful first-born son. In other words the first faithful first-born son, named Shem or "name," passed on the familial blessing to the next faithful first-born son, his descendant Abraham (who, you will note, undergoes a name change from Abram to Abraham - this material/theory is taken from class lectures by Dr Scott Hahn - and if you ask me to cite which course he said it in, my honest reply is "all of the ones I took" ... why do you think I remember it so well as to be able to spit it back out off the top of my head). Like Abram havinghis name changed to Abraham, Jacob has his changed to Israel (you can see in these instance a very rich tradition behind the Catholuc practice of the Pope taking a new name, eg Karol Wojtyla becoming John Paul II, or Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger becoming Benedict XVI - Riddle becoming Voldemort is the evil perversion of these renamings, seeking to be a pontiff of raw power)
Finally, Yahweh's name is seen as a special instance of His person or presence. In contemporary Jewish books such as a Siddur, which contains the Torah, the Tetragrammaten (the 4 letter name of God, YHWH) is replaced simply with "haShem" - "The Name" (I just sort of found that out by accident, I was in Manhattan the weekend of the 2003 blackout and was in the Strand bookstore on the corner of 12th and Broadway (they now boast 18 miles of books, the first time I was there years ago it was 8 miles) after power was restored [10 degress hotter in the main aisle inside than the street outside and another at least 10 hotter in the side stacks] and bought a Siddur and noticed this)
by the by, I'm a huge fan of contemporary movies that incorporate these things, like Indiana Jones and the Las Crusade, where the middle of 3 trials for getting to the Grail involves the "name of God."