"I will sing, sing a New Song"
| I am a huge fan of U2's song "40" especially since they have been closing all their shows on the Atomic Bomb tour with "Yahweh" segueing into "40". But this post is not on U2, it is on "The Sorting Hat's New Song" chapter from Order of the Phoenix. I originally started this as a comment in the thread on the post on verse versus prose because I had looked up the fifth book song in responding to a question from JKR2 in that thread, but decided this is too good not to make into a separate post. In looking at the Sorting Hat's song from Book 5 a couple things stood out to me. 1. I think the song must be REALLY important because it gets its own chapter heading, and a title that indicates an important change, "The Sorting Hat's New Song." (emphasis added) 2. I think that there is a clue that something big will be revealed about Hufflepuff and that Hufflepuff will play a big role in reconciliation. Of the four heads she is the only one not to "side with" a particular group or type. There are two recountings of the four dispositions, in the first they speak and in the second they act. This is much like the 2 creation accounts: Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. The first focuses on God's word of power ("And God said, let there be ... and there was"). The second account focuses on what it was that He did in creating: He created the world in relation to Himself and humanity in a unique relation to Himself, a covenant (according to some the number 7 is used in Hebrew as an idiom for making a covenant, you "seven" yourself to another in a covenant). If the four founders and houses correspond roughly to the four elements (Slytherin to water, Gryffindor to Fire, Ravenclaw to wind/air, and Hufflepuff to earth) then their founding of the school is in a way like the creation of the world (although I do not mean this in any way as ascribing a quality of deity to the founders, or anything idolatrous like that). Since they also correspond to the 4 "humors," their founding of the school is also like the creation of the human person. In Hufflepuff's section of of acting (the second of the two recountings) she is described remarkably like a patron of orphans, taking in those who found no home with the other powerful wizards' houses ("Good Hufflepuff, she took the rest, And taught them all she knew"). Keep in mind that Harry is an orphan AND his owl is named after the patron saint of orphans, St Hedwig (this information thanks to Father Roderic in his Harry Potter podcast series over at www.catholicinsider.com ... although Father Roderic has been focusing more on the Chronicles of Narnia film recently). Combine this with the fact that in Goblet of Fire Harry's co-champion for Hogwarts, Cedric Diggory, is a Hufflepuff ... I think there is something really big going to be revealed about Hufflepuff in book 7 and that HP (Hufflepuff ... Harry Potter - is there a connection? now there is some really wild speculation, LOL) will play a big role in the restoration of unity to the four houses and the school. Postscript: Here's a REALLY wild speculation - Cedric dies. What if what is going to be revealed is that Hufflepuff died in self-sacrifice to try to achieve unity between warring Salazar and Godric and her death was part of the same ancient magic that Dumbledore used with Harry's mother and that somehow this magic, and particularly Helga Hufflepuff's participation in it, will facilitate something, be necessary for something, in the final reconciliation. I think that it is highly significant that Hufflepuff was a woman. |
Comments on ""I will sing, sing a New Song""
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Anonymous said ... (January 07, 2006 7:30 PM)
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Merlin said ... (January 07, 2006 7:56 PM)
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Anonymous said ... (January 08, 2006 2:08 AM)
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Merlin said ... (January 08, 2006 8:04 PM)
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Merlin said ... (January 08, 2006 8:27 PM)
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Merlin said ... (January 08, 2006 8:28 PM)
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Anonymous said ... (January 09, 2006 6:29 AM)
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Merlin said ... (January 09, 2006 11:36 AM)
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Anonymous said ... (January 09, 2006 4:24 PM)
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post a commentmmmmmm interesting. i am fascinated to hear more of helga hufflepuff's history now!
btw. did you know that U2 used to finish all their concerts with '40' way back when?
jkr2
Yeah, I would have loved to see those shows way back when. That is what I love about how they are closing the shows with Yahweh and 40 now ... this latest album is more like the older stuff but has a distinct air of much more experience about it, so it is fitting that they close with Yahweh and 40, the emblem of the early U2. I need to get Red Rocks on DVD some day.
My friend Smitty said that at the Pittsburgh show everybody was off stage but Larry and he worked it way down and then just slammed back into it and that even after he left the stage the whole arena was still singing the "how long" line, he said it was pretty amazing.
He also said they just yanked a guy out of the front row because he had a sign that said "let me play guitar on party girl" and had him up there actually playing it. Somebody interviewed the guy later (just some regular punk/rat kid in jeans and tshirt) and it was totally impromptu, I guess as Bono was coming on stage he saw the sign and said to the kid "you're mine." I guess he asked the kid too if he wanted to sing it but the kid said he was pretty sure he would screw that up ... but he did pull off even the guitar solo.
that sounds like classic bono really. i'm just about weeping, cos we missed out on tickets for their tour here next year. i have been to a concert each tour since 88. i am still hoping for an opportunity if they do a second concert in brisbane.
i think 'red rocks' would be an interesting thing to watch again. in some ways they've come full circle, or is it more that they've gone around the mountain but are higher up this time?? :-P
back to the blog, i have been preoccupied thinking about the possibility that some kind of 'old magic' type bond might be why slytherin has remained for so long and what kind of resolution of the 4 houses will come - as it has been so often remarked upon by the sorting hat.
jkr2
That is an interesting theory ... see, you are indeed coming up with new theories that are uniquely your own, maybe without even realizing it, so please allow me to state your theory in proper Merlinian format (how is that for coining a term) *he said coyly*
If I understand you correctly you believe that the ancient magic DD used (although did not invent of course, and it predates him) was a concrete instance that involved the atcions of Hufflepuff and that this instance provided for Slytherin remaining at Hogwarts
I like it because it empasizes the importance of the things Slyytherin prized (self-reliance etc) being allowed to remain in the mix at Hogwarts. As I have said in this post ( http://www.mugglematters.com/2005/11/cunning.html ) I think that the objective validity of Slytherin's perspective comes from itsself (ie what I said in that post about cunning and in following posts about Fred and George and others as "good kinds of cunning."
But just because it is valid does not mean it could not have been in danger of being mistakenly ousted by Godric and others for good intentions ... unless it was protected somehow by the actions of Helga Hufflepuff and the ancient magic.
I think that the ancient magic DD used has a very specific format: that of self-giving love being a protection. There would be several possibilities here. The first is that Helga's actions fell within roughly the same range of "self-giving love" as Harry's mother's. A Second is that That format, while remaining every bit as specific, is on a larger scale that includes all sefl-giving love in a wide variety of ways and that even though Helga's (hypothetical) actions (which we are not really speculating about their particular nature) might not be of exactly the same specific form as Lily's but because the scope is wider they fit the magic. The third possibility would be that this ancient magic is more specific in scope but one of a set of ancient magics that revolve around a core set of principles and that Helga's actions did not fit the specific ancient magic that DD used but did fit the particulars of another of the set of magics (IE perhaps "magic," while being the same thing as now, in ancient times was delineated with a different set of classificatins, and now they teach it under "potions" "charms" "divination" "transfiguration" etc)
Alot of this is speculative but has as much of a possibility of being true as any other of the speculations because it is highly congruos with the underlying principles of Rowling's work and sepculating thus brings out those underlying principles.
On what I just said about the positive aspects of this type of speculation, there is something I have thought of saying or trying to work in for a while.
My housemate Dom and I have often lamented the poor quality of the Star Wars prequels, most of all because there is a good story there to be told. Lucas just tells it poorly. And I don't mean the principles behind the story that are incarnated in the story ... I mean the Anakin-Kenobi-Padme-Luke-Leah-Solo-Jedi-Sith story itslef as a particular story that incarnates particular principles ... it is the way Lucas told the story in the prequels (vs the way it got told in the original movies where there were elements at play like Harrison Ford's genius having more of a free hand in how the character "got written" on the screen) that is really deficient.
(If you want a good instance of how two "characters" from the core story, the Jedi and the Sith, have been used in a MUCH better story, check out the two "Knights of the Old Republic" PC and X-Box formatted RP/Strategy/Action games that have been put out ... the plots and dialogue are a WORLD above Lucas' writing)
This is what you find in a lot of the records of oral traditions. There is a core at the heart of a tale but different authors/tellers work it different ways - including even different events a lot of times, having the characters achieve this or that particular end (an elemen of the core story) in this or that different way (an element of the particular way this or that author writes/tells the story).
That is what I think we are doing with this type of speculation. We know the principles and have pretty good guesses at the core of things (such as Snape being good by the end or at least bearing witness consciously to the truth of goodness, even if he winds up doing it in the words of Captain Ahab, "from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee" ... although I REALLY hope that is not the case, I love Snape) and we're taking stabs at how that might be worked out in the final book, and of course checking those theories against the specifics of the texts to see how they fit or don't fit ... but the aim of the whole thing is that along the way we learn more about the principles themselves of the core stories (ie prophecy as "forth-telling" rather than "for-telling" ... which is why I find myself with so little interest sometimes in at least some of the "theories" about what is coming in book 7 - they seem more interested in merely "for-telling" for it's own sake - which is fine, it's just not at all my interest).
For me this is different from something like the possibility that Rowling really does see the unbreakable vow as a one-side promise ... if this winds up being the case I can't see, at least can't see it right now, how I'll be able to view that as nything other than a deficiency in the core story itself.
here's one final thing ... in lokoing stuff up on the HP lexicon about Hufflepuff (or at least trying to) I noticed that they school has been a round about 1000 years - this is a VERY signifcant number in Biblical writing and in Medeival theology of world history - the ages of the world being represented as 1000 years.
1000 years! really!
so that predates the real 'knights in shining armor' history doesn't it?
jkr2
oh, and thinking more of the 'old magic' ideas it does seem that the whole story is about the balance of 'the whole' and how choices affect that whole. not in a ying/yang kind of way of light and dark and good and evil but more accepting all that we truly are and can be.
so in that thinking hogwarts would actually 'lack' and be 'less' without slytherin. it's not like they just have to put up with them and 'play nice'.
modern society is so duplicitous don't you think? trying to hide it's less attractive etc side, but also protecting it's right to dwell in the weaknesses, and it's dubious pleasures.
like forgiveness has to be received. and to receive it you have to acknowledge the need for it. so hogwarts needs to *want* slytherin to be there and embrace what they contribute.
for me the christ story has been so much about the very substance of my failings being made not just whole or adequate, but a bright and shining thing by the grace of god.
it's what i suspect appeals to me so much in the character and journey of harry. the things that get him in trouble are also signs of the gifts in him. how can he turn from the small souled way of bitterness (eg. towards snape)?
there is this energy and vitality he gets from his rage. how can that be utilized as a loving being?
one of my kids has this relentless mind and a mouth to go with it. an aspect of living with her is being given a non stop narrative on the inner workings of her mind, her reactions to things, the choices she's making etc etc etc. exhausting let me tell you.
another side of it is hearing these absolute gems of observations and intuitions and insights coming out of her 7 year old mouth!
(here's a person who could REALLY do with a penseive!!!!)( it'll be great when she's old enough to have a blog to channel it all into. we just set up an old laptop with a microphone and she talks some of her thoughts into it when, as i tell her, my ears are all full!)
total rave there. apologies!
jkr2 (again)
JKR2,
I'm afraid you'll have to refresh my memory on where thet 1000 years element fits into the knights in shining armour ... i am afriad I am a bit rusty (as much as it hurts me to admit it lol :) )
on the other things, let's see, I think I have 3 things I wanted to note.
1. On modern society's duplicitness - yes, you're exactly right. IT is actually a very old thing that always comes back round and sticks around. The Manicheans whom St Augustine broke away from and spent his life debating, were probably the most famous for it. They were Gnostics, believing that spirit is intrinsically good and matter intrinsically evil. The one place what you are speaking of was most evident was marriage and sex. Naturally, having a material aspect, they were considered evil by the Manicheans - but who can go their life without? so you were allowed your "little vices." It may be a bit hyperbole of a way to say it and I would probably research more and qualify more if I were saying it in an academic paper, but from what I remember I think it is a justified hyperbole to say that to the Manichese it was actually more respectable to have several mistresses than to get married.
2. On what you were saying about faults being turned to great things through Grace. If you have not read it you need to Read CS Lewis' The Great Divorce - you will absolutely love it - there is a part on a shade who allows the red lizard on his shoulder to be killed and it seems like it kills them both but then BOTH are resurrected in a new form.
3. You're daughter sounds very interesting. You might also try one of those digital voice recorders - my father bought me one at one point as a Christmas present I think, that holds I think about 45 minutes at high quality and 3 hours at lowest quality - but the thing is they come with a program that you can USB it into a pc and save the files in wave format - I was even able to use the thing to record me on guitar and vocals (had to use a small amplifier to even out the levels of voice and guitar and add some reverb to the voice) and burn it to an audio cd using something like Roxio (I had to get a freeware prorgram though to go from the particular type of wave file it saves to a wave format that Roxio would work with, or maybe I took it to mp3, can't remember) ... anwyay, I used it to record the stuff I like to play (both "covers" and originals)
They're nice becuase they are so portable in themselves and they have a lot better sound quality than the old analog stuff like hand held tape recorders or those mini-cassette recorders. you might even find your daughter using it to record conversations with you on her thoughts (or you might find yourself doing it ... just pressing record and setting it on the shelf slyly when she starts to talk while ur doing dishes etc), stuff she/you might look back on years later and enjoy greatly and be really glad you have it to listen too.
I now remember that I even used it to sing happy birthday to our friend Nathan's 10 year old daughter on her b-day, I recorded it and uploaded it onto a web folder I have online and then emailed her older brother Josh with a link and told him to have her come down and play it for her ... loads of fun.
the reference to to knights in shining armor was because of godric gryffindor's sword.
jkr2