Ex Libris

** THIS POST DISCUSSES PLOT ELEMENTS OF THE HARRY POTTER STORY. SO, SPOILERS**

Character Names Reveal Christian Truth

I thought, since some of the literary interpretations rely on Rowling’s names and animal characters, we would address these first.

Often the names of characters are laden with subtle Christian meaning, besides being enormously creative and fun. J.K. Rowling was classically educated, and basked in the great literature of Western Civilization, and even studied the great medieval theologians (Augusine, Aquinas, etc.) and ancient writers (Plato) in the original languages.

The Griffindor Quidditch Team

Beside’s Harry, whose name gets its own section later in this post, and the Weasley Twins, our side characters are the three chasers and the keeper, who are (in order) Alicia Spinnet, Katie Bell, and Angelina Johnson.

Now, when we meet Griffindor and Slytherin for the first time in Sorcerer’s Stone, we discover that Slytherin has been dominating both the Hogwarts House Cup, and has won on the Quidditch field for seven years in a row (Sorcerer’s Stone, p . 152, 304). But now that Harry’s on the team, they hope the tides have turned, and indeed, Slytherin’s winning streak is shattered, particularly in the House Cup at the end (SS, pp. 305-309).

But to the names. Once we look at all the names, we realize that the Griffindor Quidditch team is a flying symbolic cathedral. A Spinnet is an organ, popular in many churches, a Bell is obvious, but also a popular church piece, and then, an Angelina is an angel statue, made of stone or wood, popular in older English churches. Finally, the Griffindor keeper is Oliver Wood, and Olive Wood is used for devotional carvings in churches in older Christian traditions. In addition, the fellow whe replaces one of the Weasley Twins asa beater in Order of the Phoenix is named Kirke, the German name for “church.”

Other Names

Filch, the Hogwarts caretaker, has a cat named Mrs. Norris, who is also a character in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park (Rowling’s favorite writer is Austen), Trelawney and Flint are named after the famous Robert Louis Stevenson characters, Seamus Finnegan is likely a tribute and reference to James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake.

It is probable that Cedric Digory is named after another famous Christian writer’s character, that of C.S. Lewis’s Digory Kirke (I think that the fact that these two names both pop up is a sure signal this is what Rowling was doing).

Harry’s Parents and Patrons

Harry’s parents are named James and Lily Potter, and both names are significant. Rowling works a lot with alchemy symbols, which has a long and rich literary tradition used by such greats as Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien, to Chaucer and Joyce, and others. This is not as esoteric as it may seem, and has a strong place in Christianity, the three stages of alchemy paralleling the stages of Regeneration, Baptism, and Glorification. We will have a whole post on this.

But Saint James is the patron saint of alchemists and was also the brother of Christ, the only sibling of Christ to recognize Christ as the messiah in the New Tesatament and after the Ascention was made Bishop of Jerusalem.

The lily is a symbol of the middle stage, and represents purification, and so is the name Luna (Luna Lovegood pops up in Order of the Phoenix, which is itself significant). The Lily is symbolic of spring and renewal, which is why they are associated with death - they are the flower of Annunciation, of the Resurrection, life after death, and of the promise of Christ’s second return.

Harry’s School Friends

Hermione is the feminine form of Hermes, who is both the Greek messenger god Mercury (which also can represent the middle stage), was also the name of a famous medieval alchemist.

Godric, the name of the founder of the House of Griffindor, is also a saint, named after Godric of Finchale.

“Godric is perhaps best remembered for his kindness toward animals, and many stories recall his protection of the creatures who lived near his forest home. According to one of these, he hid a stag from pursuing hunters . . .” - Wikipedia.

This is interesting, because it confirms that Rowling indeed named Godric Griffindor for St. Godric. Harry’s parents went into hiding, and lived in secret in Godric’s Hollow, a place Godric Griffindor had himself lived. Harry’s father was an animagus, who could turn into a great stag. This stag, Harry’s father, was on the run from Voldemort and his followers, and was hidden in Godric’s Hollow (the Stag is also a classic symbol for Christ).

Neville Longbottom’s name is particularly interesting. Neville himself is considered of little worth in the wizarding world, he himself acknowledges that he’s barely more than a Squib in Chamber of Secrets. Neville means “the nowhere man” and Longbottom means “fat ass” and also “long on the bottom of the pile.” Yet Neville’s strange connection to Harry through the Prophecy, and his great successes while a member of Dumbledore’s Army, and his integral, heroic victory over Nagini, Voldemort’s huge snake, at the great, epic climax of Deathly Hallows, and his brilliance and respect afterward both certainly reinforce Scripture’s testimony (Matt. 20:16; Mark 10:31).

Dumbledore

Dumbledore’s first name is Albus, which is both a literary symbol of the second stage of the alchemical process, and means “glorious, resplendent, radient,” and Dumbledore itself means “bumblebee.” The bee is a traditional literary symbol for the soul, and often moves in swarms, or clouds, harkening us back to Scripture’s picture of the spirit (John 3:8). And so put together, Dumbledore’s name means “glorious soul,” (see Matt. 17:1-9) and so it is no surprise that he is the advocate of all magical and non-magical peoples who are downtrodden and enslaved (such as house-elves).

Voldemort

Voldemort’s birth name was Tom Morvolo Riddle, which is explained to Harry by Riddle’s soul, can be rearranged into “I am Lord Voldemort” (Chamber of Secrets, p. 314). Tom has a strange enigma, his odd connection to Harry (Thomas in Aramaic means “twin”), but Voldemort’s conflict goes deeper within him than that. The name Voldemort literally means both “the flight of death,” and “the flight from death,” showing Voldemort’s greatest fear and his greatest conceit. Voldemort has spent his life fleeing from death through the use of forbidden dark magics, and it is death that he fears the most.

“There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!” snarled Voldemort.

“You are quite wrong,” said Dumbledore . . .

- Order of the Phoenix, p. 814

Voldemort spent his brilliance trying to escape the clutches of death through magic, through his own power. Yet, at the same time, the curse that we ever see Voldemort using ninety percent of the time is the killing curse of death, “Avada Kadavra.” So we see Voldemort’s arragance revolves around death as well, he sees himself as both the “flight of death,” the angel of death, who delivers people to the place he fears the most, the afterlife, on his own personal “flight from death.” We see Voldemort using a power he doesn’t understand and thinks he has mastered, while all the time being deathly afraid of the very curse he uses on others without discrimination.

The Malfoys

Lucius Malfoy’s name is quite evil, just as the whole family seems to be. Lucius easily suggests Lucifer, and his wife’s name is Narcissa, named after the Narcissus plant. THis is where the term narcissist comes from, which means “love of self.” Their son, Draco, is Harry’s nemesis at school, and to no surprise, either, the name Draco meaning “dragon” in Latin (and see Rev. 12:3, 4, 7, 9, 13, 16, 17; 13:2, 4, 11; 16:13; 20:2).

The name Malfoy means “bad faith” or “faith in evil” in French and this they certainly have, right up until near the end of Deathly Hallows, when their faith in Voldemort is truly shattered.

Harry Potter

There have been many suggestions for what the name Harry Potter means, each one less likely than the one before. However, there are some basics we can examine.

The word Harry most commonly means to “harass, annoy, disturb.” There is certainly some truth to this name, as Harry is harassed, annoyed, and disturbed by his years at Hogwarts, and he certainly harasses, annoys, and disturbs others as well, not including Snape, Draco, and Voldemort. Mr. Dursley, at the beginning of Sorcerer’s Stone thinks Harry’s name is “Harold,” (SS, p. 5) which is significant because it is the name-form of “Herald,” or “one who announces,” and is also related to royalty.

The word Potter has two likely meanings, both deeply connected with Christianity and Christendom. The potter is one who makes pots, and this is a popular image of God’s relationship to humanity, that God shaped us in His own Image (Isa. 64:8; Jer. 18:5-6; Rom. 9:20-21). God is the potter, we are the clay, and when God is referenced in terms of His being a potter, it is saying He is Creator, Redeemer, and Judge, wrapped up in one, and is meant to point out that “vapor, vapor, all is vapor,” (Eccl. 1:2, properly translated). In other words, God made us, some to salvation, some to destruction, He can use His creation any way He likes, and is is no business of ours if He decides to smash some of His pots, and preserve others.

Potter is also remarkably close to Pater (as in “Pater Noster”), which means “father” (both earthly and Heavenly fathers) in Latin. Potter and Pater are pronounced exactly the same too.

So, putting all of this together, we find that “Harry James Potter” means “one who announces the Pater/Potter,” or an ambassador of Christ (2 Cor. 5:20), or a Christian. Harry is a symbol of fallen man seeking redemption through faithful glorification into the likeness of Christ. He is definitely fallen, as Harry has the corrupt fragment of Voldemort’s soul accidentally bestowed upon him by Voldemort the night he survived the killing curse, and even without that Harry is still far from perfect. But this fragment of serpentine soul within him begins to writhe (especially in Order of the Phoenix), and causes him to “not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate,” (Rom. 7:15). In fact, the fragment of Voldemort’s soul in Harry’s person sounds remarkably like Paul when he speaks of the sin nature as being some kind of foreign thing within him, some kind of intruder or invader: “So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me,” (Rom. 7:17).

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. … For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Rom. 7:19-20, 22-25).

Harry is the “Son of God,” but he is not Christ, nor a symbol thereof. Rather, he is a son of God by adoption into the family of God, as we are all sons of God (Matt. 5:9; Luke 20:36; Rom. 8:14, 19; Gal. 3:26; 4:6). Or as the great St. Athasnasius wrote, “God became man, so that man might become God.” This does not mean we become divine, like New Agers think, no, it is merely a statement of a long-held belief in the Early Church called Theosis.

What would otherwise seem absurd, that fallen, sinful man may become holy as God is holy, has been made possible through Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate. Naturally, the crucial Christian assertion, that God is One, sets an absolute limit on the meaning of theosis - it is not possible for any created being to become, ontologically, God, or even part of God.

- Wikipedia (above link on “Theosis”)

James B. Jordan calls this process of becoming holy a “transformation,” “transfiguration,” or “glorification” (See James Jordan, “What Did Jesus Do?: Merit or Maturity,” in The Federal Vision; his brief discussion in Through New Eyes as well). John Chrysostom called this becoming “little Christs within Christ.”

Harry is a symbol of Christ only in that he imitates Him, as we are supposed to do. Harry follows Christ even to the cross and back, freeing the captives and repressed (house-elves, etc), providing protection for those he loves (Deathly Hallows, p. 737, 738), and living in faith as “Dumbledore’s man” to return to fight again and crush the head of the serpent, just as Christ did: “The God of Peace will soon crush Satan under your feet,” (Rom. 16:20).

I’ve gotten a little ahead of myself. Oh well. We’ll be looking at all of those things in much more detail later. What we see from this, though, is that the names in the Harry Potter saga are too numerous and too perfectly chosen for each character for me to be completely B.S.ing here. The names of the Harry Potter saga were all carefully chosen to convey their meaning to the thoughtful reader, and I have not addressed many, many other names that are not particularly related to Christianity, but show a depth and breadth of literary and mythological knowledge.