Eating Death?
Sep. 14th, 2015 12:28 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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deathtocapslockIn poking around more while researching stuff for my coming discussion of Severus and Voldemort for Indestructible, I discovered a curious little fact that seems fitting.
In "Indestructible Intermezzo II - Etymological Excursus," I noted that:
"Our poison synonym, ‘toxic,’ on the other hand, derives ultimately from the Greek word for bow, toxon: the term toxicon pharmakon referred to the poison smeared on arrows, and was borrowed into Latin as toxicum, ‘poison.’ Meanwhile the probably-Scythian word for bow that entered Greek as toxon was also borrowed directly into Latin as taxus, the Latin word for ‘yew.’ A tree long associated with both death and resurrection, and from whose wood, of course, Voldemort got his wand."
And today, while researching the yew tree, I found an unexpected connection back to Severus.
All species of yew tree are known to contain varieties of a highly toxic class of alkaloids called taxanes. Every part of the tree other than the flesh of the red berry-like arils contains these toxins, including the seeds, wood, and leaves. Though the birds who eat the arils and spread the seeds are generally unable to break down the seeds and be affected by the poison, and larvae of a few species of moth and butterfly will eat yew foliage, to most animals consuming yew is fatally poisonous. Human beings consuming yew 'berries' without removing the seeds have died, and cattle and horses have been found dead near yew trees after trying to eat the leaves.
There does, however, seem to be an exception to this rule. Deer are able to break down the toxin, and so will eat the leaves of yew trees. Indeed, they graze so freely on yew that in the wild yew trees are commonly found only on steep slopes inaccessible to deer.
Apparently deer can eat death and live.
You can't make this stuff up.
In "Indestructible Intermezzo II - Etymological Excursus," I noted that:
"Our poison synonym, ‘toxic,’ on the other hand, derives ultimately from the Greek word for bow, toxon: the term toxicon pharmakon referred to the poison smeared on arrows, and was borrowed into Latin as toxicum, ‘poison.’ Meanwhile the probably-Scythian word for bow that entered Greek as toxon was also borrowed directly into Latin as taxus, the Latin word for ‘yew.’ A tree long associated with both death and resurrection, and from whose wood, of course, Voldemort got his wand."
And today, while researching the yew tree, I found an unexpected connection back to Severus.
All species of yew tree are known to contain varieties of a highly toxic class of alkaloids called taxanes. Every part of the tree other than the flesh of the red berry-like arils contains these toxins, including the seeds, wood, and leaves. Though the birds who eat the arils and spread the seeds are generally unable to break down the seeds and be affected by the poison, and larvae of a few species of moth and butterfly will eat yew foliage, to most animals consuming yew is fatally poisonous. Human beings consuming yew 'berries' without removing the seeds have died, and cattle and horses have been found dead near yew trees after trying to eat the leaves.
There does, however, seem to be an exception to this rule. Deer are able to break down the toxin, and so will eat the leaves of yew trees. Indeed, they graze so freely on yew that in the wild yew trees are commonly found only on steep slopes inaccessible to deer.
Apparently deer can eat death and live.
You can't make this stuff up.
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Hurm.
Date: 2015-09-15 08:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-15 09:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-15 09:43 pm (UTC)I've been thinking about the term 'death eaters' too for a while now, and I'm going to try to shove my chaotic thoughts into some form when I talk more about Severus and the DEs in Indestructible. (I've got several half-written sections, it's just taking a while to formulate everything argh!) I think part of it is that Voldemort tried to woo some of the old pureblood scions with hints at knowledge of ancient magic on the order of alchemy and such. It might have been an obscure term he picked up and coopted to his own use.
Also though: on the level of reading everything in the books as having a distorted or hidden relationship to Severus as THE central figure, I think being a 'death eater' is quite important for his being an alchemist. But that doesn't do much for the watsonian level, I fear.
I'd be curious to see what your thoughts on it are too.
Re: Hurm.
Date: 2015-09-15 09:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-15 10:47 pm (UTC)John Granger, the Hogwarts Professor, believes "Death Eater" is a term in OPPOSITION to those Christians who "Eat life" at communion. I can't agree. Here's why:
1. Unlike in Tolkien or Lewis, there is no sense of the sacred in the "Potter" books, and certainly no analogue to Communion as a sacred and life-giving meal (Tolkien's Lembas, Lewis's water from the rock, from Aslan's footprint, from the stream in Aslan's country, and so on.) There is not even, as I read the "Potter" books, the sense of communal meals as sharing in love, trust, and dignity. Or do you find any of those things at the Weasely or Dursley dinner tables?
2. There's also no sense of the sacred at all, IMHO. No sense that magic itself might represent something numinous.
3. And then there's what Voldemort is searching for - eternal life. And what does Jesus promise his followers, especially those who eat his flesh and drink his blood?
I think you can see where I'm going with this. It makes me very uncomfortable. BTW, I do think Jodel/Red Hen is right that the majority of the Death Eaters were probably followers of the "old religion" - Catholicism. Certainly I read Snape as Catholic, even more strongly than I read him as Jewish!
Just my two cents!
no subject
Date: 2015-09-16 02:22 am (UTC)Interesting point, that we don't even really see meals in general as giving that communal spirit. I think there was a potential for it to be there with the Weasleys, but that household is so conflict-ridden that it just isn't actually present, no, not really. Certainly not at the Dursley table. The best I an think of is Harry eating his food-gifts from Molly alone in his room at the Dursleys, but that's not quite communal.
Voldemort, indeed, yes I see what you mean. We never hear of him promising his followers eternal life, but IF they thought they might share in the magic during the first round of recruiting... There's no alternate sense of 'eternal life' that's actually presented to us concretely in the books to counteract his empty version, only some vague mumbling about whole souls. The entire counter to Voldie's program is not, XYZ is true life and what should be honored, but simply mindless acceptance of death itself. Love is equated to revenge. There's nothing SOLID there in terms of the reading the narrative voice pushes us toward.
Now, of course, I do find in SEVERUS something solid, a real example of love pushing back against that. But the narrative grants him no place other than as a prop for Harry's journey, not even his body is shown with the others' once his role is fulfilled.
It feels to me like JKR thought that by tossing in some oppositional terms and Christian symbolism she could make up for that lack of a solid something, could just IMPLY the converse, but she doesn't actually put anything there to support it. Which makes the whole 'Death Eater' + immortality + rulling muggles constellation seem very strange and nonsensical.
I think jodel was on the right track too, seeing lingering repressed Catholic/Protestant tensions in some of the WW. But overtly any discussion of anything like that is shifted into the realm of discussion about magic. I do suspect the older families and especially the more staunchly purist ones tend towards being either culturally or even to a degree still actively Catholic, yes. Whatever theological changes have happened in wizarding communities over the last three centuries.
Severus strikes me as a deeply Catholic figure in outline, whatever his personal beliefs. I headcanon him as having been raised Catholic at least, though probably rejecting that as a teen at least for a while. I've been wanting to do an essay on iconography of Severus in fanart, where I think that aspect gets picked up on a lot.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-16 12:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-16 01:41 pm (UTC)Apparently deer can eat death and live.
I like how this connects to Severus, but I'm wondering if it means anything for Harry and James. I think it sort of works for Harry, with his uncanny survival of multiple AK's, but I'm not sure about James. Maybe that he could survive werewolf bites in his stag form?
no subject
Date: 2015-09-17 03:35 am (UTC)I do wish we knew more about the werewolf caper!
no subject
Date: 2015-09-17 04:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-17 11:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-18 09:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-25 02:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-25 02:48 am (UTC)Eating death...
Date: 2015-10-03 03:34 pm (UTC)