Blood, The importance of blood in HP |
 Jan 16 2006, 03:23 AM
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Monster Book Stacker  Posts: 366 Joined: 1:39pm November 10, 2005 Location: In jail for yelling "Voldemort!" in a crowed theater.    |
Throughout the books blood has become an important theme and device. Blood is used in a physical sense, it is used to describe one's genetic background, and it is used as a magical substance.
Book 1:
Lily's blood in Harry protects him from being touched by LV.
Hermione is called a mudblood, and we learn about pure-bloods, half-bloods, and mudbloods. This theme runs throughout the books.
More references to mudbloods and such.
Book 5:
Aunt Petunia's blood gives Harry protection at the Dursley's.
Snape and LV are half-bloods. Harry and Dumbledore give their blood to LV's secret door. The sectumsempra curse on Malfoy in the bathroom. Slughorn's fake blood in his attempt to hide from Dumbledore. Dumbledore's blood from his fall off the tower. -------------------- My Webpage
A bear doesn't crap in the woods if he's really a dog - The Kids in the Hall I've been swimming in raw sewage..and I love it!!! - Naked Gun 2 1/2 |
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Jan 16 2006, 12:03 PM
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#2
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Diagon Alley Magical Bricklayer Posts: 2,876 Joined: 8:17pm June 28, 2005 Location: waiting on summer |
This is certainly an interesting topic and we'll see how the discussion goes and decide if it stays here or moves on to another forum. My guess is it is a (potential) candidate for Magical Theory (How does magic work? What are the home lives and social habits of wizards and witches like? Any discussion of the magical world not related to the plot of the series go here.) but it could have an interesting life here in Obscurus (Lit Crit, academic analysis) so let's give it a shot.
Right now there is a thread open in Magical Theory called The Harry Potter Genome Theory so all discussion about how magical genes are acquired/passed belong in that thread. As the discussion goes, we'll make sure it has its proper home. hpaddict - LL Mod -------------------- "
It's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers." J. Blume |
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Jan 16 2006, 02:30 PM
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Leaky's Resident Bibliophile Posts: 8,279 Joined: 5:01pm April 18, 2005 Location: Finding Neverland. |
Blood seems to be a bonding tool for most magical spells. It's what helped creat Voldemort's body and allowed him to touch Harry once again. It also protected Harry from LV all those years. Lily, without knowing it, created a blood protection for Harry.
Is there any symbolism of blood that we know of??? -------------------- "I know who Harry Potter is. I just don't know who the other two are. Himmie and Roland?"
"No, Grandma, Ron and Hermione." |
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Jan 16 2006, 03:43 PM
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#4
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Eeylops Owl Cage Cleaner Posts: 218 Joined: 4:20pm May 3, 2005 Location: Indiana |
Also the blood-replenishing potion for Arthur Weasley and the many refernces to Dragon Blood.
In other discussions, many have wondered about an anti-horcrux. The blood protection seems to be this opposite... The soul-splitting vs. bodily life-force. |
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Jan 16 2006, 03:53 PM
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#5
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Monster Book Stacker Posts: 366 Joined: 1:39pm November 10, 2005 Location: In jail for yelling "Voldemort!" in a crowed theater. |
Oh I totally forgot about Arthurs snake bite. What about Book 3? I had trouble remembering references to blood in POA.
-------------------- My Webpage
A bear doesn't crap in the woods if he's really a dog - The Kids in the Hall I've been swimming in raw sewage..and I love it!!! - Naked Gun 2 1/2 |
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Jan 16 2006, 05:50 PM
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#6
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Disgruntled House-Elf at The Leaky Cauldron Posts: 439 Joined: 6:23pm November 12, 2005 Location: In the capital of Europe |
There is also the scenes in book V when Harry has to write, in the office of Dolores Umbridge, with a special pen : he is loosing blood and getting a scar on the hand.
-------------------- “Inexpressible, Indicible, you that only silence names.” (Poïmandres)
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Jan 16 2006, 06:25 PM
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#7
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The Talking Mirror in Room 7 Posts: 1,782 Joined: 3:34am October 31, 2005 Location: Stealing radishes in the Gorgs' garden |
QUOTE(MonieLou @ Jan. 16 2006,14:30 ) Blood seems to be a bonding tool for most magical spells. It's what helped creat Voldemort's body and allowed him to touch Harry once again. It also protected Harry from LV all those years. Lily, without knowing it, created a blood protection for Harry. Is there any symbolism of blood that we know of??? Interesting that you say that, just found this on Weikipedia (I put the most interesting parts in bold-face) QUOTE Indo-European paganism Among the Germanic tribes (such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings), blood was used during the sacrifices, the Blóts. The blood was considered to have the power of its originator and after the butchering the blood was sprinkled on the walls, on the statues of the gods and on the participants themselves. This act of sprinkling blood was called bleodsian in Old English and the terminology was borrowed by the Roman Catholic Church becoming to bless and blessing. The Hittite word for blood, ishar was a cognate to words for "oath" and "bond", see Ishara. BTW don't forget the bloody baron. Edited to add: I think also in some ancient S.American civilizations and tribes winners in battle would eat the heart and drink the blood of their conquered enemies because that was where the power came from, and you would gain your enemies power by doing this. (there may still be tribes who do this I don't know, it's been a long time since those Anthropology classes.) This sort of reminds me of LV getting Harry's protection when he took his blood. -------------------- There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. -Shakespeare
 "I love you too" -Tim Robbins (to me) RCMH, NYC 8.2.06. |
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Jan 16 2006, 07:30 PM
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#8
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Disgruntled House-Elf at The Leaky Cauldron Posts: 419 Joined: 6:41pm July 22, 2005 |
there is a saying in Germany which translates to 'blood is thicker than water' ie. the bond through blood (relatives) is stronger than friendship etc.
i guess in the sense of when it comes down to chosing between, say, your brother who's got a nasty character and a very good friend, you'd still find yourself chosing your brother cos he's family. -------------------- <a href="http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/#quiz:1"><img src="http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/quiz/image.php?sm&id=ebfe78f4" /></a>
<a href="http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/#quiz:2"><img src="http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/newquiz/take_quiz/image_sm/8654" /></a> |
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Jan 17 2006, 12:38 AM
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Gazing at the Clouds  Posts: 3,433 Joined: 7:07pm July 23, 2005 Location: waving from the attic window of the Lily and Stag |
Then there is the whole thing with blood in religions. Even in fairly modern Christian churches the wine represents the blood of the Christ.
Sacrifices were linked with blood. Power being transferred from one being to another was linked with blood. The blood was the focus of a lot of early medical theories too. And also early psychological theories. We still say things like someone is "hot blooded" or that someone did something in "cold blood." Clearly blood has long been an important symbol to human culture. I doubt we could find a culture that doesn't some ancient ritual associated with blood. Another thought, maybe unrelated: usually we associate the color of blood, red, with danger. But in the wizarding world most of the associations with danger are green (this was discussed in another thread - the light with avada cadavra, Harry's eye color [he's always in danger], etc.). Is that, maybe, because the theme of acceptance/tolerence and non-prejudice (and unity) is connected with "blood prejudice" in the books?? It's not the blood which is a danger. . . but something else? -------------------- mokey's blessing:
 Lily and Stag Butterfly |
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Jan 17 2006, 05:21 AM
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Flesh-Eating-Slug Catcher Posts: 169 Joined: 3:10pm October 21, 2005 Location: Spinner's End - spring-cleaning Snape's house! |
I think it just symbolises for goriness or something like that to make the stories spine-chilling or something. Yeah, because like everyone's said, blood is everywhere!
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