[Aislinn]

Hippogriffs, Thestrals, Life, Death, and Sirius Black
By BamaHP

Biography:

BamaHP's real name is Aaron Willmon. He is a mathematics teacher at a local college in Northeast Alabama, and he studied mathematics at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He has been reading Harry Potter since 2002, and enjoys reading about history, mathematics, and anything that makes him think. He also plays classical guitar and is a huge sports fan (Roll Tide!).

Abstract:

Hippogriffs and thestrals represent life and death in books 3 and 5. They are similar in shape and function, but are polar opposites in appearance and demeanor. They are also connected with the life and death of Sirius Black.

You can read this essay here.

This post has been edited by AnguaTLC: 02 February 2008 - 10:34 PM

[Madsdagirl]

Yay BamaHP!

What an interesting essay! It wasn't a correlation I had thought of but here are similarities between the two and the connections are quite obvious when you think on it!

Great work,
Mads

[devnet]

Bloody brilliant! I love the connections you have made.

[hedwig2323]

I loved this essay!

[Aislinn]

Hi all! Just a quick reminder that we'd like to generate discussion here. It's wonderful that you enjoy BamaHP's essay as much as you do, and we'd love to hear more about that! What about it appealed to you? Do you find yourself agreeing with what he has presented? Are there other areas of comparison between the 2 creatures? Please share your thoughts

[Lolarose]

Cool essay Bama!

I particularly like the links you made between the Hippogriffs and the Thestrals representing the life and death of Sirius Black.

There is a really cool drawing of a Thestral here on Lexicon:

http://www.hp-lexicon.org/bestiary/thestrals.html

I think it is interesting, reading the Lexicon's description of the Thestral, that Dumbledore road them to the MOM if he 'didn't care to apparate' - , thinking about your idea that the thestral represents death, and remembering that DD is not afraid of death.

[shigella]

I loved your essay Bama! I had never thought of the connection between Hippogriffs, Thestrals and Sirius Black before but you've made the point so well that now I wonder how I never noticed it before!!

Lolarose, that's also a really good point about Dumbledore and thestrals, why did I never see any of this before?!

This post has been edited by shigella: 02 November 2006 - 06:27 PM

[atschpe]

A birlliant essay, Bama! I had never thought about it, but the symbology makes perfect sense. I particularly, liked your parallel with Buckbeak being Sirius life and freedom and Kreacher injuring him ment injuring Sirius' life. One might ask if some of this symbology can still be found in HBP where Buckbeak is still around.

I also absolutely loved your final sentence! It has so much depth to it.

[BamaHP]

Thanks to everyone for the kind words. Thanks especially to the people who read my first draft and gave me suggestions. I had a great editor SallyGaylord, and she deserves a lot of the credit!

A birlliant essay, Bama! I had never thought about it, but the symbology makes perfect sense. I particularly, liked your parallel with Buckbeak being Sirius life and freedom and Kreacher injuring him ment injuring Sirius' life. One might ask if some of this symbology can still be found in HBP where Buckbeak is still around.

I also absolutely loved your final sentence! It has so much depth to it.

That last sentence was not in the first draft. I had something different, but was trying to say the same thing. It just didn't seem to work at all, but Sally asked me to explain what I was trying to say. So I came up with that sentence at the last minute and it seems to work a lot better.

This was the first essay that I've written since I was a junior in college I think (4 years ago *Mathematicians don't have to write too many essays*). I really enjoyed the process and if something else clicks in my head, I'll try and write another one for sure.

[fluffy333]

great essay, I really liked the correlations!

what I wondered is do you think that the thestrals are dead hippogriffs?

they're both horse-like with wings, a bird's skull may look 'dragonish' without feathers etc.


might be a stupid idea, I don't have all the details in my mind just now of how they're described, but it's something that I wondered while reading.