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Lecture 4 The Weasley Family

The document discusses the Weasley family from the Harry Potter series. It describes each family member's name and its meaning or origins, which are often related to British royalty. For example, Arthur is related to King Arthur, while names like Bill, Charlie and George were also borne by English kings. The document provides background on the Weasleys and symbolism related to their family name.

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Samuel Dharma
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94 views

Lecture 4 The Weasley Family

The document discusses the Weasley family from the Harry Potter series. It describes each family member's name and its meaning or origins, which are often related to British royalty. For example, Arthur is related to King Arthur, while names like Bill, Charlie and George were also borne by English kings. The document provides background on the Weasleys and symbolism related to their family name.

Uploaded by

Samuel Dharma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s

Stone: Lecture 4, The Weasley


Family
• Ron Weasley, 6th of 7 children
of Arthur and Molly Weasley,
from a poor wizarding family.
His older brothers Percy,
Fred, and George are all in
Griffindor House, and, in the
first book, the older ones,
Charlie and Bill, have already
graduated from Hogwarts.
• Ron’s full personal name is Ronald and it
comes from Scandinavian, a combination
of two words: “ragin” ‘to advise’ and
“wald” ‘to rule’. As Harry’s best friend,
Ron helps and advises Harry, a powerful
wizard who is destined to rule. And we
see in Book 5 that Ron is made a prefect,
so he, too, has the opportunity to rule.
• Weasley reminds us of a weasel, a small
mammal that eats rodents and small
birds. The animal can be clever, but it’s
a rather small and insignificant animal,
not so beautiful or elegant.
• Ron feels rather small and insignificant
because he is the sixth child in a family of
seven children. Moreover, his family,
which does not have a lot of money, is
laughed at by families like the Malfoys,
who have a lot of money. Ron wears
hand-me-down robes.
• In Christian symbolism, the weasel,
though considered unclean, was the
natural enemy of the basilisk, a large
snake symbolizing the devil. Therefore,
the weasel could symbolize Christ.
• Although Ron does not physically fight
the basilisk with Harry in Harry Potter
and the Chamber of Secrets, he helps
Harry fight evil in many ways and is on
the side of good.
• Since the weasel can be a clever and
tricky animal, there is a verb to weasel
out of meaning to get out of doing
something, probably by making excuses.
This meaning doesn’t seem to apply to
any of the Weasleys except for Fred and
George, when they try to explain their
way out of trouble at school.
• You promised you would take me
downtown on your motorcycle today. Now
don’t try to weasel out of it!
The Weasley Family

• Interestingly, many of the personal


names of the Weasley family relate to
royalty of the British Isles, from names of
English Kings back to Celtic times.
Arthur Weasley

• Arthur Weasley, father of the family.


Arthur comes from the Roman clan
name Artorius, meaning noble,
courageous.
• Arthur reminds us of King Arthur (of
the Kingdom of Camelot) and the
Knights of the Round Table.
• The stories are known from romantic
literature of the Middle Ages, but King
Arthur would have lived in the 5th or 6th
centuries, when the Celtic peoples were
fighting off the Saxons.
Molly Weasley

• Molly is a diminutive of Mary, from the


Hebrew meaning bitter.
• It has an Irish and Gaelic feel from
characters like Molly Malone, the Molly
Maguires.
Percy Weasley

• Percy is the third child of he Weaseys.


• Percy is a Norman name from the house
of Percy. Percy is short for Percival.
• Percival was one of the Knights of the
Round Table.
Bill Weasley

• Bill is short for William, the name of many


English kings. Perhaps most well-known is
William the Conqueror from Normandy
(1066). With him came the (Old) French
language, which dominated the upper
classes for about two centuries.
• Bill Weasley marries Fleur, from the
French-speaking wizarding school.
Fred Weasley

• Fred is an Old German name meaning


"elf or magical counsel; peaceful ruler;
holy, blessed reconciliation; joy and
peace". It is a variant of Alfred.
• Alfred was the only English king known
as “the Great” because he united the
English people against the Vikings in the
9th century.
Charlie and George Weasley
• Both Charles and George have been
names of English kings.
Ginny Weasley

• Ginny is usually a short form of Virginia,


but we are told her name is a shortened
form of the rare name Ginevra.
• Ginevra means fair and smooth and can
be traced to Welsh and Italian.
• It is related to the names Jennifer and
Genevieve.
• More interestingly, it is also related to the
name Guinevere.
• The name is known from the literature
about King Arthur. Queen Guinevere
was married to King Arthur.
• Though in Harry Potter, Ginny is
Arthur’s daughter, she is essentially
queen as she marries Harry, who is in a
way a king from his name, his behavior,
and his being heir to the Deathly Hallows.

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