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sugarysweetsprites · 4 years

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ALL THIRTY OF MY ENTRIES FOR FAKEATHON 2020 COMPILED BELOW THE CUT

ROUND 1: HOMETOWN MONUMONK - Derived from monument, monk

did you know I like maybe four miles away from a field of 109 identical 7 foot corn statues

FAKEATHON ROUND 2: THE USA ROBINOX - Derived from robin, autumnal equinox

Round one was our hometown, and I did my current city. But my childhood belongs to Connecticut, so I wanted to do a connecticuter. The american robin is the state bird of Connecticut, and as a part of New England it has a colonial history, hence the style. A type of garnet is the state gemstone, hence the species name.

Mostly though, I associate Connecticut with the vibrant autumns. The falls of New England are magic.

FAKEATHON DAY 3: CANADA CURTLE - Derived from curling, turtle

Very simple this one. Canada has a lot of curling events, right? Put the CURLING STONE. On the TURTLE. and you get the CURTLE. Dudes in this other server I’m in really love this one

FAKEATHON DAY 4: MEXICO CASOLURO - Derived from first two letters of the cards it’s based on; el CAtrin, el SOl, la LUna, la ROsa

A very fun one to work on. These are based on those Loteria cards - Specifically, the sun, moon, rose, and the dandy. The 4x4 grid on the inside of its cape is a reference to the 4x4 grid of a loteria play mat. Just threw crap at the wall here and got this funky friend.

FAKEATHON DAY 5: BRAZIL CAPYERA, CAPOBARA - Derived from capoeira, capybara

Not new designs, so much as designs I really needed to give another go. Much happier with these. And frankly, couldn’t think of a concept more wholly Brazilian short of slapping the flag on them.

FAKEATHON DAY 6: FRANCE CHÈVAÇAY - Derived from chèvre (French for goat), Chevalier (French for knight), valençay (French variety of cheese)

F🥐R🎨A🍷N🚬C🥖H

I stole the grease type from someone in that fakemon server it fit this cheesy boy too well

FAKEATHON DAY 7: SPAIN POMEGRIA - Derived from pomegranate, bandurria

Typically tried to avoid the lady-in-dress motif, but felt too justified here. Spain is home to pomegranates, with the blossom being the national flower. The body shape was inspired by the instrument the bandurria, with the base of the body being a halved pomegranate, and her “earrings” being both the tuning pegs and pomegranate seeds.

FAKEATHON DAY 8: UNITED KINGDOM MEMORI - Derived from memento mori, memory

I could’ve uh. Had this idea at a better time huh :^)

FAKEATHON DAY 9: ITALY MEDITIVE - Derived from Mediterranean, olive

Tried going more off-the-wall, but it didn’t quite work. Based on olive branches clearly - olive oil was often used as lamp oil, hence the fire typing. I meant for it to resemble a nuns habit or monastery robes, a la Italy’s heavy catholicism, with the floating olive leaf circlet as a halo. It was… good ideas that didn’t come together perfectly. Probably my least favorite of the lot

FAKEATHON DAY 10: NORDICS MINKJAVIC - Derived from mink, Reykjavik

Look when I think Iceland I always think black metal. This is the second time I’ve done a heavy metal pokemon. The first one was more badass. This one’s instead uh A lot : )

FAKEATHON DAY 11: EGYPT DJEDLY - Derived from Djed, deadly

One of the easiest to draw for… obvious reasons. Based on a canopic jar, sort of like an off-brand yamask or cofagrigus. It’s meant to open up twice; If you take off the lid, you see the fleshy eyeball dude in the lower corner. And if you pull that like a handle, you see what’s inside… and die with that knowledge : )

FAKEATHON DAY 12: ETHIOPIA CAFFIEND - Derived from caffeine, fiend

Obviously hyenas live in Ethiopa. But moreover, Ethiopia is also known as pretty much the birthplace of coffee, and coffee drinking/making is important to the culture. So I thought, why not make a hyena that’s super happy cause it’s always super hyped up on caffeine? Dunno if the electric typing makes much sense, I just thought caffeine = energy = electricity

FAKEATHON DAY 13: MADAGASCAR TENROCK - Derived from tenrec, rock

Tenrecs are endemic, yeah, but this wasn’t just based on a native animal. It was based on the land of Madagascar - specifically, the gorgeous and incredibly sharp structures of Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park. I’ll post a photo above the art, when I saw Madagascar was a theme day I knew I had to base something on that park.

FAKEATHON DAY 14: SAUDI ARABIA MASQAREEN - Derived from masquerade, Qareen

This is based on the Islamic idea of the Qareen. People don’t 100% agree on what Qareens are, but they are consistantly considered to be spiritual doubles - Every person has a Qareen associated with they’re spirit. This is based on one idea, them as dark spirits who attempt to lead their companion-spirit astray. I chose them because even though they’re evil from the start - hence the dark typing - they can become good based on their companion - in this case, trainer’s - actions and whims.

Since they’re counterparts to humans, I thought having them mimic humans would be fitting. It’s body is ALMOST humanoid, it’s many pink extremeties ALMOST resemble clothes. It would be a zoroark like situation, where it could make illusions to resemble human.

FAKEATHON DAY 15: RUSSIA MATEESHKA - Derived from mastryoshka, tea SAMOSHKA - Derived from samovar, matryoshka

Fun fact, I actually used to collect matryoshka dolls. Have a whole box of them in the basement somewhere. So I felt I had to. I have a thing for designs that look a little snobby, Samoshka certainly fits that little niche of mine : D

FAKEATHON DAY 16: INDIA BOVIQUIN - Derived from bovine, palanquin

I like ride pokemon, and I like customizable pokemon. So I made one that’s both! It’s supposed to be based on the water buffalo. The simple colors are because it’s supposed to be customizable - As in, the fabrics hung from it (and maybe the markings painted on it) could be swapped out, so I wanted something simple as a base. Sort of like Furfrou, but the customization doesn’t wear off

FAKEATHON DAY 17: CHINA LONGRUSH - Derived from Long (chinese for dragon), brush, rush

I expect here will be a lot of chinese dragons this round, I wanted to avoid the obvious. But… this is one of the best concepts I’ve ever come up with. The second I had the mental image, I knew that was it

FAKEATHON DAY 18: JAPAN SPIROUS - Derived from spirit, cirrus, pious

This is a myth from both China and Japan, but I associate it with yokai primarily. This is based on Hangonkō, incense that brings forth the spirits of the dead. Hence it’s body obscured by the clouds - It’s literally being summoned by the incense it carries. In retrospect, this could have been an interesting pokeball mimic with different colors.

FAKEATHON DAY 19: INDONESIA WHALEEN - Derived from baleen whale

The Philippines are home to the coral triangle, a stretch of ocean that’s home to a stupidly large amount of coral life. So I initially wanted a coral mon… but it’s known for its reefs. So why not make the whole reef?

FAKEATHON DAY 20: AUSTRALIA OPALINE - Derived from opal, mine

One town in Australia I’ve loved since middle school is Coober Pedy. Known as the opal capital of the world, it’s a desert town that’s so hot, almost all the residents live in houses carved into the ground. Even many businesses and hotels are underground! Coloring was fun on this dude :3

FAKEATHON DAY 21: ANTARCTICA SOUTHAIR - derived from south, hairgrass.

I wanted to do something unexpected. So rather than do that obvious penguin or similar, I went with southern hairgrass, the south most flowering plant. Did it’s closer meant to loosely resemble any wet clothes, but since there are no Inuit populations to Antarctica, only loosely. It’s species, the 1000-to-1 pokemon, Refers to both its chances of survival and the fact of the body is comprised of many many blades of grass

FAKEATHON DAY 22: SOMEWHERE HOT - DEATH VALLEY HELINDRA - Derived from helios, indra

The reason I chose the Indra butterfly is because it's native to death valley. I figure, if death valley gets HELLA sun, why not instead of it living in spite of the harsh sun, living so well because of it?

FAKEATHON DAY 23: SOMEWHERE COLD - GREENLAND STUFFIN - Derived from storm, stun, puffin

I know there are myths that say puffins can bring thunderstorms, so I thought why not turn a puffin into a storm cloud? But uh. It kind of just. Is a puffin isn't it :/

FAKEATHON DAY 24: ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS KYTHURA - Derived from Antikythera, Urania

One of my favorite remnants of ancient times is the Antikythera Mechanism. It was an ancient Greek computer. With proper gears and mechanics and everything, that was used to plot the locations of the planets and the stars in stunning detail. This first go around turned out… not that great, I’ll be honest. But I wanna do something with the Antikythera Mechanism. It shouldn’t take TOO much tweaking to make this something I love

FAKEATHON DAY 25: FUTURE WORLDS COCOWATT - Derived from coconut, watt

One of my favorite images of the future is, instead of all streets having street lights, some having bioluminescent trees! I wanted to make something to that effect. Even though we have Exeggutor I chose palm trees cause they already have a street-lamp-like shape. Finally got to bust out my super neon pencils :3

FAKEATHON DAY 26: RANDOM COUNTRY - IRELAND AMANEELIE - Derived from amanita, unseelie

I have irish blood, so I wanted to do an irish mon. I took the idea of the fairie ring in a weird direction - when it extends its arms and the little purple "hands" touch, anything in the loop of its arm - the fairie's ring - will become hideously poisoned. Visually referenced the deathcap. Just like imagining these things in a secluded dense forest, floating along like swimming jellyfish

FAKEATHON DAY 27: THE OLYMPICS SYNCRA - Derived from synchronized, tetra

This is similar to wishiwashi, in that it's a schooling mon. But instead of it having a schooling form, it's ALWAYS in a school of five fish, constantly swimming in unison. Clearly based on synchronized swimming, I wanted the tails to be super long, so they'd flow all elegantly when they maneuver around. Kinda... power rangers in execution, innit

FAKEATHON DAY 28: THE OCEAN EXPLORB - Derived from explore, orb

The idea to turn the bathysphere into a pufferfish-like dude just came together really clearly in my head. I imagine their attack would be terrible but their defence would be amazing - basically, they aren't out to fight, they just wanna explore the oceans :3

FAKEATHON DAY 29: THE MOON MOOMOON - Derived from moomoo, moon

its the cow that jumped over the moon

FAKEATHON DAY 30: LEGENDARY CORRA - Derived from core, cor (latin for heart), terra

I figured, we’ve done every part of the earth this challenge… except the interior. So for the legendary representing the world, I based mine on the core of the earth. The body itself is meant to resemble the phylotypic stage of an embryo - the stage of development where most species are virtually identical. It cannot leave its lava bubble. At the center of its body is a heart glowing with all the colors of magma.

The FIRST person to make a legend of korra joke is getting slapped

#fakemon #fakeathon #fakeathon2020 #pokemon #My Art #Non Spritework

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under-the-lake · 7 years

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Fenrir and Greyback: a liiiiiiitle digression about werewolves - part 4: Norse Mythology

The Middle Ages in Europe are fascinating. Not only do Southern and Central Europe bloom and blossom in arts and literature, but the North is home to the boom of civilisations often forgotten: Vikings, Saamis, Finns. And yet, Vikings did have a huge influence on the development of economy in Europe and the Middle-East via Russia, they discovered Iceland and Greenland and Canada and settled there (even if the Canadian colony was only short-lived), they raided the British Isles and dominated them for centuries. And their helmets have NO HORNS. Just saying.

The Saami and Finns are small peoples but they do have a different type of society and their myths and relationships to animals and shape-shifting are not similar to the ones we can see in Central Europe. Therefore it is rather interesting to have a look at them, even if sources are scarce. But let’s start with the more widely-known things: the Norse Fenrir.

NORSE MYTHOLOGY

Many people are familiar with Norse mythology through watching the Vikings-series on their coms or on the telly. I must admit not having watched it. Lack of time is to blame I reckon.

Warning: I know many of you are experts in the domain I’m going to travel now, and I ask for your forgiveness as to the shortness and lack of detail I shall provide. This isn’t meant to be a thorough study of either the Edda (or Eddas) or any other source.

So. Fenrir, the fen-dweller (that’s what it means in Old Norse). He’s not mentioned often in Norse mythology, but he’s an important character. He goes by many names, yet his genealogy is doubtless: he is the son of Loki and the frost giantess Angrboda of Jötunheim (Angrboda means ‘she who bodes anguish’ - see the rest of the tale). The story goes Loki was leaving his wife Sigyn from time to time, but always came back to her, eventually. One day Odin asked him about his children. Loki answered the names of his legitimate kids. Odin knew, thanks to a dream, that Loki had illegitimate descendants as well, with the giantess Angrboda. Those kids were the strangest things on Earth: they were three, as different from each other as the rose is from the Devil’s Snare. Odin had foreseen that those children would be the downfall of the kingdom of gods. He sent his best people to get them to Asgaard to try and have them under his control.

The first child was a serpent called Jormungundur. It grew and grew all the time and spat deadly venom at his foes. Odin made him live in the ocean circling the Earth and people would call him the Midgard Serpent.

The second child was a girl, but the most unusual and strange being ever seen: one side of her was a beautiful lass, while the other side of her was a dead one, decrepit and rotting. She was called Hel. Odin sent her to guard the lightless world, the kingdom of death, Niflheim. I don’t know if there’s a link, but hell is something like that, right? A place where, as Hel puts it, her companions are Famine and Hunger and Sickbed.

How Odin’s plan regarding Fenrir went to the dogs

The third child, Fenrir, is the one that interests us for this time. The gods were so much afraid of what he could do when grown up that they wanted to keep him under their watchful eye. Yet Fenrir was only a wolf-cub when it reached Asgard. Only Tyr was willing to feed it. It grew quickly, on a diet of raw meat. It ate like a wolf but spoke like a human being. Odin knew Fenrir was going to be a threat to the realm, as would both the other children of Loki’s. He held council with the other gods and they decided to tie Fenrir so that he wouldn’t harm the gods, as Odin has foreseen. So they bound him in chains, telling him it would be to test his strength. Fenrir broke the chains and the gods weren’t happy. They forged a second set of chains. This time, each link was so heavy that no single man could lift it. The chains were called Dromi. They thought that would do the trick with Fenrir. Well, they were wrong. It took much time and effort from Fenrir, but he eventually exploded the chains. It is said that bits of them could be found all over the place for ages after this event. This was a blow for the gods.

Odin thought. And thought. Finally he came up with an idea. A new set of chains called Gleipnir (it means ‘open’ - which the gods weren’t towards Fenrir…). Odin had to pay a huge lot of cash to the dwarves who made it for him in Swartalfaheimr. Gleipnir was to be woven out of six magical ingredients: the footstep of a cat, the beard of a woman, the roots of a mountain, the sinews of a bear, the breath of a fish and the spittle of a bird. No wonder the price was high. The result was what looked like a silk ribbon. When the Aesir saw the ribbon, they were happy and went to find Fenrir near the Black Lake (see, that too is like in Hogwarts… a Black Lake with a beast nearby). Fenrir despised Gleipnir. When the gods insisted upon his trying his strength on it he started feeling suspicious. He was thinking the gods weren’t being entirely open with him, and that they wanted to bind him forever rather than merely test his strength (a bit slow on the uptake, the Fenrir…). The gods said they’d free Fenrir if these were ties he couldn’t break. Fenrir didn’t believe them. In the end Fenrir suggested he being tied only if one of the Aesir would put his hand in his mouth. Fenrir wouldn’t bite on it unless there was some treachery. None of the gods would risk their hands, though. Finally, Tyr put his hand in the wolf’s mouth, and the gods bound the beast. As Fenrir had thought, the gods were never going to free him. They had taken a leaf out of Loki’s book for a change. So the wolf chopped the god’s hand off.

For those who want to see the work of the writer of this cartoon and read the text as it is, here’s the link: https://blacklemonjuice.deviantart.com/art/Loki-and-Fenrir-Tyr-s-Hand-351526878

All this happened only because the gods were scared of Fenrir. Fenrir, out of spite, told the Aesir: ‘I’d have been a friend to you had you not been treacherous to me. Now look what you got yourself: a death sentence. At the end of the times, at Ragnarok, I’ll kill you, Odin, Father of the Gods, and I will eat the sun and I will eat the moon.’

Fenrir was brought to a far-away place, and Gleipnir was tied to a boulder. A sword was placed into Fenrir’s mouth to keep it open. Fenrir howled and howled. A river, called Ván (meaning ‘expectation’ in Olde Norse) flowed from his drooling mouth until Ragnarok. He had an oath to fulfill, and he wasn’t the like to break it. He waited.

How Fenrir’s plan regarding Odin didn’t go to the dogs

Fenrir kept his word. And here’s how it happened.

Slowly, the end of the Aesir and the World as it was known would come. Signs showing that would be the falling honour standards and the lessening importance of kinship and human relationships. Oaths sworn weren’t kept. Not only did humans act in this way. The gods weren’t strangers to such betrayals or lack of honour. See what they did to Fenrir, among other tales.

Among other prophecies about Ragnarok (that’s the Norse name for the periodic end of the world they face), one said that three winters would come in a row without a summer to part them, and that then Loki and his son Fenrir, who had been bound to prevent the prophecies from happening, broke free of their fetters and started doing exactly what the Aesir had feared they would. Loki went to gather an army of giants to destroy Asgard, the fortress of the gods, but also the rest of the land. Fenrir, on his own, set off to destroy the world too. He roamed the world with his jaws open, the lower one on the ground and the upper one in the sky. And he ate the sun and he ate the moon. And one part of his prophecy was fulfilled. Then Fenrir killed Odin and Tyr. And the other part of the prophecy was fulfilled. Fenrir didn’t go on wreaking havoc forever. He was eventually slain by Odin’s son Vidar, who survived Ragnarok to be the bearer of ancient knowledge with the new generation of gods who would reign on Asgard after the earth has risen from the sea again.

SO WHAT ABOUT ROWLING’S FENRIR, THEN?

Fenrir Greyback is a werewolf, we know that. He’s a special one, that we know too. So is there an influence of the Norse Fenrir on the wizarding world one? Yes, yet small. I don’t know how much Rowling knew about Norse mythology but to pick such a name as Fenrir 20 years ago she should have known. The Vikings series wasn’t aired yet, and there’s an awful lot to say about the comparison. Here is a small bit.

Greyback is exceptionally strong for a man. He resists Bellatrix’s Stunning spell in Malfoy Manor, after she discovers they have the Sword of Gryffindor, while the other Snatchers are… well… stunned.

‘What is that?’ [Harry] heard her say.

‘Sword,’ grunted an out-of-sight Snatcher.

‘Give it to me.’

‘It’s not yorn, Missus, it’s mine, I reckon I found it.’

There was a bang and a flash of red light: Harry knew that the Snatcher had been Stunned. There was a roar of anger from his fellows: Scabior drew his wand.

‘What d’you think you’re playing at, woman?’

‘Stupefy,’ she screamed, ‘stupefy!’

They were no match for her, even though there were four of them against one of her: she was a witch, as Harry knew, with prodigious skill and no conscience. They fell where they stood, all except Greyback, who had been forced into a kneeling position, his arms outstretched.

(DH, Chapter 23)

We can draw a comparison between Fenrir and Greyback based on this. Fenrir, as we saw, has extraordinary strength, so much so that it takes the most skilled dwarves and the rarest material to make chains that would bind him. In comparison, Greyback is nothing, of course, but he retains that sort of inhuman strength from his condition. Being a part werewolf even when the moon is not full has apparently granted him some wolfish qualities along with the werewolfish lust over blood. Greyback’s strength is not natural. ‘Normal’ people are knocked out by Stunning spells. He isn’t. He was ‘forced into a kneeling position, his arms outstretched’, which means he got the blast but it didn’t affect him more than that. Hagrid either, on another scale, doesn’t get the full blast of a Stunning because of his giant blood. It’s a bit strange though that the strength and resistance to spells has been kept out while the werewolf hasn’t transformed. I can’t help wondering how that could happen. In Hagrid’s case it’s genetic. In Greyback’s it’s not. Being bitten can’t affect the genes that much. Or has his will made his genes mutate in some weird extra-quick way? That’s most unlikely. This is a total mystery to me. As for the general idea of werewolves being resilient to curses, there is a theory that goes like this: Werewolves in general would be more resilient to curses and therefore wizards would tend not to use spells on them but rather bind them, like Snape did to Lupin in the Shrieking Shack in PoA (Chapter 19). If we link Fenrir and werewolves as having similar characteristics, we can draw a bond again: Fenrir too was bound and not killed, yet the Aesir could have got rid of him when he was a cub.

Fenrir has as an aim to get revenge by killing the chief of the gods, the Aesir Odin, and then eating the sun and the moon. While doing that he aims to destroy as much of Asgard as he can. While not aiming to destroy The World, Greyback wants to destroy a world, the world of wizards. He is bitter and resentful because he was bitten and because werewolves are shunned by wizarding laws, and also because of what he heard Lupin’s dad had said while the Ministry officials were interrogating him: werewolves were ‘soulless, evil, deserving nothing but death’. Greyback wants to make a society of werewolves, killing all the wizards to the last one. Plain revenge. In this, Fenrir and Greyback are similar.

A third comparison, maybe a bit more far-fetched, is that both tend to kill innocent beings: Fenrir wants to deprive the world from the sun and moon (who did nothing in the tale of his binding), and Greyback wants to kill children, who are the epitome of innocence, at least according to common canon (I mean Tom Riddle wasn’t exactly an innocent child… but that might be the exception): ‘Greyback specialises in children … bite them young, he says, and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards. Voldemort has threatened to unleash him upon people’s sons and daughters; it is a threat that usually produces good results.’ (HBP, Chapter 16). This quote covers both the use of children and the revenge part of Greyback’s motivations...

Then we can also examine the descent of both creatures. Loki and the giantess Angrboda gave birth to Fenrir. Loki is the son of a giant, Farbauti, and someone who could be a goddess, a giantess or some other being, we don’t know. So Loki’s ‘classification’ is a bit tricky, but he’s commonly considered a half-god because he lives in Asgard. Fenrir came to the world the son of an unfaithful father. We know nothing about Greyback’s lineage. There’s however something remotely linked between being illegitimate and being bitten. None of the situations is ‘normal’, and both are leading to the individuals being shunned by a part of the society for some reason, be it good or bad.

Both Fenrir and Greyback embody the outlaw. Fenrir is exiled from Asgard and from doing anything because he’s feared by the gods. They bind him so that he can’t move and keep his mouth open so that he can’t talk. He’s exiled from the world, in a way. His name, the fen-dweller, refers to marshlands that are usually on the outskirts of human living places. They are regions which are hostile to ‘common’ people and where outlaws seek refuge. They are also regions of weird tales and strange beings. Greyback is an outlaw as well because his position as a werewolf makes him dangerous to the society and also because he has decided to be a fully-acknowledged one by pushing the boundaries of his werewolfitude out of the full moon-period. Both Fenrir and Greyback embody a death of some sort, and death by murder is out of the law. Fenrir will kill Odin and eat the sun and the moon, and Greyback kills people in a very uncivilised way (I don’t know if there’s a civilised way though). Remember, if you read the part about medieval times, that outlaws in Knut’s Laws in the 11th century in England named outlaws ‘werewolves’. Literally.

We can also ponder how the Battle of Hogwarts involved werewolves and how it’s related to Norse mythology. After all, Ragnarok is also called ‘wolf-age’ in Völuspa, and Voldemort started recruiting werewolves from the start. We know that because Lupin was sent as a spy among them, as he tells Harry in Half-Blood Prince: ‘I’ve been living among my fellows, my equals. [...] Werewolves. Nearly all of them are on Voldemort’s side. Dumbledore wanted a spy there and here I was … ready-made.’ (HBP, Chapter 16) So that means werewolves, as well as giants, were part of Voldemort’s plan for an army. He had had them with him in the First Wizarding War too. Well, interestingly enough, wolves and giants are The Enemy during the Norse Ragnarok as well, and both were there to help destroy the old world and bring a new one to birth. In the Harry Potter series, it’s hard to imagine the positive role of werewolves in the Battle of Hogwarts, the Rowling version of a Ragnarok, but they are finally defeated, like Fenrir was at Ragnarok, bringing a new order to rule. Fenrir, like Greyback, have a further similarity linked to the new order that is set after the battles: both are killed or vanquished by members of the new generation. Fenrir is killed by Vidar, who is said to be Odin’s son and survives to bring knowledge to the new generation of gods, while Greyback is defeated by Ron and Hermione. However, the importance of both characters in that battle is hugely different. While Fenrir’s presence is paramount to the success of Ragnarok and the rise of a new era, Greyback’s presence is not important at all per se. He doesn’t kill significant characters (Fenrir killed Odin, the Father of the Gods), nor does he have a prediction to fulfill upon his shoulders (yet, as Dumbledore would put it, predictions are only fulfilled because we know about them). Furthermore, Greyback doesn’t actively kill many people during the battle. He merely scavenges on weakened bodies:

Two bodies fell from the balcony overhead as [Harry, Ron and Hermione] reached the ground and a grey blur that Harry took for an animal sped four-legged across the hall to sink its teeth into one of the fallen. ‘’ NO!’’ shrieked Hermione, and with a deafening blast from her wand Fenrir Greyback was thrown backwards from the feebly stirring body of Lavender Brown.’ (DH, Chapter 32) In that respect, Greyback is completely different from Fenrir.

One could argue that wolves aren’t that special a representation of the enemy. Indeed, most of the civilisations which had wolves among the list of their natural predators didn’t like them much, but often they revered them in a way or another. Man’s relationship to wolf, apart from the completely manicheistic one the Christians have, has always been ambiguous. In Fenrir’s case, it’s symptomatic that he is The Enemy, but he is also the son of a half-god, and the most feared creature by the Aesir (notice the Aesir didn’t kill Fenrir as a cub, as they could have). We sense that in the Harry Potter books too. Greyback is not The Enemy, that’s true, but he’s nearly his right hand in cruelty, obscene cruelty. Even Bellatrix doesn’t reach that level of lust in her actions. Maybe not even Voldemort. The latter only kills by habit, sort of. You annoy me, I’ll get rid of you. No pleasure in there, because there’s probably not enough human left in him to feel emotions. Greyback on the other hand is rejoicing at the perspective of biting, licking, sucking and everything that is not mentioned as such in the book but that can be guessed via the vocabulary Rowling uses. All these elements make Greyback probably the most disgusting creature in the book and one of the most feared.

There are many links between the Norse Fenrir and the British Greyback. Was Rowling aware of all?, I have no idea, but one day I’d like to ask her…

PS: If you are a gamer, and you want to plunge into Norse mythology, why not have a look at Senua’s Sacrifice? Description here! Just follow the link:

http://under-the-lake.tumblr.com/post/164632016201/hellblade-senuas-sacrifice

Sources for Part 4:

Page 394

Gaiman, Neil, Norse Mythology, Bloomsbury, London, 2017

Ward, Renée (2008) J. K. Rowling's Fenrir Greyback: identity, society, and the Werewolf. In: Terminus, 7-11 August 2008, Chicago, ILL, USA.

Rowling, Joanne K., Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Bloomsbury, 2005

Rowling, Joanne K., Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Bloomsbury, 2007

Fenrir: https://norse-mythology.org/tales/the-binding-of-fenrir/

Loki: https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-aesir-gods-and-goddesses/loki/

Ragnarök: https://norse-mythology.org/tales/ragnarok/

Wikipedia, Fenrir: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenrir

Völuspa (Annotated text): http://library.flawlesslogic.com/voluspa.htm

#Louhi #J.K. Rowling #Fenrir Greyback #Fenris Wolf #Norse Mythology #Werewolves #Harry Potter

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