firenze...again

H

happy_hannah

Time Turners
i finally figured out how to make a new forum, woo hoo!


anyway, ive thought about this for a number of years and i guess i should ask you guys about it

okay, in the first book when harry is sent into the forest for detention he catches voldemort drinking unicorn blood, harry is later told by firenze that it is a terrible thing to do to drink the blood of a unicorn and that whoever does will have a 'half-life, a cursed life' (im at the library so i cant quote the whole passage, sorry!)

do you guys think this will be significant? or was it quirrel who drank the blood? does it really matter if voldemort was in control of his body?
 
Interesting thought here . . . I don't think we have really discussed this particular aspect thouroughly . . . Voldemort has done so many things to continue his life, Horcruxes, unicorn blood, and who knows what else, he speaks of having taken several measures, so chances are we don't know (and may never know) everything he did. I doubt though that any of the things he did to sustain his life and attempt to attain immortality came without a cost, splitting and literaly loosing part of his soul, to create a horcrux, accepting the "curse" that came with drinking unicorn blood . . . (side note here . . . why did Voldemort need the unicorn blood to sustain him as he had horcruxes still? . . . Was Quirrel more or less already "dead" or on the verge by being possesed so long by Voldemort? Was it Quirrel who needed it . . . no . . . that doesn't make sense since he resisted going into the forest . . . if that realy is what he resisted . . . hmmm) We know that Voldemort's appearance changed dramaticaly over time reflecting his attempts at imortality . . . The only telling thing that I can think of to hold on to here is that the unicorn blood hasn't been brought up again in the series, so it may have only been important in the first book.
 
SPF.

Remember that Unicorn blood is used, significantly, to enable Voldemort to return to this country for his rebirthing.

Voldemort. GoF said:
a potion concocted from unicorn blood, and the snake venom Nagini provided ... I was soon returned to an almost human form, and strong enough to travel.
Click to expand...

There is also the reference to the Bloody Baron in PS/SS;

PS/SS said:
Harry looked over at the Slytherin table and saw a horrible ghost sitting there, with blank staring eyes, a gaunt face, and robes stained with silver blood.
Click to expand...

What do you think of the possibility of Harry using Unicorn blood to prevent him from dying until he finally finishes Voldemort?!!
 
Well GB . . .

I kinda doubt it, although I feel Harry will do whatever he has to, to be successful . . . I think the unicorn blood was used to show the lengths Voldemort would go to, Harry will not intentionaly harm anyone or anything on his quest. And, to put it a totaly nonscientific way . . . Harry using unicorn blood just doesn't "feel" right . . . like I said, not scientific, but has been very accurate with me so far . . . it goes the same with HiNaH.

I thought for a minute . . . That Harry might use Unicorn blood, IF he found it already spilled, and if he thought it would help someone he cared for to hang on long enough to get proper help, but I think even that is streching it to far, because he knows that they would lead a cursed life afterward.

That part however, the cursed life . . . could that be part of why Voldemort is so "unlucky" that he is defeated everytime he is up against a "mere boy"
 
I always thought that it (drinking unicorn blood = half-life) just offered an explanation why everyone else is not doing it. Meaning that only the most evil and desperate person(s) will attempt to do it.
 
it was probably quirrel who need to drink the blood, after all, at the end of the book when quirrel was "boiled" to death (hehehe) Voldemort didnt die as well, but returned to Albania (i assume) to await another to come. after all, Voldemort in OoTP said that he had possessed lower life forms (snakes being his preference) but that they would die after awhile. i think he would possess bodies as a way of escaping that feeling of being on the edge of death. so, when Quirrel came along, he possessed Quirrel and "fed" off of Quirrel's soul or life-force, thus slowly killing Quirrel. knowing his life was being slowly sapped away, he would resort to killing unicorns to feed off their blood, thus saving him from dieing for awhile. what i have always wondered is what JKR meant by a half-life... does she mean that the life gained would be be short lived? i dunno, but that is OT.
 
it would be just like j.k to add this important piece of information in the first book and have it be so relevant to the end of the novel
 
I assume a half life was more or less a cursed life. Kind of like the horcrux thing. You have a life but it is with a price and you are not the same as you once were.

I think back to Stephen Kings Pet Cemetery novel. When the person or animal was brought back by being buried in the indian burial ground they came back different. (evil)

Does this make sense?
 
yeah, it makes sense. but i dont think the person drinking it would come out the other side evil. not that that was what you were implying. hmmmmm... i wonder how someone would change by drinking unicorn blood? what i have always wondered is what woud happen if you drink the blood of an unicorn that you found dead already? wonder if you would become cursed then?
 
It might be interesting to look at this theme more broadly.

Drinking blood (transfigured from wine) is a sacrament in the Catholic religion. It conveys TRUE everlasting life upon the believer, not the half-alive state you get from unicorn's blood. The idea of actually eating the body of another to garner ever lasting life goes really deep among humans and has been practiced in many cultures throughout the world. Usually it revolves around eating the bodies of elders in order that they may continue to reside among the living. In that light, it's not really novel that the Catholic sacrament practice revolves around ritual consumption (blood/wine body/wafer) for the purpose of ever lasting life.

There are many many references to drinking wine, drinking blood, and goblets throughout the books. Dumbledore and Voldemort are drinking wine during Lord Voldemort's Request. Slughorn is drinking wine when Voldie asks him about horcruxes. Snape is drinking wine when he makes his unbreakable vow. I'm sure there are many others, but I can't think of them off the top of my head. We also have the goblet of fire, the goblet that is used in the cave, and Dumbledore's goblets that are used during Voldemort's visit to ask for the defense against the dark arts job. We've got unicorn blood, blood of the enemy forcibly taken, Harry's mother's blood that flows through his veins, the blood that Harry must sacrifice in the cave, the 12 uses of dragon's blood, etc.. These are pretty serious themes that persist from book to book.

We also have a link between Voldemort, Mars (the "Bloody Planet / Bloody Star"), and unicorns in the chapter "Forbidden Forest" in SS. The unicorns seem to take the brightness of Mars as a sign of Voldemort's return.

An "anti-sacrament" makes a really good symbol. Especially in light of a character like Voldemort who is clearly only half alive (at best). We've discussed this a bit in other posts. See "Why are they called Death EATERS and Spoilers Lord Voldemort's Request" for a bit more on wine, goblets and anti-sacraments.
 
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A random thought....

If it was Dumbledore's wine goblet that was stolen and taken by Voldemort to make a horcrux of, then it must be retrieved.

Goblet = Grail

Note: One of Dumbledore's names is Percival, one of the knights of the round table renowned for his part in the quest for the Holy Grail.

Oh, and it's not Mr. Voldemort or Master Voldemort, or Dr. Voldemort....it is LORD Voldemort. Hmmm...
 
Some very good corealations you have made! There does seem to be quite a bit of Biblical parallels in HP (I've mentioned in other threads) you have just brought a few new ones to the table. The goblet (Grail?) in DD's office makes quite a bit of sense . . . and fits with the name association as well. I will have to look into this a bit further, but it does indeed sound promising . . .
 
In a Time Magazine interview from July of 2005, when asked about being a member of the Church of Scotland, and having this series that is without a reference to God, JKR chose her words carefully it says, and replied that she does not think the books are that secular, although obiviously Dumbledore is not Jesus.

That would sure fit right in with your Goblet=Grail....
 
actually there are color paralells:
Red (Gryfindor) = Fire (hence why they are in the North Tower)
Yellow (Hufflepuff) = Air (i think their common room is in a tower somewhere, just not the tallest)

Blue (Ravenclaw) = Earth (usually blue = water, but JKR used green for slytherin, and so i dunno why.... anyway, they are slightly underground, near the kitchens.)
Green (Slytherin) = Water (ok, she uses green for water, maybe because pond and lake water is sometimes a greenish color due to algae. Slytherin common room is under the lake)

but, then there are the metalic colors. which are
Silver (Slytherin), Gold (Gryffindor), Bronze (Ravenclaw) and Black (Hufflepuff, and black may really be Iron, or represent Iron)

here, we will have to speculate, but in another thread. its not the topic here. though, if we want to make some blood connections, they might be:

Gold mught represent blood that is valueable,
Silver may represent tainted blood (i would say Unicorn blood taints the person who drinks it, therefore it could be called tainted)
Bronze is an alloy, so maybe it could represent many bloods, mixtures. after all, hufflepuff took the students that Gryfindor, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw didnt want, not that they are bad or anything.
Iron, i dont know, it took a long time for humans to refine iron ore, so maybe smart blood? i dunno.
 
I don't think it's significant. To me the emphasis isn't on the blood, it's the unicorn. When I think of unicorns I think of rainbows, fluffy pink clouds and and little girls who hang those posters on their walls. Voldemort destroys innocence. That's what the unicorn represents.
Anyway, as I recall, LV needed the blood so that the "essance" of his being could be supported without the use of bodies such as poor proffesor Quirrell's.
 
I thought Ravenclaw was in the other tower and Hufflepuff was on the ground floor somewhere?

I agree that unicorns are innocent and beautful creatures and also represent a purity (white) So sensless killing of them would be the evil act I imagine.
 
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