Paste your essay in here..The medieval history of mythical creatures has been a part of medieval folklore for the time. Stories of vast creatures have been found in literature such as stories of an Epic. The story of Harry Potter has large similarities of the inspiration used to create the wizarding world. The beast and creatures that had been used in her novel has originated in medieval literature. JK Rowling shows the world of Harry Potter come to life with the connections of medieval creatures in the story. Connections of dragons, phoenix, goblins, and unicorns are just a couple of the vast creatures in the Harry Potter novels. Before speaking of the creatures, we need to talk about the reasons the author chose to use mythical creatures in her story. Talk about what is believed the mythical origin of the creatures and beast from medieval times and compare it to how it’s used in the Harry Potter novels.
The use of mythical creatures in the book is to create the feeling that the beast and characters had come from. The origin stories of the beast have shown to exist in parts of the world as to show these creatures exist in our world. The use of creatures and beast in medieval literature, is to show the journey of the hero and the challenges faced on their quest. Similar to Harry Potter, the common stories of King Arthur fighting mythical creatures are vastly part of the character growth of the characters. Harry Potter at the beginning of the Philosopher Stone, Harry is viewed as a feeble, timid, shy, child that grows to become to defeat the evilest of the wizarding world, Voldemort. To get to the story of Harry defeating Voldemort, we must first have to look at the journey to get to this point. Harry Potter had to face several foes during his time. From battling the Basilisk in the Chambers of Secrets to battling the Hungarian Horntail in the Goblet of Fire. The wizarding world not only has creatures of beast, but also entities such as goblins, spirits, centaur, and trolls to name a few. The creatures that have been name are based off of medieval origin based on stories and legends describing these beings existing in our world. The Harry Potter storyline falls within an epic of how stories are told on the journey of a hero. The story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight had showed us a lot about story structure that JK Rowling had gotten inspiration from. The story of the Green Knight is shown to be a powerful warrior and champion that was fierce. The description of the Green Knight was, “All green bedights that knight, and green his garment fair… of gold on silken lace, all striped in fashion bright, that dangled beneath his legs- so rode that gallant knight.” (pg 7) The description given by the author of the antagonist shows that he is feared upon the land he sits. Similar to how JK Rowling would describe the Voldemort. There are countless descriptions of Voldemort as he had the used the body of Professor Quirrell as a host body in the Sorcerer Stone. The description of Voldemort as a worm tail showing the true weakness of his strength before he is resurrected into a new body in the Goblet of Fire. The description of Voldemort changes throughout the story has he does appear in the first book. He then appears in the chambers of secrets as Tom Riddle, who would later become Voldemort. The evil wizard had sought after power and strength from those he can take from and it’s up to Harry Potter to stop him and fulfil his destiny. One of the descriptions of Lord Voldemort was, “Worm tail had been the shape of a crouched human child…it was hairless and scaly-looking, a dark, raw, reddish black. Its arms and legs were thin and feeble, and its face… flat and snakelike, with gleaming red eyes” (Pg 710).
The description of the character shows the connection of an Arthurian storyline. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight shows that Sir Gawain took the Green Knights challenge for King Arthur and for his bravery. In the Goblet of Fire, Harry did not place his name in the Tri-Wizard Tournament Cup, but instead took on the challenge that has been set before him. The characters in the story show that they show bravery. When the Green Giant went to challenge King Arthur, Sir Gawain stepped up and faced the challenge that had been set upon. Harry Potter is also viewing as a brave character in the story that causes him to become part of quest and journey needed to defeat evil. Although, both stories have different endings, Sir Gawain learns a valuable lesson that is brought back to King Arthur and his men. Harry Potter defeats evil as the journey of most epics endear.
JK Rowling used this style of telling a narrative to allow people to get excited for medieval literature and knowledge. The development of storytelling has revitalized the need to learn about the Middle Age. With the Middle Age, comes a time where people would create stories that would reflect the problems faced at the time. Also, the beast in the medieval literature had been the inspiration JK Rowling used to create the wizarding world. What is interesting about the best in Medieval Times are the descriptions of books and manuscripts of creatures that were believed to exist in the world. The wizarding world of Harry Potter had created a modern world with all the medieval creatures and beings existing one along humans. One of the first beast that will be talked about is the Basilisk. The Basilisk is a serpent that is said to be very powerful. The Latin name for the Basilisk is regulus, which stands for king. It is said that the Basilisk can shoot flames from the mouth, can kill a human being with just its glance, it can kill you by just hissing at you. There are depictions of the Basilisk having a rooster’s head, but in the narrative of JK Rowling, the basilisk is a serpent. It is a given gift that Harry has Parseltongue that allows him to speak to serpents. The connection to serpents comes from Voldemort as he had left some of his powers to Harry Potter from the protection of his parents. In the description of the Basilisk, it says it is an enormous, bright green poisonous snake. It has magical abilities such as its armor is able to deflect spells. It has dangerous fangs that are venomous to the touch.
The interaction of the Basilisk comes in the Chamber of Secrets that show the interaction between Harry and Tom Riddle. The Basilisk is released to attack Harry, but a phoenix comes to blind the basilisk that had been sent down by Professor Dumboredore. The use of the phoenix is both used in medieval literature and shows up in the Harry Potter series. The phoenix is shown to come down and protect Harry from being attacked in the Chambers of Secrets. The story of the Phoenix is that the bird is able to resurrect its body into a new transformation. It is believed that the Phoenix can reach ages of up to five hundred years old and it was believed to exist in India. In the Chambers of Secrets, the Phoenix comes to attack the Basilisk by blinding it, so that its stare doesn’t kill and make it easier to defeat the Basilisk. The name of the phoenix is Fawkes that is sent by Dumbledore. The phoenix is there to represent the savior of Harry Potter as it scarified itself to save Harry. Similar story of how King Arthur had killed the dragon, Harry Potter miraculously was able to murder the basilisk and had saved his friends from Voldemort once again. According the facts of a phoenix in Harry Potter, the Phoenix has red and gold feathers, is able to burst into flames with it is weak and is able to be reborn from the ashes. The Phoenix has also healing properties as Hawkes drops tears onto Harry’s wounds and heal instinctually. I believe the use of the story in the chambers of secrets come from the Christian beliefs of good and evil. The serpent is viewed as evil with strong wit of using pain to its enemies. Tom Riddle can be viewed as the antagonist using pain and suffering to meet his ultimate goal of immorality.
The stories of mythical creatures in the Harry Potter series has shown the connection it has with the Middle Age. The way J.K. Rowling shares her story of the wizarding world is no different from the stories that are told through folklore. Inspiration of characters use in the story has been used and created a revitalization of medieval stories to be told once again. The development of the Harry Potter has led many people to learn about medieval topics that have been lost in literature for quite some time.