From Marie de France to J.K. Rowling: The Weasel

Abstract

When she graduated with nine years of Latin to her credit and French from the cradle courtesy of her French mother, J. K. Rowling was well equipped to do what Marie de France had done more than seven centuries earlier: to delve into the medieval bestiaries (books of beasts, in Latin). But Rowling also knew Marie de France’s Lais with their cadre of birds and beasts. These medieval source materials, one in Latin and the other in Old French, provide the Harry Potter novels with a rich array of characters and thematic development. The remarkable, and remarkably important, Weasley family are a prime example of Rowling’s inventive translatio that stretches all the way from the beginning to the end of the novels, and on into the Epilogue. The weasel is to be found not only between the covers of medieval books of beasts but also in Marie de France’s Eliduc. But the weasel is also alive and well in the UK today, where it remains a very common creature of the countryside and a playful pet for many children. “From Marie de France to J.K. Rowling: the Weasel” explores how skillfully J.K. Rowling combined certain characteristics of the weasel from bestiary sources and other characteristics from Marie de France’s lai to create the Weasley family (as witnessed by their surname), while rejecting other characteristics for specific reasons. Her benign, homey portrayal of the beloved Weasley family has learned beginnings that Marie would have recognized and approved of. Like Marie, she wants us to explore the crucial question of “What’s in a name?”