[Retros] linguistic hole

[Noam Elkies]

"Otto Janko" <otto at janko.at> writes:


> Some comments to Horcrux and HP:



> Alain: "and we can't expect it [Horcrux] to be as widely known as greek

> mythology [Phoenix]" -- I am pretty sure that there are more people in the

> world who know what a Horcrux is than people who know what a Phoenix is.


May be true now, but in 50 years?...


> Kevin: "recent children's book" -- IMHO Harry Potter has the same status as

> "The Lord of the Rings". [...] HP becomes a fantasy epos for any age.


It's clearly aiming for that status, but it's too early to tell whether
HP will attain it.  Anyway it might not be a comparison you want to make:
I don't think fairy chess has a Shadowfax or Ringwraith, despite several
decades' head start for LOTR.

On the third hand, the name Circe has impeccable Classical credentials,
but the original Circe seems to have nothing to do with its fairy-chess
usage; shouldn't _that_ have been called Phoenix?

NDE