The elder one harry potter

AND THE DEATHLY BRANCHES

OF GOVERNMENT

A little backstory

The Harry Potter saga is a seven-part series written by a British author, J.K. Rowling.

It is one of the top selling book series ever written.

Harry potter

The series tells the story of Harry Potter, a young man who discovers, at the age of 11, that he is a wizard.

He also finds out that at the age of one, his parents were murdered by the most feared Dark wizard of all time, Lord Voldemort

The series centers around Harry trying to right the wrongs done by Voldemort and his followers.

Harry potter and the deathly hallows

In the seventh book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry and his two friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, are bequeathed (or willed) items by the recently deceased headmaster of their school, Albus Dumbledore.

The tales of beedle the bard

Hermione is willed a book of children’s stories, The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Both Harry and Hermione had grown up outside of the magical world, and Dumbledore thought Hermione might find the stories therein to be ‘instructive.’

The symbol surfaces

On the title page of one of the stories, The Tale of Three Brothers, Hermione notices a strange symbol. As a student of ancient runes, she’d never seen it before, but allows the irregularity to pass.

the necklace

The symbol appears again, however, less than a day later. While in attendance at a wedding, Harry, Ron, and Hermione see their friend Luna’s father, Xenophilius, wearing a necklace bearing the same symbol.

the tombstone

Later in the book, Harry and Hermione visit the graveyard where Harry’s parents are buried.

They again find the mysterious symbol. This time, they find it etched into the tombstone of Ignotus Peverell.

The visit

After seeing this symbol so many times now, Harry, Ron, and Hermione become genuinely curious.

They decide to visit Xenophilius to find out more about it.

Upon asking, he informs them that the mysterious rune is the symbol of the Deathly Hallows. Confused, he informs them that the Hallows are described in The Tale of Three Brothers – which, incidentally, is the place Hermione saw the symbol in the first place. Hermione proceeds to read the tale to the other two. It goes a little bit something like this….

The tale of three brothers

Once, there were three brothers, traveling along a lonely, winding road at twilight. In time, the brothers came to a river too wide to jump across and too treacherous to swim across, but they – being learned in the magical arts – simply waved their wands and made a bridge. They began to cross but suddenly found their path blocked by a hooded figure. It was Death, and he felt cheated, for travelers usually drowned in the river.

Death’s plan

But Death was cunning. He congratulated the brothers on their magic and said that each had earned a prize after having been clever enough to evade him.

Antioch, the eldest brother

The first brother, a combative man, asked for a wand more powerful than any in existence…a wand that would always win duels for its owner…a wand worth of a man who had defeated Death. So Death crossed to an elder tree and fashioned him a wand from one of its branches.

Cadmus, the second brother

The second brother, an arrogant man, wanted to humiliate Death further, and asked for the ability to raise people from the grave. So Death walked to the riverbank, picked up a stone, and said that it would have the ability to bring people back from the dead.

Ignotus, the third brother

Then Death asked the third brother what he would like. The third brother was the youngest, but also the wisest and humblest of the brothers, and he didn’t trust Death. He asked for something that would enable him to go forth from that place without being followed by Death, so Death reluctantly gave him his own cloak of invisibility.

Death’s gifts

Death departs, and the three brothers walk for a time together, discussing their great adventure and admiring Death’s gifts. In time, however, each of the brothers depart for their own destination.

Death takes the first brother

The first brother traveled to a nearby village and sought out a man with whom he had a quarrel. With the Elder Wand as his weapon, he could not lose, and he left his enemy dead upon the floor. In the inn that evening, drunk with the power of the Wand, he bragged about the invincibility it gave him. But later that evening as he lay wine sodden on his bed, someone who’d overheard the conversation crept in, stole the wand, and killed him. Thus, Death took the first brother for his own.

Death takes the second brother

The second brother traveled to his home and, taking the Stone, turned it thee times in his hand. To his delight, the woman he’d once hoped to marry (before she died an untimely death) appeared before him. But after a time, she became sad and cold, because she didn’t belong in the mortal world. Driven mad with hopeless longing, the second brother hanged himself in order to join her in the next life. Thus, Death took the second brother for his own.

The third brother’s wisdom

As for the third brother, Death searched for him for many years but was unable to find him. Only when he’d attained a great age did he take off the Cloak of Invisibility and give it to his son. Then, the third brother greeted Death as an old friend, and then together, they departed this life as equals.

The deathly hallows

Xenophilius tells Harry, Ron, and Hermione that the three items (the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Cloak of Invisibility) are the Deathly Hallows and once united, according to legend, they make the possessor master of Death.

The deathly branches of government

I argue that each item of the Deathly Hallows is comparable to one of the three branches of government, and like the Deathly Hallows, I believe that the combination of these three branches (while powerfully individually) has created one of the most brilliant and powerful governments in the world.

The elder wand… the executive branch

The story argues that the Elder Wand is the most powerful wand ever made. It is also a formidable weapon…allegedly unbeatable.

It is an indisputable fact that the President (and by extension, the Executive Branch) is the most powerful entity in the world, and that office controls the most powerful weapon in the world, the United States military.

The resurrection stone… the judicial branch

The Resurrection Stone brings people back from the dead

The Judicial Branch’s duty is to, through court rulings, interpret the intent of the Founding Fathers…who incidentally are a bunch of dead guys. So, to put it another way, judges ‘bring back the dead’ every time they render a new decision, since they are trying to decipher the intent of the Founding Fathers.

The cloak of invisibility… the legislative branch and transparency

The Cloak makes the wearer invisible.

The legislative branch is the most transparent branch of government. It’s easy to find out how each person votes, what they support, and what they actually say while Congress is in session. It’s in the Congressional Register, which you can get for free online.

The cloak… hiding scandal exposing success

The Cloak enables the wearer to hide when doing mischief and reveal themselves when they are being honorable.

David Mayhew, a political scientist, argues that the sole goal of people in Congress is to get elected and re-elected, and that in order to do that, they had to hide their failures and expose their successes in order to make themselves as electable as possible.

The cloak… trust and public confidence

The third brother wanted the Cloak because he didn’t trust Death.

Incidentally, we aren’t particularly confident in Congress’ intentions either.

Currently, Congress has below a 10% approval rating.

Interestingly enough, our confidence in our OWN Representatives and Senators is very high, but our trust is the others is very low.

The deathly branches of government

So you see, the branches of government are very like the Deathly Hallows. Each powerful individually, but when united, they create one of the most powerful and formidable governments in the world.

Origins…

This was one of the first pop culture lectures I designed, and I told my parents about it one night at Chili’s over queso dip. My parents made the point that Rowling probably didn’t care about American government since she’s British, but I noted something that both she and our Founders had in common…

Symbolic similarities…

Both Rowling and our Founding Fathers are/were interested or involved in Freemasonry. The Freemasons are a secret society that aristocrats have and (some) do belong to, and they communicate through the use of symbols.

One of those masonic symbols, the all-seeing eye appears on the back of the dollar bill and looks very like the symbol of the Deathly Hallows.

While some might call that coincidence, I call it….magical.

Questions?

Woo hoo! You’ve completed week one’s videos and power points!

Proceed to the discussion forum entitled ‘Deathly Branches’ and be sure to answer ALL of the questions in complete sentences. Also, be sure to submit your two current events questions and comment on two of your classmates’ posts IN BOTH THE DISCUSSION FORUM AND CURRENT EVENTS BOARD by Sunday night.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email, call, or text me.

Until next week, may the Force be with you.