Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2024 February 1

= February 1 =

Grindelwald, on the page "list of supporting Harry Potter characters"
The use of the phrase for the greater good suggests that Rowling may have been thinking of Nazism, where the philosophy of the ends justifying the means was upheld. Is it a coincidence that the resort of Grindelwald is predominantly German-speaking? I put in a cross-reference to the resort at the end of the section. Egarobar (talk) 16:54, 1 February 2024 (UTC)


 * I see that another editor has (rightly, in my opinion) reverted your addition as "Not related whatsoever."
 * This speculation is firstly OR on your part, and secondly extremely far-fetched. That a Swiss ski resort is predominently German-speaking is hardly indicative of a Nazi connection. Rowling chose a Germanic name for a Germanic character: beyond that only she can say why she chose that particular name. German philosophy has a rather longer and more honorable pedigree than Nazism (which perverted varied religious and philosophical ideas), as doubtless does the rather general concept of 'for the greater good'.
 * Unless you can find a citeable statement by Rowling, or at least a published suggestion by a respected critic, supporting this association, I suggest you do not pursue this. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.199.208.215 (talk) 21:04, 1 February 2024 (UTC)


 * To stay in literature, a relation with Grendel seems more likely, followed by an attempt to change that into something that sounds like Grendel, but isn't Grendel and is German. A look at the map works. Taking a Swiss village (instead of German or Austrian) even helps somewhat to avoid the Nazi connotations English speakers often seem to have with the German language, for whatever reason. PiusImpavidus (talk) 09:48, 3 February 2024 (UTC)
 * To be fair, in the books Rowling was fairly obviously portraying the Death Eater movement in terms that evoke (to any British reader) the 1930s British Union of Fascists, amongst other things, and giving the Germanic wizarding culture authoritarian right-leaning characteristics, so a general evocation of (neo-)Nazism is certainly present. The name 'Grindelwald', however, does not seem to materially bolster the Nazi, as opposed to merely Germanic, elements of the books' setting. Richard Wagner may have lived there for twelve years, apparently, but that's a bit of a stretch {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.199.208.215 (talk) 21:58, 3 February 2024 (UTC)