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Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In this video, I’m going to be discussing
parseltongue- the language of snakes. More specifically, I’m going to be addressing
a moment in the Deathly Hallows where Ron is able to speak the rare (that’s an understatement)
language and enter the chamber of secrets. For many- this was confusing, and that’s
because, in spite of an attempt at explaining it- it just doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Furthermore- there’s a bit of a different explanation for how he was able to do it from
book to film. I’ve got an interesting theory for how he was able to do it- so hear me out.
Without further ado- let’s dive in to it.
Harry Potter is known for a lot of things- but one particular thing about Harry that
is known amongst the student body is that he can speak Parseltongue- he’s a Parselmouth.
Because Harry had a piece of Voldemort’s soul inside of him- he inherited certain abilities-
and the ability to speak to snakes was one of them. If you didn’t know already, a parselmouth
is one who is able to speak parseltongue - the language of Snakes. It’s a hereditary trait
that is passed on through descendants of Salazar Slytherin, which Voldemort happened to be-
so it makes sense that Harry would inherit this trait. It’s widely accepted that Salazar
was the original Parselmouth, but others have speculated that it may in fact have been Herpo
the Foul, the original horcrux creator, who lived before Salazar Slytherin’s era. Either
way, descendants of Salazar himself carried this trait, which is probably why the connection
is so strong between Slytherin house and snakes. It’s their house emblem after all. It’s
really not a common thing- but Harry of course doesn’t realize this until the Chamber of
Secrets when it’s pointed out to him.
Before the chamber of secrets he speaks to the snake in the zoo in the philosopher’s
stone- and given that at that point in time he was entirely ignorant to magic in its entirety,
he probably didn’t know what to think of it. However, it is only later on that Harry
actually discovers that being a parselmouth is quite a unique trait- when none other than
Ron points it out to him.
“So?” said Harry. “I bet loads of people here can do it.’”
“Oh no they can’t,” said Ron. “It’s not a very common gift. Harry, this is bad.”
You see, when a parselmouth speaks parseltongue, and speaks to snakes, to an outside observer
he is speaking the language of snakes. But to the speaker, all they hear is themselves
speaking normally. This is why speaking to snakes is a hereditary and not a learned skill-
and I think that Rowling makes this quite clear. HOWEVER.
In the Deathly Hallows- when Hermione and Ron have the idea to enter the Chamber of
Secrets and retrieve a basilisk fang to destroy the remaining Horcruxes- they are without
Harry. And if you’ll remember from the Chamber of Secrets- you need to speak Parseltongue
to get in to the chamber. So- what happened next? Well- Ron somehow opened it. Somehow
Ron spoke Parseltongue.
From the Deathly Hallows:
"And then he skidded around a final corner and with a yell of mingled relief and fury
he saw them: Ron and Hermione; both with their arms full of large, curved, dirty yellow objects,
Ron with a broomstick under his arms. “Where the hell have you been?” Harry shouted.
“Chamber of Secrets,” said Ron. “Chamber – what?” said Harry, coming to an unsteady
halt before them. “It was Ron, all Ron’s idea!” said Hermione breathlessly. “Wasn’t
it absolutely brilliant? There we were, after we left, and I said to Ron, even if we find
the other one, how are we going to get rid of it? We still hadn’t got rid of the cup!
And then he thought of it! The basilisk!” “What the – ?” “Something to get rid
of Horcruxes,” said Ron simply. "
So Hermione and Ron entered the chamber- but how did they get in there? The book and film
have different explanations:
From the book:
"But how did you get in [the Chamber of Secrets]?" [Harry] asked, staring from the [Basilisk]
fangs to Ron. "You need to speak Parseltongue!"
"He did!" whispered Hermione. "Show him, Ron!"
Ron made a horrible strangled hissing noise.
"It's what you did to open the locket," he told Harry apologetically. "I had to have
a few goes to get it right, but," he shrugged modestly, "we got there in the end."
As we can see here- the explanation for Ron being able to speak Parseltongue- or at least
enough to open the chamber- is that he remembered it from Harry when he opened the locket.
The movie explanation is similar- except Ron simply explains to Hermione that he heard
it from Harry while he was sleeping:
“Harry talks in his sleep. Have you noticed?”
It’s all a bit unusual- particularly as Parseltongue is (at least in my eyes) so clearly
established as a unique ability that no other person (outside of Salazar Slytherin’s lineage)
can ever learn or speak. Rowling had an explanation for this in an interview- albeit wasn’t
a very good one.
Q: Since Ron is able to speak Parseltongue in the last book, does that mean that parseltongue
is a language that most witches and wizards can learn or must a person be born with some
ability to speak Parseltongue.
JKR: I don’t see it really as a language you can learn. So few people speak it that
who would teach you? This is a weird ability passed down through the Slytherin blood line.
However Ron was with Harry when he said one word in Parseltongue, which I do not know
so I cannot duplicate for you, but he heard him say “Open,” and he was able to reproduce
the sound. So it was one word. Whether he could learn to speak to snakes properly is
a separate issue. I don’t think he could. But he knew enough, he was smart enough, to
duplicate one necessary sound.
The issue with this explanation is that if you are able to reproduce ONE sound- why can’t
you reproduce two sounds? Three sounds? What’s stopping you from putting these sounds together?
Additionally, when people speak Parseltongue it doesn’t even sound like something that
is achievable by a human voice box- it’s a strange ethereal sounding language that
sounds magical- so how can it just be replicated like that? Here’s what I think:
I don’t think that Ron can speak Parseltongue- not in any way shape or form- nor can he understand
it. He can, however, interpret sounds and noises made from other people- and attempt
to replicate them. Ron doesn’t even know what he’s saying when he opens the chamber-
he just memorized what Harry said- additionally, in the passage above, Ron’s attempt at Parseltongue
comes across as ‘strangled hissing’ to Harry- which indicates that no, it wasn’t
Parseltongue- because if it was then presumably Harry would be able to interpret it and understand
it in the same way that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets did. What this tells me
is that, rather than a requirement for actual PARSELTONGUE to be spoken to open the chamber-
it’s more about the languages phonemes. Phonemes are any of the perceptually distinct
units of sound in a specified language that distinguish one word from another- and the
fact that Ron is able to open the Chamber tells me that the Phonemes of Parseltongue
differ from the language itself. If that wasn’t the case- then Harry would have been able
to understand Ron when he attempted Parseltongue.
This means that the entrance of the chamber doesn’t open to Parseltongue- it opens to
a spoken password that RESEMBLES Parseltongue- and contains the same ‘phonemes’. I think
that this is really the only logical explanation for How someone like Ron could leverage a
rare HEREDITARY language. He knew some sounds that sounded like Parseltongue- and uttered
them- but it wasn’t the real language. However, it was enough to get in.
What do you guys think? Do you think that Ron actually spoke Parseltongue? Or do you
think that my Phoneme theory is a little bit more accurate. Was this just a bit of an oversight
from Rowling altogether? I’d love to hear what you guys have to say on this topic- so
leave a comment down below.
Until next time,
There is plenty to be learned even from a bad teacher: what not to do, how not to be