Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video, we’re going
to be discussing the darker side of the wizarding world, JK Rowling, and an old Russian folktale
that very well could have inspired Voldemort’s most powerful weapon- his horcruxes. This
piece of folklore was actually brought to my attention by subscriber ‘Games X’ in
a comment on one of my videos last week, so Games X if you’re watching- thank-you for
the inspiration.
Because this video is centered around a tale that inspired Horcruxes- I’m going to very
briefly introduce Horcruxes so that their properties are top of mind. This should allow
us to more easily compare what we know to be horcruxes, and the ‘horcrux-esque’
objects from Russian folklore.
A horcrux is a dark object in which a dark witch or wizard has imbued part of their soul.
The ultimate purpose of creating a horcrux is to achieve immortality. However, the truly
sinister component of creating a horcrux is that in order to produce one, you must MURDER
someone. There are only two known wizards who have created a Horcrux, the first being
Herpo the Foul and the second being Voldemort. In Harry Potter, very little is revealed about
the horcrux creation process- and all we can say for certain is that murder is required.
JK Rowling, who coined the term, defines it as follows: “a receptacle prepared by dark
magic in which a Dark wizard has intentionally hidden a fragment of his soul for the purpose
of attaining immortality." Furthermore, as exemplified by Voldemort, it is possible for
wizards to create more than one horcrux- securing their immortality further by encasing fragments
of their soul in to multiple objects. Not only are horcruxes hard to find- but they
are also notoriously difficult to destroy - and it’s for these reasons that wizards
who produce them are able to claim ‘immortality’ with such certainty.
Alright, now you’re refreshed on Horcruxes. However, what you probably didn’t know was
that the concept of a ‘soul container’ is not original to Harry Potter. Now, it’s
no secret that JK Rowling drew all kinds of inspiration from all over the map when creating
the story. There’s Greek influence, Roman influence, historic literary influence- and,
well, many other kinds of influence evident within the Harry Potter story. And Rowling
certainly gives due credit to these sources of inspiration. However, when questioned specifically
about the origin of Horcruxes, JK Rowling claimed that nothing in particular had inspired
the concept. Could this be the case? Certainly. But does the piece of Russian folklore that
I’m about to tell you seem quite familiar? You be the judge.
The piece of Russian folklore in question involves a figure named Koschei the Deathless-
and, as you can probably tell by his name- he was someone that, like Voldemort, was able
to cheat death. Come to think of it, Voldemort’s name also alludes to his immortality- as ‘Vol
De Mort’ means ‘Flight of Death’.
Koschei, who also goes by the epithet ‘The Immortal’ is an archetypal male antagonist
that has been appearing in Slavic tales since before the 18th century. Though he is mentioned
across a multitude of tales, he is perhaps most famous for a tale that surrounds his
evasion of death. For you see, Koschei, much like Voldemort, discovered a dark spell that
allowed him to separate soul from body- hiding his soul inside of nested objects to protect
it. The tale of Koschei supports the idea in Harry Potter that ‘soul’ is the most
important part of our lifeforce- and that the physical body is merely a container- a
vessel.
In order to prevent himself from being killed, Koschei hides his soul inside of nested objects
in order to protect it. Like the Russian ‘Matryoshka Doll’ or ‘Nesting Doll’- there are layers
and layers that need to be peeled back in order to get to the base layer- each layer
acting as one more measure of protection.
In Koschei’s tale, his soul is hidden within a needle, within an egg, within a duck- and
the kicker is that the duck flies away whenever anyone tries to catch it.
Though Koschei’s method of soul encasement differs from Harry Potter in some ways, it’s
hard to ignore the parallels between Koschei and Voldemort, and I for one think that Koschei
at least subconsciously (if not consciously) inspired Rowling’s concept of the ‘Horcrux’.
What do you guys think? Let me know in the comment section below
If you enjoy mythology and folklore in general, be sure to check out my mythology channel
- Mythology Explained, which I’ll link below.
Until next time
Greatness inspires envy, envy engenders spite, spite spawns lies.