J.K. Rowling (Author of Harry Potter): Harry Potter came to me on a train in 1990. I was sitting and just staring out the window and the idea just fell 1)out of nowhere. It was the purest 2)stroke of inspiration I’e never had in my life, and I’e been writing about him ever since. Literally I’e boxes, 3)loads of stuff on him.
Harry Potter may have fallen out of nowhere, but the magical world he inhabits didn’t just appear 4)out of thin air.
Among the characters Harry learns of is Circe, a powerful witch who turns men into pigs in one of the GREatest stories ever told, The Odyssey. Written by a blind Greek poet named Homer in the 8th century BC, the twin 5)epics, The Iliad and The Odyssey, enchanted generations of Greek children.
The epic voyage of the hero Odysseus resembles Harry’s own journey. He has a distant goal to get to, he has enormous numbers of obstacles placed in front of him and 6)monsters who he has to face, and challenge and overcome and 7)bewitchments which he has to resist, and all the time, pressing onward towards his goal. In some ways, Harry Potter is a modern Odysseus.
The stories of ancient GREece are one of J.K Rowling’s favorite sources of inspiration. Characters from Greek legend 8)crop up throughout the Harry Potter books. A real figure from ancient Athens provides the name of Harry’s schoolboy 9)archenemy, Draco Malfoy. 10)Commemorated in the night skies as the 11)constellation of the dragon, Draco was a 12)lawgiver from the 7th century BC who became 13)infamous for his harsh punishments, giving us the word “raconian.”
Malfoy’s mother, Narcissa, is based on one of GREece’s most famous myths. Narcissa comes from the Greek myth of 14)Narcissist; we get the word narcissism for self-love. The story of Narcissist is the story of a Greek youth who fell in love with his own image and admiring it in a 15)riverbed, fell into the river and was drowned.
Harry’s giant friend Hagrid gets his name from a GREek character 16)exiled from the heavens but allowed to stay on as animal keeper by Zeus, king of the gods, a role almost 17)identical to Hagrid’s job as a 18)gamekeeper in the stories of Harry Potter.
One of Hagrid’s charges is Fluffy, the 3-headed dog who guards the out-of-bounds corridor on the 3rd floor of 19)Hogwarts. Well, Fluffy, the 3-headed guard dog is really a service from GREek Mythology, a 3-headed guard dog, and one of the things that Rowling does that is so impressive, she stays absolutely true to the original myths while using them so lightly in her own stories. Fluffy is the perfect example.
The lake next to Hogwarts hides another monster once thought mythical, but all too real. The giant 20)squid, because it lives so deep and is so rarely seen, has gripped people’s imaginations for 21)millennia. The ancients talked about the 22)Kraken, and this idea that there is an immense creature deep in the depths of the ocean, or indeed the lake at the bottom of the grounds, is a wonderfully fascinating one because it’s a combination of the mythical possibilities and reality.
Next to Hogwarts, in the forbidden forest, 23)dwell yet more creatures from classical mythology, the star-gazing 24)centaurs. In that same forest live some of the most 25)illusive creatures in Harry’s magical world: 26)unicorns, creatures hunted in vain in our own world. Unicorns, in Harry’s adventure as well as in classical mythology, are pure goodness. For centuries, people searched for them, because it was believed that their 27)horns or their blood would have magical medicinal qualities, and these characteristics of unicorns do come into play in the stories.
Rowing borrows heavily from 28)Arthurian legend. The 29)parallels between Harry Potter and King Arthur are quite extraordinary. I mean, you can almost start off with the fact that, like King Arthur, Harry Potter is 30)spirited away by a magician, taken away from the place where his real parents are because of the danger that he faces. That’s exactly the situation in Arthurian legend. And then you take it further that just as Merlin tutored Arthur, so Harry Potter at Hogwarts is being trained in using the magical powers that he has inside him. With his queen, Gwenivere, and his best knight, Sir Lancelot, Arthur untied the kingdom and built the majestic 31)Camelot. A story of 3 friends that has echoes in Harry’s adventures. Then there’s the other interesting parallel that Ron, Miney, and Harry are not 32)dissimilar to Arthur, Lancelot and Gwenivere, which leaves all sorts of interesting possibilities for the way this 33)saga will develop.
Using myths and legends from all over the world, J.K.Rowling has created a world of her own, an enchanting realm magically unites children worldwide. Whatever continues to 34)unfold, readers can expect to 35)uncover more connections with our own 36)muggle world. If we follow the clues in Harry’s magical world, perhaps, we can discover the real magic in our own.
《哈利·波特》
故事里的故事
罗琳（《哈利·波特》作者）：《哈利·波特》是我在1990年坐火车时想出来的。当时我坐着看窗外的风景，构思就这么突然产生了。那样的灵感我一生中从未有过，然后我就动笔写他的故事。我收集了许多许多关于他的材料。
《哈利·波特》的来因或许难以解释，但他的魔法世界却有依有据。
哈利学习的人物之一是瑟茜，瑟茜是法力高强的女巫，能把人变成猪。她出现在最伟大的故事之一——《奥德赛》中。《奥德赛》由失明的希腊 诗 人荷马在公元前8世纪写成。《伊利亚特》和《奥德赛》这两篇史 诗 ，迷住了一代又一代的希腊儿童。
英雄奥德修斯的史 诗 式旅程和哈利·波特的旅程很相似：有遥远的目标要实现，面前有无数的障碍，有要面对的怪物，要克服的挑战和要抵抗的诱惑，要一直奋力朝目标前进。从某种意义上来说，哈利·波特正是一个现代的奥德修斯。
古希腊故事是最受J.K.罗琳喜爱的灵感来源之一。希腊传说中的人物也在《哈利·波特》系列故事中频频出现。为哈利·波特的一个敌对同学——德拉科·马尔福——提供了名字的，在古代雅典真有其人。“德拉科”这个名字的本义是纪念夜空中的天龙星座，该雅典人在公元前7世纪是个立法者，因厉行严惩而声名狼藉，单词“draconian(严酷的)”亦由此而来。
马尔福的妈妈叫娜西莎，该名字的典故是希腊一个非常有名的神话，来自希腊神话中自恋者的故事。如今我们用“narcissism”这个词来表示“自恋”的意思。故事讲述一名希腊青年爱上自己的倒影，在河边欣赏自己的倒影时坠河溺死。
哈利的巨人朋友海格，得名自一位被赶出天堂的希腊人物，但此人得到众神之首——宙斯的批准，留下来看守动物。他和《哈利·波特》故事中海格的职责几乎一模一样：都是猎禽看守人。
海格看守的动物之一是三头狗毛毛，它看守着霍格沃茨魔法学校三楼的三不管走廊。三头狗毛毛确实是出自希腊神话中的三头看门狗。罗琳的这个写法给人留下了很深刻的印象，她完全忠实于神话，并将典故轻松地运用到自己的故事里。毛毛就是个最好的例子。
霍格沃茨学校旁边的湖里匿藏着另一个怪物，人们曾以为它只是传说，结果实有其物。巨乌贼居于深水处，难以一见，因此数千年来被认为是人类的幻想。古代人谈及海妖，说有巨怪存在于海洋深处和湖底。这个构思很有意思，因为它将神话中的可能性和现实结合在了一起。
霍格沃茨学校旁的禁林里住着更多经典神话中的生物，如：观星的半人马族。同一森林里还有哈利的魔法世界里最难以一见的生物之一——独角兽，这种生物在尘世中是捕捉不到的。在哈利的探险故事里，在经典神话中，独角兽都代表着绝对善良。许多世纪以来人们寻找着它们，因为据说它们的角和血具有神奇的治疗作用，独角兽的这些特点也都在《哈利·波特》中出现过。
罗琳在书中大量借用了亚瑟王的传说。哈利·波特和亚瑟王有惊人的相似之处。比如在故事开始，哈利·波特就像亚瑟王一样被魔法师带走，为了脱离险境而被从亲生父母处带走，那完全是亚瑟王传说中的情景。接着有默林来教授亚瑟，哈利·波特则是在霍格沃茨学习运用体内的魔法力量。亚瑟王和他的格温娜维尔皇后、以及最好的武士兰斯洛爵士一起统一王国，建立了宏伟的卡米洛。三个朋友的故事在《哈利·波特》中得到重现。罗恩、赫敏、哈利与亚瑟、兰斯洛、格温娜维尔之间的异曲同工之妙处，为该篇小说的一切有趣发展可能埋下了伏笔。
J.K.罗琳运用全世界的神话与传说，创造出了一个自己的世界，一个将世界各地的儿童神奇地联系在一起的迷人领域。无论《哈利·波特》的故事会怎样发展下去，读者们将发现它与我们的“麻瓜”世界有更多的联系。在寻找哈利魔法世界中的线索时，我们或许也发现了自己拥有的真正魔力。
