PENSIEVE - Robin Dance

Coming up with a name for my blog bogged me down. I wanted something simple that communicated something more than just a name. Potter BOOK fans will get the reference immediately, everyone else will need this explanation. This is what I came up with, I love this concept…and at times I wish “pensieves” were more than just make believe.

Pensieve (as explained in Wikipedia)

A Pensieve is a stone basin, covered in mystic runes, with a liquid or gas within. A witch or wizard can extract his or her own memories and place them in the Pensieve, especially to relieve the mind when it becomes too flooded with information. Anyone can examine the memories in the Pensieve, which also allows viewers to fully immerse themselves in the memories stored within, much like a magical form of virtual reality. Tom Riddle’s diary seems to have this same form of virtual reality. Oddly, users of these devices view the memories from, third person view. This of course, raises questions of how they are able to see things beyond what they have remembered. Rowling answered this question in an interview, confirming that memories in the pensieve allow one to view details of things that happened even if they did not notice or remember them, and stated that “that’s the magic of the Pensieve, what brings it alive” [1]

Like many names in these books, pensieve is a pun: it is a sieve in that it is a device used for sifting out thoughts, and in using it one becomes pensive or thoughtful. It may be notable that “pensieve” is an anagram of Pevensie, the surname of the main characters from C. S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, in which the Pevensie children are thrust into another world through a magical cupboard, as Harry is thrust into a memory through the pensieve in Dumbledore‘s cupboard.

A Pensieve first appears in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, again in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and plays a pivotal role in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

 

Buy the complete set for a great price in paperback or hardback! The Harry Potter series is a wonderful – dare I say, magical? – read.

robins_pensieve

Pin It on Pinterest