Pureblood Culture and The Olde Ways
Having laid out the terms and aims of this work, the next logical step would be to discuss the meat of the topic. The trope of Pureblood Traditions, and the intricacies within.
As discussed in the thesis statement, Pureblood Culture, as a trope, utilizes the Watsonian concept of “The Olde Ways.” What my thesis statement did not do, however, was lay out what that means.
Typically, when one comes across The Olde Ways, it is presented in one of three primary forms. The first, as a universal wizarding religion, one that is typically being persecuted, or one that has fallen from favor. The second, a collection of rites performed on specific auspicious days (auspicious being here defined as magically significant, or magically strong, or magically symbolic), with variations on this formula adding ancestral veneration as an aspect. The third, and tending to appear in fanworks where magic is sentient (and tends toward biogenic or biotic representations) and represented by a Lady Magic – thus tending toward elements of the first form – is one in which the rites performed on auspicious days are used as a regulatory method of sustaining the living force that magic tends to present as.
Of course, these three forms are not the whole of the trope, as trope deconstructions, subversions, and earnest iterations exist, though on the whole the three forms as listed act as fair representations.
The singular elements of the trope are, as I have observed, a collection of traditional rites (subject to authorial alterations) that are performed at festivals on auspicious days, with those days variously having no unique term, or being referred to as Sabbats, with perhaps a handful of the Sabbats followed, or all of them, once more subject to authorial decision. As follows, the festivals are named:
- Yule (variously referred to as Midwinter or simply the Winter Solstice)
- Imbolc
- Ostara
- Beltane
- Litha (variously referred to as Midsummer or simply the Summer Solstice)
- Lughnasadh (variously referred to as Lughnasa or Lammas)
- Mabon
- Samhain
Commonly referred to as The Wheel of the Year, traditional rites have a high degree of variance within fanworks, by the sheer nature of fanworks, but commonalities include bonfires, feasts, and balls (a common occurrence of the latter is that of the Malfoy family hosting a Yule Ball each year, commonly used as a plot device in their respective fanworks.)
Of course, by itself, a trope that forms the function of worldbuilding has no inherent plot-driver mechanics. As such, the Pureblood Culture trope most commonly occurs in varying forms that are listed:
- Alongside the Manipulative Dumbledore trope, wherein Albus Dumbledore is pushing to outlaw or has successfully outlawed the listed festivals and the associated rites, commonly giving the reason of it being “Dark Magic”, thus necessitating their criminalization (an assumption that works on a flawed base understanding of canon, as curses such as the Full Body-Bind Curse, Petrificus Totalus – which the characters learn and use – are categorized as Dark Magic as well)
- In a related plot structure to the first, though not one that always has the first present, the outlawing of The Olde Ways as a means of showing the encroachment of Muggle culture on the Wizarding World, a plot form that finds itself comorbid with the Grey Harry or Dark Harry tropes.
- In a similar form to the prior two, The Olde Ways are being outlawed, however such has led to the degradation of magic, spurring an attempt to legalize the traditions once more and restore magic, with the concept of a Dark Lord and Light Lord of magic being common in these fanworks.
Lastly, The Olde Ways are commonly presented as an ancient practice of the magical population (commonly just those of the British Isles – where such is the case and the plot form is the third example it once more reflects the Anglocentrism present in the original saga – though other works present the beliefs as being global.)
This then brings us to the origin of these festivals.