Hogwarts Legacy

[pendell]

What's the origin of the house elves? I get the impression they have been magically made into servants/slaves of wizards -- which implies they've either been conjured , or they've been modified from an existing ordinary creature , the way domestic dogs are made from wolves.

This reminds me of our conversation in Media about the Han Solo adventures where we debate just what "freedom" and "free will" mean to a droid, given their ethical choice not to harm humans (for example) is not necessarily something they've arrived at by their own reasoning, but is imposed by external programming. Change the programming, they'll become homicidal without blinking an eye.

So House elves "like" being slaves. Why, exactly? Because they've been magicked into thinking that way? If so, can we un-magick them without destroying the creatures they are today?

If a house-elf were to refuse such un-magicking, can we truly say they are doing so out of their own free will?

The one thing I'm sure of is that whatever wizard or witch thought it was a good idea to create a literal slave race was probably a Slytherin and certainly a villain.

ETA: Then again, now that I've written this -- maybe the house elves were created in a time when human slavery was still practiced, and this was done to allow human slaves to be freed? I can well imagine some well-intentioned person creating a slave race so that human slavery could become a thing of the past -- but that's the nature of history. If you wait long enough everyone's a villain.

But now that the fact exists, what is to be done about it? You can't just set them free; they don't understand what it means and they aren't prepared (yet) for a free society.

If they were some other creature magicked into being house elves, the answer seems to be to reverse that magic and revert them to their natural state, whatever that is. But is that 'better'? What if the original version wasn't intelligent? Would the house elves thank you if giving them freedom also meant taking away their minds?

And when the house-elves say they like being happy, is that really how they feel or are they just saying that because they know from bitter experience that their current state is infinitely preferable to the "help" of do-gooder teenage wizards and witches? Back in the 19th century it was common for certain groups of slaves to pretend happiness and contentment with their lot, and the 'happy slave' was a music hall trope. But it was an act, brought about by the fact that really being honest about feelings would have done them no good at all, once the do-gooders go away and the owners once again have absolute reign over anyone so foolish as to tell the unvarnished truth.

...

if it were me, the first thing to do would be to talk to some already-freed house-elves. They exist. Then discuss how we would go about educating and preparing the large number of still-enslaved for transition to life as free, independent beings. It's going to be the work of a lifetime. Of several lifetimes, to bring about a state where house-elves are both free and reasonably happy in that state.

I actually was pretty angry at Hermione in that novel. First, because she went on her crusade without any concern for the lives of the elves once freed, and attempted to so radically change their situation without preparing any kind of transition or soft landing for them. Then, by the next book, she seems to have completely forgotten about the whole thing. As if, because her initial chidish steps were misguided she's unprepared to make the effort to get educated and become really effective as an advocate and an activist; instead she's just going to slot seamlessly into her post-Hogwarts life as an Aurore and for the most part leave the wizarding world's approach to house-elves unchallenged.

I'm given to understand that she still worked on the matter, but I haven't really seen anything to that effect in the text, almost the author writing an excuse for her characters.

But then, perhaps we're expecting too much, both of the books and of the movies. JK Rowling, bless her heart, was neither a deep thinker nor highly educated when she wrote those books. They struck a chord with a generation of young people -- but maybe it's well past time for those young people to re-think the assumptions from the books, decades on.

Me? I didn't encounter the books until I was an adult and my convictions were already formed, so not the same issue.

Respectfully,

Brian P.