Lord Voldemort, the dark lord, the heir of Slytherin, and the nemesis of Harry Potter, has got to be one of the best and most terrifying antagonists in the history of fiction. Everything about him is just truly sinister. The ragged robes, the rotten teeth, the weird snake slits for nostrils, and of course, the fact that he's a psychotic, bigoted, megalomaniac. Fans of the books have always been fascinated by his character though, and recently there's even been a fan film titled Voldemort: Origins of the Heir, which explores his rise to power.
However, there's always been one niggling issue: how to pronounce Voldemort's name. It's always been a bit of a conundrum, as most people are uncertain about whether or not they should pronounce the 'T' at the end. The controversy hasn't even been alleviated by audiobooks. Jim Dale, who read the audiobooks in the US, pronounced He-Wh0-Must-Not-Be-Named's name with the 'T' while reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, but then changed his pronunciation after the release of the first movie in the film franchise.
However it turns out that we've all been pronouncing The Dark Lord's name wrong the whole time. Yes, J.K. Rowling herself confirmed that the 'T' is meant to be silent back in 2015, after a fan messaged her on Twitter. They wrote: "One piece of Harry Potter trivia I always forget to mention: the ‘t’ is silent in Voldemort," and J.K. replied: "But I’m pretty sure I’m the only person who pronounces it that way." So there you have it: the author's decision is final, but it appears as though she doesn't mind what way people choose to say it herself. It does make sense though, as Voldemort's name is etymologically derived from the French, meaning "flight from death." Fitting for someone obsessed with immortality.
In an interview regarding her conception of Voldemort's character, Rowling stated: "He's a raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering" and later added that: "Voldemort's fear is death, ignominious death. I mean, he regards death itself as ignominious. He thinks that it's a shameful human weakness, as you know. His worst fear is death."
This isn't the first time that Rowling has had to step in to clear up an issue over the pronunciation of a character's name. After a Twitter user wrote "Theory: @jk_rowling included that passage on how to pronounce Hermione's name in Goblet of Fire just to school all of us who were saying HER-MY-OWN like Viktor Krum," to which she promptly replied: "Theory correct!" Well, what do you expect from someone named after a Shakespeare character?
However, this isn't the only Harry Potter-related bombshell we've had to deal with recently, as last week Ron Weasley's actor Rupert Grint confirmed that he'd actually been considering quitting the film franchise halfway through. Mind = blown.
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