Skip to main content

harry potter - How do house elves breed?


Winky states in Goblet of Fire that that her mother and grandmother served the Crouchs before her. In Grimmauld Place, the heads of the house elves on the wall all share the same nose as Kreacher, suggesting they are all his ancestors. And yet, we never see two house elves (a mother and father) serving a family, nor do we ever hear of any type of mating between elves.


There are also instances of very old house elves (Kreacher and Hokey) who do not seem to have any children to continue serving the family's new generation. How are new elves born? Do they reproduce asexually without another elf?



Answer



The only information I could find on House Elf breeding came from the Wombat Grade 2 Test which was originally published on J K Rowlings' website website now resides on the HP-Lexicon.


In the Wombat Grade 2 Test we come across this question:




  1. Which of the following statements on house-elves is FALSE?



a. House-elves have an average life-expectancy of 200 years


b. A house-elf's allegiance is foremost to its house (rather than to the inhabitants of the house)


c. House-elves cannot be ordered to kill themselves


d. House-elf magic is sufficiently powerful to override wizards' enchantments


e. House-elves breed infrequently and then only with their masters' permission



So from this we have to deduce which one is FALSE.


A is hard to tell but we do see many generations of House-Elves lining the wall of 12 grimmauld place the time line seems to be 150-250 years for these elves so a life expectancy of 200 years seems ill fitting but possible it could depend on external factors.


B is also tricky depending on how you determine it personally I think that their loyalty is primarily to the House-master that however could be due to their overiding loyalty to the House.


C we don't know if this is true they can and have been ordered to punish themselves in canon, so this is entirely possible although I think the reason we don't see any evidence of this in canon is due to the fact that wizarding families with house-elves generally want to keep their elves. We see one family disown their elf of their own accord (Barty Crouch Sr and Winky) this destroys Winky.



D well D is definitely true, we see it everywhere in canon. Hogwarts Anti-Apparation charms and also in Malfoy Manor Dungeon.


E With all the other information on House Elves in canon this fact seems to line up, they don't do anything without permission and you can imagine those pureblood families breeding with another pureblood familys' house elf for posterity.


The concensus on HP-Lexicon Commentary (When they did the test) is either A or B which I would also lend my (however limited) credibility to.


So it would seem that House Elves breed infrequently and with their masters permission, think of Purebreed dogs. Breed them once a generation for your next house elf, perhaps the babies stay with the mother or perhaps the baby just goes with the new master family and is raised by their current house elf.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF
Post a Comment
Read more

tolkiens legendarium - Did Gandalf wear his Ring of Power throughout the trilogy?

After Gandalf discovered that Sauron was back and sent Frodo on his quest to Rivendell, did he continue to wear Narya (one of the Three Rings)? It seems like a huge risk to continue to wear it after the Nazgûl (Ringwraiths) started to try and reclaim the One Ring; if they managed to get the ring to Sauron, couldn't he be corrupted by his power? Whatever powers Narya bestows upon him couldn't possibly be worth the huge risk, could it? Answer When Sauron forged the one ring and put it on his finger, the other ring bearers were immediately aware of him and his intentions and removed their own rings. There is no reason why they couldn't merely do so again. As soon as Sauron set the One Ring upon his finger they were aware of him; and they knew him, and preceived that he would be master of them, and of all they wrought. Then in anger and fear they took off their rings. "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age," Silmarillion
Post a Comment
Read more