文化面面觀

House-elf 家養小精靈

A house-elf is a fictional magical creature in the Harry Potter series of books written by J. K. Rowling. They are small humanoids - though markedly different from humans - that spend their lives serving one family, institution, etc. Unless they are set free, their descendants will carry on their tasks. The race has no real culture of its own and exists only to serve. Their usefulness makes them status symbols of a sort, while their subservience guarantees their status as second-class citizens in the wizarding world.

House-elves appear tied to particular houses or families; however it is not entirely clear whether they choose to inhabit certain houses and to serve whoever lives in them, or whether they are somehow bonded to the families themselves. Ron Weasley comments that he wished his family were rich enough to afford a house with a house-elf, implying that they come with the house (and suggesting that they are, in essence, the wizard equivalent of "mod-cons" (modern conveniences)); however, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a freed house-elf is asked to find a nice family, suggesting that it is the family, rather than the house, to which a house-elf is tied. Certainly, generations of house-elves have been shown to serve single families, but that may be due to the family living in the same house for all that time.

House-elves wear things like pillowcases and tea cozies, because they are not allowed clothes. If a house-elf's master were to give him any clothing, even a single sock, the elf would be free to leave his family forever. At the end of Chamber of Secrets, Harry tricks Lucius Malfoy into freeing his house-elf, Dobby. Most house-elves would be offended if given clothes, for it would mean that they had failed to properly serve their masters, but some (like Dobby) enjoy being free. However, Dobby still doesn't want to be paid too much (in Goblet of Fire Dobby says he turned down the salary of ten Galleons per week and a holiday of weekends off in favor of one Galleon per week and a day off every month, expressing pride that he had "beaten Dumbledore down" from the more generous offer).

House-elves possess their own form of powerful magic, distinct from that used by wizards and witches, which they generally use to serve their masters. Among other things, this magic allows house-elves to instantly travel places, in a manner similar to apparition, but the house-elves are able to do this within Hogwarts, even though normal apparition is impossible there. Rowling has confirmed that the House-elves apparition is not alike to the way wizards and witches apparate so house-elves can apparate freely in Hogwarts.

As a consequence of their small stature, house-elves can become intoxicated by drinking Butterbeer; human wizards (including children), by contrast, have not been shown to experience any intoxication further than 'warmth'.

J. K. Rowling's characterisation of a house-elf owes a lot to the legends of brownies, and also to the traditional figure of a hobgoblin, a half-tamed, amusing but tricksy goblin of the hearth (the "hob"), often euphemistically called "Robin Goodfellow" or Puck.

家養小精靈在很多國家的民間故事中都出現過。他們的形狀和個頭各不相同，但大多象人的縮小版，他們可以變形或者在一眨眼的功夫消失。有的精靈很小，可以在蘑菇底下睡覺，有的則大得被人誤認為是人類。德國的黑精靈非常可怕，而丹麥精靈則以他們的美麗聞名。在英國民間傳說中，男精靈通常被描述為瘦小干癟的老人，女精靈則是金發可愛的少女。

所有國家的精靈都喜歡利用自己的魔力介入人類生活。雖然我們從未聽說過像多比和他的朋友那樣忠誠于主人、當做出與主人要求不符的舉動會抽打自己作為懲罰的家養小精靈，但是很多精靈確實喜歡在房子周圍活動，幫助做家務。在"制靴人和他的小精靈"這篇神話故事里，兩個小精靈就來幫助一個貧窮、挨餓的制靴人制造精美的靴子。但是當制靴人和他的妻子為了表示感謝給每個小精靈留了一套新衣服后，小精靈高興得尖叫起來，他們穿上新衣服走掉了，就再也沒有回來。

為什么一只舊襪子作為禮物就能讓家養小精靈多比獲得自由呢？雖然我們不知道有關家養小精靈的全部規則，但是我們知道家養精靈確實對新衣服會有強烈的反應。有些精靈，就像制靴人家里的那兩個，看到漂亮的新衣服確實會由衷的高興，但是也有小精靈會覺得這樣的禮物是在冒犯他們。但是無論怎樣，這兩種方式得到的結果都一樣，就是他們會走掉，再也不會回來了。

1

2

3