Snakes and Death in Children's Literature

[Lisa-Marie]

Hey guys

Thank you for all the help with my Dissertation its all sorted now.

I am currently doing an assignment on snakes and death in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Kiplings's Rikki Tikki Tavi story from the Jungle Book.

I was just wondering your thoughts as there is not much research and what I have found has been very confusing as snakes seems to be an emblem of rebirth rather than death :s

xcx

[Buh4Bee]

You may want to look at some myths or fairy tales. Grimm's fairy tales may be a good place to start as some background information to build your theory. I am not sure if Joseph Campbell may be worth your time, but a quick search may lead you somewhere unexpected. Unfortunately, I have not read Rikki Tikki Tavi from the Jungle book, so I can not weigh in any more input. Good luck! Sounds like a very interesting assignment.

[kelby_lake]

Have a look at the Bible, maybe? Snake is meant to be temptation, isn't it?

[Lokasenna]

It's worth drawing a distinction between the image of the Serpent and the image of the Ouroboros (the serpent biting its own tail). The Ouroboros is a Jungian archetype that crops up in literature and art all over the place, and usually represents eternity or eternal recurrence. The image of the Serpent is much more nebulous, though it is often linked to representations of death.

It doesn't particularly fit with the idea of children's literature, but there is a lot of snake imagery in Old Norse mythical literature - I did my undergrad dissertation on the use of animal symbols in representing death and the otherworld in Old Norse, and I can vouch for there being a huge amount of material!