J.K. Rowling's references to the Uncle Remus stories

I’m surprised more people haven’t brought up J.K. Rowling’s homage to Joel Harris Chandler, the author of the Uncle Remus stories. Clearly she loves his stories.

Consider this – who is Harry’s favorite Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher? Why, Remus Lupin! Obviously, there’s no other reason to give Professor Lupin such an uncommon first name as Remus except to honor the original Remus, Uncle Remus.

But the most telling example is in Deathly Hallows. At Harry’s lowest point, when he could use reminding of an uplifting fable, what Patroni appear? A hare, a fox and a boar. Now, there’s no reason for Seamus Finnegan’s Patronus to be a boar, or for Ernie Macmillan’s to be a fox or a hare. It’s much more likely that J.K. Rowling wrote “bear” instead of “boar”, but the publisher just couldn’t read her handwriting. Now we have a bear, a fox, and a hare (which is British for rabbit) – the three characters in Uncle Remus’s most famous fable, Br’er Rabbit and the Tar Baby!

Looking back on it, it’s kind of obvious, but Ms. Rowling is so good at misdirecting us that at first glance we might not even see the homage. Well done, Jo! Well done!



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