We see their hands, but never their feet, if they have any. But while the Ringwraiths walk and ride horses, the Dementors float or fly. Both are magical beings swathed in layer upon layer of dark, moudly gray and black cloth. The film version of the Dementors bears a striking resemblance to the Ringwraiths portrayed in The Lord of the Rings movies. Unfortunately, the Japanese translation of Prisoner of Azkaban was so poor that the translator had to apologize publicly for it. The Japanese characters, annotated with subscript indicating that they should be read “dementah” rather than their usual “kyukonki”, means soul-sucking demon, which is literally accurate but entirely awkward. It is a good choice for capturing the idea of a Dementor. The French détraqueur comes from the verb détraquer, meaning to put out of order, be unsettled, or be unstable, and the adjective détraqué, meaning broken down, unhinged, or unbalanced. The Spanish and German, among other languages, keep the same name, with the German capitalized because in German nouns are capitalized. These associations carry over nicely in the various European translations of Harry Potter, but don’t work well at all in other languages. This in turn comes from the French dément or the Latin adjective demens, meaning insane, and literally meaning “having the mind removed”, since mens is the Latin word for mind. ![]() Demented comes from the earlier verb dement, meaning to “drive mad”. The name is obvious enough: Dementor is reminiscent of the word “demented”, which Rowling herself must have realized when she named the opening chapter of Order of the Phoenix “Dudley Demented”. They abandon their posts at Azkaban and allow for a mass escape. And when Lord Voldemort returns to power at the end of Goblet of Fire, the Dementors side with him due to his promise of more people to feed upon. ![]() It is this ability, plus the Dementor’s Kiss, that leads to the Ministry of Magic engaging them as guards for Azkaban, a task they undertake presumably because doing so gives them a stable food supply.ĭumbledore protests this arrangement, as well as their presence at Hogwarts. Virtually nothing is revealed about them regarding language, culture, society, or even if there are male and female Dementors, they are feared and avoided by the wizarding world for their ability to drive a person insane. Rowling says that Dementors grow like fungi in dark, dank places, and create a chilly, thick fog. The film version further emphasizes the Dementors’ power by showing water freezing, plants withering, and glass fogging over. Ron and Hermione, though not as affected, shared similar feelings. Harry, upon first encountering one at the beginning of Prisoner of Azkaban, says he felt as though he’d never be happy again. The concept for the Dementors, says Rowling, comes from her experiences with depression, and given their description, that’s easy to understand. Nightmarish in appearance and capable of reducing a human being to an empty shell by kissing them, the Dementors are perhaps the most sinister magical creatures in Rowling’s world. ![]() ![]() The guardians of Azkaban, the Dementors are soul-sucking wraiths that live off of people’s worst fears.
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