JKR Talks About Grindelwald
ghostangel has pointed out a new post to Melissa Anelli's blog on the Harry, A History website, where we finally have some details from J.K. Rowling about Grindelwald's feelings for Dumbledore.
http://harryahistory.com/2010/02/vault-xx-dumbledore-and-grinde.html
The response I posted to grindeldore is beneath the cut.
This is basically as I imagined it in canon. And I do *not* think that it precludes Gellert ever having romantic feelings for Albus. The key thing is that she is still talking about the two of them when they were just kids. Of *course* Gellert was too full of himself back then to properly return Albus' feelings. And even that doesn't mean that they didn't have sex when they were teenagers. Her comment, "So I think he would take anything from Dumbledore to have him on his side," sounds quite sinister to me; it sounds as though Gellert would certainly not have minded sleeping with Albus if that was what it took to win him over and keep him.
But yes, as I said, JKR still has never spoken about the Grindelwald we see in Nurmengard, and the Grindelwald in Nurmengard is the Grindelwald I judge, because he is the finished product, not teenage megalomaniac!Gellert.
The whole point of Grindelwald, in my reading of the books, is that he changes in precisely the ways Voldemort does not. JKR herself has said that the only irredeemable character in the books is Voldemort. This is because Voldemort never learns to love, while Grindelwald does. The line of Harry's in King's Cross, suggesting to Dumbledore that Grindelwald died to protect his grave, was not a throwaway. JKR intends for us to believe Harry. And dying for other people is simply not something that users and narcissists do.
I will continue to hold to my original reading, that while Gellert may not have returned Albus' feelings when they were young, he did indeed come to love him later on, and that he died for Albus out of that love. This, I feel, is in keeping with the major themes of the books and is true to the characters as they are in canon.
http://harryahistory.com/2010/02/vault-xx-dumbledore-and-grinde.html
The response I posted to grindeldore is beneath the cut.
This is basically as I imagined it in canon. And I do *not* think that it precludes Gellert ever having romantic feelings for Albus. The key thing is that she is still talking about the two of them when they were just kids. Of *course* Gellert was too full of himself back then to properly return Albus' feelings. And even that doesn't mean that they didn't have sex when they were teenagers. Her comment, "So I think he would take anything from Dumbledore to have him on his side," sounds quite sinister to me; it sounds as though Gellert would certainly not have minded sleeping with Albus if that was what it took to win him over and keep him.
But yes, as I said, JKR still has never spoken about the Grindelwald we see in Nurmengard, and the Grindelwald in Nurmengard is the Grindelwald I judge, because he is the finished product, not teenage megalomaniac!Gellert.
The whole point of Grindelwald, in my reading of the books, is that he changes in precisely the ways Voldemort does not. JKR herself has said that the only irredeemable character in the books is Voldemort. This is because Voldemort never learns to love, while Grindelwald does. The line of Harry's in King's Cross, suggesting to Dumbledore that Grindelwald died to protect his grave, was not a throwaway. JKR intends for us to believe Harry. And dying for other people is simply not something that users and narcissists do.
I will continue to hold to my original reading, that while Gellert may not have returned Albus' feelings when they were young, he did indeed come to love him later on, and that he died for Albus out of that love. This, I feel, is in keeping with the major themes of the books and is true to the characters as they are in canon.