Noble and Most Ancient: The Black Family Tapestry

[terri_testing]

Let’s think about the Black Family Tree for a moment-not the data in the possibly non-canonical display of Phineas’s branch that was created by JKR for a charity auction, but the hanging itself, that Sirius showed off to Harry, with commentary.  What does canon say, and what can we deduce, about the Black Family Tapestry?

It’s not a prepossessing

Comments

Re: Auncyen Hus

[terri_testing]

That explains Twelve Grimmauld nicely. Sort of. If we accept the Black-Family-Tree-Auction-Version (BFTA) at all, however, Orion son of Arcturus son of Sirius son of Phineas WAS the senior line going back to Phineas's dad, who would then have to be the cadet in question. Which would work, yeah--he bought a spanking new mansion in the city mid-nineteenth century to accommodate his growing family.

And I could see the cadet son being given a copy of the family-tree tapesty on the occasion of his wedding or eldest son's birth or as a housewarming gift. What I can't see is why anyone would want to MODERNIZE THE SPELLING. The point of the thing, if it has one, is that it's ancient!

Plus, Kreacher explicitly says that this tapestry has been in the family seven hundred years. Okay, he could be wrong, but he at least think it's the original. And he should know of Black Manor or Niger Castle or whatever, if it exists.

We dont' ever see or any Blacks in canon outside Phineas's descendents, however. And you'd think the elder branch would not let a family property (complete with 15th-centurey goblin-made silver and other goodies) fall into the possession of life-sentence prisoner. Why on earth should Sirius have been allowed to inherit (or to remain in possesssion, if he technically inherited on his father's or brother's deaths in 1979) after he was sentenced to life in Azkaban? If there were any surviving legitimate Blacks, couldn't they have made some sort of claim?

Of course, we could keep the BFTA and your idea of Grimmauld being the cadet's home, if we assume that Cygnus was the cadet in question, and that for whatever reason (maybe Walburga and Arcturus did not get along) Orion and Walburga were raising their children in HER family home rather than his. (Of course, then it was purchased when it was older rather than spanking-new, but that might appeal more to wizards anyhow.) And the reason Lucius, Augusta, and Andromeda were not fighting to get possession of Twelve Grimmauld, is that they've been embroiled since 1991 in a legal battle over who gets Black Manor.

Or, of course, Phineas's father could have been a cadet and the senior line thriving. In 1840. 150 years after Seclusion had closed the pool of eligible spouses. But another five generations of inbreeding (the cadet line accepted a known mere six-generation-pure wife in the 1920's and didn't start marrying off first cousins until the 1950s; maybe the senior line was nicer in its requirements, or was trying to keep property and power in the family like the Hapsburgs) had sent it the way of the Gaunts by the 1990's--and the original manor so ruined by mismanagement that no one wants it(we saw Grimmauld after a mere decade of neglect).

Or maybe Phineas's father or great-grandfather was indeed a parvenu with pretensions, and the whole tree made up.

But seriously, I cannot wrap my mind around the idea of copying a twelvth-century tapestry and updating the spelling..... (If it weren't for Kreacher, we wouldn't have a problem--the records comprising the tree date back to the Middle Ages, the tapestry was created to display it comparatively recently--maybe purchased from the Morris factory, and then embroidered with pride by Elladora. But Kreacher says, the tapestry is seven centuries old....)

Re: Auncyen Hus

[oryx_leucoryx]

Also, when Phineas hears that Sirius died he is upset that the last of the Blacks is dead. I think that confirms there are no surviving, non-disinherited branches.

"Oh, BE early English, ere it is too late!"

[jana_ch]

I don’t think we have to take what Kreacher says as gospel. He believes what his noble masters (or certain of his noble masters) tell him. If they say it’s seven hundred years old, it’s seven hundred years old. I like the idea of the hanging being newly commissioned from the Morris factory, based on Black family records. The muggle craftsmen would never have seen the original-if there was an original, which is doubtful. The modern text would have been at the Blacks’ insistence. The artistic designer would have wanted to go with either Latin or early English (I’m imagining it in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry), but the Blacks wanted their guests to be able to read it.

Let’s not call the estate Black Manor. Malfoy Manor is okay because of the alliteration, but most estates are not called ‘[Family name] Manor’. I’ll call it Blackworth Park, ‘worth’ being an old Anglo-Saxon place-name element meaning homestead. Grimmauld Place would still be in probate after a mere decade, with the inhabitants dead almost simultaneously except the estranged heir in prison. And the nearest cousins are all daughters: one imprisoned, one disowned, and one married to a husband who barely escaped prison himself. Dumbledore doubtless did considerable arm-twisting (or rather, mind-twisting) to confirm some sort of theoretical title for Sirius when he decided to resurrect the Order of the Phoenix and need a headquarters away from Hogwarts. Blackworth Park will probably be in probate for centuries.

Re: "Oh, BE early English, ere it is too late!"

[oryx_leucoryx]

Kreacher is old. He may have been around when Walburga was a wee lass. I think we can trust that the 'tapestry' predates him, though impossible to say by how much really.

Re: "Oh, BE early English, ere it is too late!"

[sunnyskywalker]

If house-elves live around 200 years, and Kreacher is "old," then we can probably say it at least dates to his mother's time. Say before before 1800, most likely. If his mother was ordered to tell everyone that it was 700 years old (not that they would have occasion to ask, since a good house-elf is not seen, but why take chances?), Kreacher might honestly believe it.

Though that glowing green goo and living alone with no one to serve might have prematurely aged Kreachur for all we know, so that might throw off the dating.