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

"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.