到底誰是“伏地魔”？

1月2日，中國駐英大使劉曉明抨擊日本軍國主義像“伏地魔”，3天后日本駐英大使反擊稱中國才是亞洲的“伏地魔”。看過《哈利?波特》系列電影的讀者大概都知道這是一個什么樣的人物，不過也難免有些讀者不太了解。今天我們就簡要介紹一下這個小說中的虛構人物。

Lord Voldemort (born Tom Marvolo Riddle) is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Voldemort first appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which was released in 1997.

伏地魔（出生名湯姆?馬沃羅?里德爾）是J?K?羅琳的魔幻小說《哈利?波特》系列中的一個虛構人物。伏地魔首次出現是在1997年出版的《哈利?波特與魔法石》中。

In the series, Voldemort is the archenemy of Harry Potter, who according to a prophecy has "the power to vanquish the Dark Lord". Almost no witch or wizard dares to speak his name, instead referring to him by epithets such as "You-Know-Who", "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" or "the Dark Lord". Voldemort's obsession with blood purity signifies his aim to rid the wizarding world of Muggle (non-magical) heritage and to conquer both worlds, Muggle and wizarding, to achieve pure-blood dominance. Through his mother's family, he is the last descendant of wizard Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is the leader of the Death Eaters, a group of evil wizards and witches dedicated to ridding the Wizarding World of Muggles and establishing Voldemort as its supreme ruler.

在該系列小說中，伏地魔是哈利?波特的宿敵，預言稱其“具有戰勝黑魔王的力量”。所有巫師都不敢直呼其名，而是用You-Know-Who（神秘人）或He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named（那個連名字都不能提的人）或者the Dark Lord（黑魔王）等稱呼來指代。伏地魔瘋狂崇拜血統純正性，他的目標是將所有麻瓜遺跡徹底清除出巫師界，并最終統治麻瓜和巫師界，以達到對純正血統的絕對統治。在他母親的家族中，他是霍格沃茨魔法學校四個創始人之一的薩拉查?斯萊特林的最后一名后裔。他還是食死族的頭目。食死族是一群致力于將麻瓜趕出巫師界的邪惡巫師，他們將伏地魔推舉為最高統治者。

Rowling reveals that I am Lord Voldemort is an anagram of the character's birth name, Tom Marvolo Riddle. According to the author, Voldemort's name is an invented word. "Voldemort" is pronounced with a silent 't' at the end, as in the French word "mort", meaning "death". (Source: Wikipedia)

羅琳透露說，I am Lord Voldemort這句話其實是伏地魔的出生名Tom Marvolo Riddle所有字母重新排列后得出的。她表示，伏地魔這個名字是憑空造出來的，Voldemort結尾的字母t不發音，與法語單詞mort相同，意為“死亡”。

（中國日報網英語點津 Helen）