Concerning "Nutters"

I had not really taken huge note of that term in HP until a particular email exchange, but have loved it ever since. I was describing, in an email to a girl I knew, a particular hairy situation in a group boarding situation I lived in and she, also having read all of the HP books to that date and knowing I had an avid interest in them, wrote back, "you have a real knack for rooming with nutters!" I thought I would here insert a tidbit from Aurthurian studies concering the, shall we say, looney character of some of the examples I have used for "a good use of cunning," such as Jack Sparrow and The Maskl ( ... and I think the real Mad-eye Moody, about whom we do actually learn a good bit in Goblet of Fire via Crouch Jr's imitation of him, also definitely falls into this category of "cunning in a good way, but mad as a hatter") This is of particular interest to me, given my chosen moniker, since it is about Merlin. In the earliest versions of the Arthurian tales Merlin began as a mad-man hermit up in the hills. I think there is something hidden in the fact that such a "nutter" ends up as the great wizard who fights on the good side. One thing I loved in the movie Excalibur was that they kept Merlin a little bit of a crazy character while still being on the good side ... and also pretty cunning (although he does flub one of his plans prety badly early on).