————罗琳的想法————
Inferi have much in common with zombies, which are mentioned as separate creatures within Harry’s world. I had several good reasons for not wishing to call the guardians of the locket Horcrux ‘zombies’. Firstly, zombies are not part of British folklore, but associated with the myths of Haiti and parts of Africa. While the students of Hogwarts would learn about them, they would not expect to meet them walking down the streets of Hogsmeade. Secondly, while zombies of the Vodou tradition can be nothing more than reanimated corpses, a separate but related tradition has it that the sorcerer uses their souls, or part of their souls, to sustain himself. This conflicted with my Horcrux story, and I did not wish to suggest that Voldemort had anymore use for his Inferi than as guards of his Horcrux. Lastly, zombies have been represented and reinterpreted on film so often in the last fifty years that they have a whole raft of associations that were of no use to me. I’m part of the ‘Thriller’ generation; to me, a zombie will always mean Michael Jacksonin a bright red bomber jacket.
阴尸与丧尸有许多共同之处,但在Harry的世界中他们是不同的生物。关于为何不将挂坠盒魂器的守卫叫做“丧尸”我有几个好理由。首先,丧尸并非英国民间传说,而是与海地和部分非洲神话有关。尽管霍格沃茨学生会学习关于它们的知识,他们并不指望会看见丧尸走在霍格莫德街上。其次,虽然在巫毒文化中丧尸可以只是被唤起的尸体,但在另一个相关的传说中施咒者会使用它们的灵魂或者一部分灵魂来延续自己的生命。这与我的魂器设定相冲突,我也不想让人觉得Voldemort对于阴尸除了保卫魂器之外还有别的用途。最后,最近半个世纪里丧尸在电影中出现并被重新诠释了太多次,它们具有一大堆我并不需要的相关设定。我是听着“颤栗”成长起来的一代;提到丧尸我永远会想到穿着鲜红短夹克的Michael Jackson。
The name Inferius was a play on ‘Inferus’, which is Latin for ‘below’, but with an obvious connotation of being ‘lesser’ than a living human. ‘Inferi’ means the underworld.
阴尸的名称来源于“Inferus”,这一词语在拉丁语中意为“下方”,但带有比活人“下等”的暗示。“Inferi”意为冥界。
原文地址:
http://www.pottermore.com/en-us/book6/chapter26/moment1/inferius