The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter

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The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter Page 8

by David Colbert


  See also: Names Potions

  It’s fairly obvious that Harry and Ron should pay more attention in Herbology. There’s more to the subject than gardening. Many of Professor Sprout’s plants are as interesting as the creatures they meet in Hagrid’s class. And like Hagrid’s magical creatures, some come from legend and some come from real life. Sadly, it seems that whenever Harry has to read an old book about plants his mind wanders or he falls asleep. That doesn’t seem to be a problem for J. K. Rowling.

  Which Is the Least Likely Magical Creature?

  BUCKBEAK THE HIPPOGRIFF, INTRODUCED IN Azkaban, is more than just an unusual magical creature. With the bird-like head and forelegs of a griffin attached to the body of a horse, hippogriffs are an especially odd combination. That’s just what was intended by the man who imagined them, a sixteenth-century author with sense of humor.

  The Roman poet Virgil once described something as impossible by saying it would only happen when “griffins are mated with horses.” The phrase stuck. For centuries it was used just as someone today might say, “When pigs have wings.” Ludovico Ariosto, an Italian court poet of the early 1500s, remembered that line when he was writing Orlando Furioso, an epic story about the knights of Charlemagne, a king who ruled much of Europe in the ninth century. Deciding the time had come to make

  Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533)

  In Ariosto’s version of the story, the brave knights Bradamante and Rogero are said to be ancestors of the family that employed Ariosto while he wrote the epic. Not true to life, but a polite gesture.

  Virgil’s unlikely match, he created the hippogriff. (The Greek word for horse is hippos.)

  According to Ariosto, the hippogriff comes from the Rhiphaean Mountains, “far beyond the icebound seas.” The creature appears in the story when Charlemagne’s brave niece, Bradamante, searches for her beloved, a knight named Rogero. Bradamante discovers Rogero is the captive of an enchanter who rides the strange creature, which few people have seen before. After defeating the enchanter and freeing Rogero, Bradamante approaches the beast:

  They descended from the mountain to the spot where the encounter had taken place. There they found the Hippogriff, with the magic buckler in its wrapper, hanging to his saddle-bow. Bradamante advanced to seize the bridle; the Hippogriff seemed to wait her approach, but before she reached him he spread his wings and flew away to a neighbouring hill, and in the same manner, a second time, eluded her efforts.

  Rogero and the other liberated knights dispersed over the plain and hill-tops to secure him, and at last the animal allowed Rogero to seize his rein. The fearless Rogero hesitated not to vault upon his back, and let him feel his spurs, which so roused his mettle that, after galloping a short distance, he suddenly spread his wings, and soared into the air.

  Bradamante had the grief to see her lover snatched away from her at the very moment of reunion. Rogero, who knew not the art of directing the horse, was unable to control his flight. He found himself carried over the tops of the mountains, so far above them that he could hardly distinguish what was land and what water.

  The Hippogriff directed his flight to the west, and cleaved the air as swiftly asThe name “Charlemagne” comes from combining the title “Charles Magnus,” meaning Charles the Great.

  The tales of Charlemagne and his twelve Paladins—the peers of his court—are as widespread as the Celtic tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The knight Orlando (known as Roland in some versions) is usually the greatest hero.

  See also: Beasts Griffins

  a new-rigged vessel cut the waves, impelled by the freshest and most favourable gales.

  In another episode of the story, a different knight, Astolfo, rides the same hippogriff across the world:

  Hawk and eagle soar a course less free. Over the wide land of Gaul the warrior flew, from Pyrenees to Rhine, from sea to sea. To Aragon he passed out of Navarre, leaving people below wondering at the sight, then crossed Castile, Gallicia, Lisbon, Seville and Cordova. He left no coast or inland plain of Spain unexplored.

  From the Atlantic to the farther side of Egypt, bent over Africa, he turned. Morocco, Fez, and Oran, looking down, noble Biserta next and Tunis-town. Tripoli, Berniche, Ptolomitta he viewed, and into Asia’s land the Nile he pursued.

  Eventually Astolfo rides the hippogriff all the way to Paradise. Later, he respectfully sets it free. One can understand why J. K. Rowling says in Beasts that the hippogriff “is now found worldwide.”

  Why Would Anyone Go to School with a Slytherin?

  THE WRITER PICO IYER, WHO ATTENDED two of Britain’s older boarding schools, the Dragon School and Eton, says “much in the Harry Potter universe can seem familiar”:

  Here are all the rites I remember as vividly as lemon drops: the cryptic list of instructions that would appear through the mail, describing what we must—and mustn’t—bring to school (the point of all the rules being not to make order so much as to enforce obedience); the trip to dusty old shops with creaky family names—New & Lingwood or Alden & Blackwell—where aged men would fit us out with the approved uniform and equipment, as they had done for our fathers and our fathers’ fathers; the special school train that would be waiting in a London station to transport us to ourHogwarts is located in Scotland. Its appearance is not modeled on a real building, says J. K. Rowling. The design comes from her imagination.

  It’s fitting that Harry begins each school year with a ride on the Hogwarts Express. J. K. Rowling thought up the stories during a train ride.

  cells. Once the doors clanged shut behind us, we knew we were inside an alternative reality where none of the usual rules applied . . .

  One could even say that the stranger the detail in Rowling’s world, the closer it is to something as everyday to us as gruel. Harry plays Quidditch, a peculiar game featuring “Bludgers” and “Chasers” and “Quaffles”; we had three brutal sports not played in any other school, the most savage of which had “walls” and “behinds” and no official goal scored since 1909. At Harry’s school, inscrutably, “the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds”; at Eton, we were not allowed to walk on one side of the main road through town (for reasons that were not forthcoming). As for ghosts, we ate and slept and studied around busts and portraits and the scribbled desktop signatures of [the British prime ministers] Gladstone, Wellington and Pitt the Elder.

  But some people say that Hogwarts is quite different from most boarding schools. It is pleasant: the food is delicious and Harry sleeps in a four-poster bed. It is lenient: though disobedience may cost a few house points, the teachers are very forgiving. Most of all, Dumbledore has made it a place of eminent fairness.

  Given how agreeable the school can be, one has to wonder what the Slytherins are doing there. Every bit of trouble seems to start with a Slytherin. There doesn’t seem to be a decent student in that house. Its philosophy seems to be the same dark thought expressed by Quirrell in Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: “There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it.” Salazar Slytherin, the Hogwarts founder for whom the house was named, was so devious he even built the Chamber of Secrets under the school without telling theJ. K. Rowling has a soft spot for Kings Cross station in London, where the Hogwarts Express stops, because that is where her mother and father met.

  See also: Durmstrang Names

  other founders. So wouldn’t it make sense to just get rid of them?

  Actually, that would seem to be the opposite of J. K. Rowling’s philosophy. In fact, the presence of Slytherins at Hogwarts seems to say a lot about her ideas of good and evil.

  Within the walls of Hogwarts, Dumbledore has created an appealing ideal. Evil is not pushed away fearfully; or simply met with force. It is to be countered with compassion. More than once, Dumbledore has demonstrated a strong faith that fallen wizards can redeem themselves.

  Each of the four founders of Hogwarts had individual qualities that form part of a ba
lanced whole. Even Slytherin’s ambition can be directed toward good—provided it is balanced with the characteristics displayed by the others. It is part of reality, part of every individual—just as Harry has a bit of Voldemort in him. Trying to eliminate it would be silly, as well as impossible.

  For the many teachers and students who fail to understand the role Hogwarts plays in bringing those qualities together, the Sorting Hat’s new song in Phoenix—which expresses concern about splitting the students in the first place—sends a clear message: don’t let small differences divide you.

  Which Creature May Not Bow Its Head?

  HARRY LEARNS ABOUT KAPPAS, “CREEPY, water-dwellers that looked like scaly monkeys,” in Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. They are mentioned again in Beasts.

  J. K. Rowling did not invent kappas. They are, as she says in Beasts, water demons of Japanese legend. (In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Professor Snape makes an error when he informs Harry’s class that “the kappa is more commonly found in Mongolia.”) Like the grindylows who live near Hogwarts, kappas live in lakes and rivers, and capture people in the water. They are also known as Kawako, which means “Child of the River.”

  The description in Beasts, odd as it sounds, is true to legend. Kappas can be vicious and enjoy the taste of blood.

  See also: Beasts Grindylows Merpeople

  However, a human may escape from a kappa by exploiting the creature’s greatest weakness. Its vitality is drawn from a saucer-like depression on its head, which must remain filled with water. If one offers a polite and ceremonious bow, the kappa will be obligated to return it. The water will spill and the kappa will be defeated. As well, for some long-forgotten reason, kappas love cucumbers almost as they love human blood. A gift of a cucumber may win the friendship of a kappa, who might then reveal secrets about medicine.

  What Is the Most Important Language for Wizards?

  UNLIKE MANY SCHOOLS, HOGWARTS DOES not seem to emphasize learning foreign languages—at least not in its first few years. But there is one language that even first-year students encounter often: Latin. Many charms, spells, and curses used throughout Rowling’s Harry Potter books are close to or exactly the same as Latin words for the desired effect. For instance “Lumos,” the spell that causes a light to appear at the end of a wizard’s wand, comes from the Latin word lumen meaning “light.” “Nox,” the spell that extinguishes a wand’s light, is Latin for “night” or “darkness.”

  Latin is used in other places also. For example, Mad-Eye Moody was once an Auror, a sort of police officer whose job is to bring bad wizards to justice. In Latin, aurora means “dawn,” so Auror is the perfect name for someone who fights darkness. As well, theHistorians say the oldest example of Latin is four words engraved on a fancy cloak pin from the sixth or seventh century BC, which translate as: “Manius made me for Numerius.”

  Besides “Avada Kedavra,” the curses deemed “Unforgivable” by the Ministry of Magic are: “Crucio,” which in Latin means “I torture,” and “Imperio,” which in Latin means “I command.” (See Avada Kedavra)

  Hogwarts motto is Latin: Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus (“Never tickle a sleeping dragon”). J. K. Rowling herself has said that she wanted her wizards to use a dead language as a living language. It makes sense that Latin would be so important. After the Romans conquered Europe and Britain about two thousand years ago, Latin became a common language, one that could be used anywhere in the empire. Scholars relied on it to ensure that their work could be shared. It was also the primary language of Christianity. And for centuries, most books were written in Latin, because every educated person could be expected to know it.

  LATIN FOR WIZARDS

  Here are a few spells from J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books that come from Latin:

  Accio: Summoning charm. From the Latin accio, meaning “I call” or “I summon.”

  Aparecium: Makes invisible ink appear. From appareo, “I make visible.”

  Conjunctivitis Curse: Impairs eyesight. From coniungare, “to bind together.” Eyes have connective tissue called the conjunctiva. When this gets infected, a person gets conjunctivitis, commonly called “pinkeye.”

  Deletrius: Makes things disappear. From deleo, “I erase.”

  Densaugeo: Makes teeth grow uncontrollably. From dens, meaning “tooth,” and augeo, “I make grow.” (Draco Malfoy directs this curse to Harry, but it ricochets and instead hits Hermione.)

  Diffindo: Splits things. From diffindo, “I split [it] apart.”

  Dissendium: Opens things, such as the statue of the witch that guards the secret passage from Hogwarts to Honeydukes. From dissideo, “I separate.”

  Enervate: Invigorates things. (Oddly, this spell’s effect is the opposite of its meaning in both Latin and English. In English, “enervate” means to weaken; and its Latin root, enervo, means the same. Neither means energize.)

  Expecto Patronum: Produces a patronus (a guardian). From especto, “I await,” and patronus, “a guardian.”

  Responding to vox populi (“voice of the people,” as in popular opinion), J. K. Rowling’s publisher is offering Latin translations of Harry’s adventures. The first, Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis, translated by Peter Needham, has been lauded* by Latin experts who say it is written in a style that is anything but dead.

  [*”praised,” from the Latin laudare]

  As a general rule of magic, successfully performing a spell requires more than just saying a few words. How the spell is spoken can have great consequence. Casting a spell can require an enormous amount of energy, so a wizard’s power is an important factor.

  Expelliarmus: Disarms an opponent. From the Latin expello, “I drive out” (or “expel”); and arma, “weapon.”

  Fidelius Charm: Places a secret in another trusted person. From fidelis, “faithful,” “trusted,” “trustworthy.”

  Finite Incantatem: Ends others’ spells. From finite, “end”; and incantantem, “incantation” or “spell.”

  Impedimenta: Stops a person or thing. From impedimentum, impediment, hindrance.

  Incendio: “I set aflame.” Used to travel by Floo from fireplace to fireplace. From incendia, “fire.”

  Obliviate: Makes a person forget. From oblivio, “oblivion,” “forgetfulness.”

  Petrificus Totalus: Immobilizes a person. From petrificare, “to petrify” (derived from petra, “rock”), and totaliter, “entirely.”

  Prior Incantatem: Reveals the previous spell cast by a wand. From prior, “prior” or “previous”; and incantatem, “incantation” or “spell.”

  Rictusempra: Tickles. From rictus, “a laughing smile,” and semper, “always.”

  Riddikulus: Makes something seem funny. Used to dispel a boggart. From ridiculus, “laughable.”

  Ruparo: Repairs things. From reparo, “I repair.”

  Wingardium Leviosa. Can make something fly. From levis: “light” (which gives us the English word “levitate”).

  LATIN FOR EVERYONE

  Though most spells and curses are just single words, Latin can be used as an everyday language. In fact, it is still the official language of the Vatican. In an amusing book titled Latin for All Occasions, author Henry Beard offers a few expressions one might find useful:

  What’s happening?

  Quid fit?

  My dog ate it.

  Canis meus id comedit.

  It was that way when I got here.

  Ita erat quando hic adveni.

  Two wizarding skills Harry encounters in Phoenix have names with Latin roots. Legilimency, mind reading, comes from legere, “to read,” and mens, meaning “mind” or “thoughts.” Occlumency, preventing one’s mind from being read with Legilimency, comes from occludo, “I close down.”

  See also: Malfoy Names

  Your fly is open.

  Braccae tuae aperiuntur.

  Rad, dude!

  Radicitus, comes!

  No way.

  Nullo modo.

>   Fat chance.

  Fors fortis.

  Read my lips.

  Labra lege.

  Accidentally on purpose.

  Casu consulto.

  In addition, Beard offers this bumper sticker: SI HOC ADFIXUM IN OBICE LEGERE POTES, ET LIBERALITER EDUCATUS ET NIMIS PROPINQUUS ADES. It means: “If you can read this bumper sticker, you are both very well educated and much too close.”

  Why Is Each Malfoy Aptly Named?

  J. K. ROWLING MUST HAVE HAD FUN CHOOSING names for the villainous Malfoys. Each one is loaded with meaning and history.

  The family name derives from the Latin maleficus, meaning evil-doer. In medieval times the word was used to describe witches, whose evil acts were called maleficia. Witchcraft scholar Rosemary Ellen Guiley writes: “In its narrowest definition, maleficia meant damage to crops and illness or death to animals. In its broadest, it included anything with a negative impact upon a person: loss of love, storms, insanity, disease, bad luck, financial problems, lice infestations, even death. If a villager muttered a threat or a wish for calamity upon someone and misfortune of any sort occurred to the victim—maleficia. If the local wise woman administered a remedy for an illness and the patient worsened or died—maleficia. If a hail storm destroyed the crop, the cows wouldn’t give milk or the horse went lame—maleficia.” One of the first books on witchcraft and sorcery, the most significant of its time, was titled Malleus Maleficarum (“The Witch’s Hammer”). Published in 1486, it was written by two witch hunters to help others catch witches. For two hundred years it was the most popular book after the Bible. The Latin word has been preserved in many languages. For instance, maleficent in English is defined as harmful or evil in intent or effect. Mal foi is French for “bad faith.”

 

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