For reasons not yet fully understood, Scotland has the highest rate of multiple sclerosis in the world. J. K. Rowling is a patron of the MS Society Scotland, and has helped establish a research center at the University of Edinburgh.
That’s an even greater temptation. Or he can accept that death is a natural and unavoidable fate, and that survivors must move forward. It’s by making this last choice that he becomes, in Dumbledore’s terms, “a master of death.”
Because her mother was ill with multiple sclerosis for many years before dying, Rowling’s feelings and thoughts about mortality would have been developing for many years, long before she started writing the Harry Potter books. Though she describes herself as religious, she also says religion did not give her comfort when her mother died. Instead, Rowling created a world in which she could resolve the conflict between a desire to cheat death and the impossibility of actually doing it. Her greatest wish might be to see her mother again; but by the time Harry has just such an opportunity to be reunited with his parents, he knows better.
That’s not to say Rowling rejects the idea of an afterlife. Her attitude seems to be more complicated.
When an interviewer asked if she agreed with Dumbledore’s assertion that “Death is but the next great adventure,” she was a little unsure: “I would like to . . . I’m not as wise as him. I would like to see it that way. And I do see it that way, in many ways.” But, she added, “Death still frightens me, as it frightens most people.”
Yet engraved on the tombstone of Harry’s parents is the line, “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” This is a quote from the New Testament (1 Corinthians 15:26) referring to everlasting life in heaven.
Whether or not Rowling is certain of what’s in store for herself, there’s no doubt Harry’s story is connected to the sense of comfort she feels when she imagines a heavenly life for others, such as the fictional parents she created for Harry and maybe her own mother. One of the epigraphs at the beginning of Hallows is a quotation from William Penn, the Quaker who founded Pennsylvania: “Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still. For they must needs be present, that love and live in that which is omnipresent.” For Penn that meant a love of God connected him to loved ones who had died.
Harry may not share Penn’s exact sentiments, but the happiness that we see in him in the epilogue to Hallows surely began with some belief in the lines just before Rowling’s selection: “They that love beyond the world, cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies.”
William Penn (1644-1718)
Afterword
EVERY WRITER BEGINS AS A READER. AFTER DIGGING INTO her stories, one sees that J. K. Rowling must have been a terrific reader before she became a terrific writer. Just as impressive as her knowledge of myths and legends is her ability to make each one seem original and fresh.
In the bibliography of this book, as well as in the notes for each entry, you’ll find suggestions of interesting books for further reading. The best place to start would certainly be a collection of Greek and Roman myths. If you want to dig deeper, an outstanding reference with many detailed reading suggestions is The Encyclopedia of Fantasy by John Clute and John Grant. If you’re particularly interested in magical creatures, you’ll like Carol Rose’s encyclopedias, Giants, Monsters and Dragons and Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns and Goblins. For information about wizards, good sources are Rosemary Ellen Guiley’s The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft and Thomas Ogden’s Wizards and Sorcerers. You might also want to find the wonderful Dictionary of Imaginary Places, by Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi. Many books explain people and creatures, but this may be the only one that brings together fantastic worlds. For a serious discussion of attitudes toward death, which Rowling identifies as one of the more important themes in the book, and the motivating force for the important characters, read Ernest Becker’s The Denial of Death. Also listed below are some Internet sites of special interest to anyone who wants to know more about Harry Potter.
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to my publishers in New York and London, and my agents, who introduced the book to them: Susan Allison, Lara Robbins, Kimberly Lionetti, Leslie Gelbman, Michael O’Mara, and his colleagues, Al Zuckerman, Sophie Gorell Barnes, Maja Nikolic, Clare Hulton, Amanda Li, Samantha Mackintosh, Jacqui McDonough, Elaine McQuade, Adele Minchin, Leah Thaxton, Julia Bruce, Nigel Hazle, Julie Howson, Shannon Park, Penny Worms, and John Fordham.
I’d like to extend a special thanks to the publishers and translators of the book’s international editions, whose insights have contributed greatly to this revision.
Thanks also to my parents and sisters, editors all, for their expert advice. Lena Tabori’s aid was essential. Dr. Christine D. Myers, Nora Freeberg, Andréa Swan, Evan Michael Williams, and Gili Bar-Hillel offered sharp insights. Special thanks to Martin Berke, Laurie Brown, Max and Emily de La Bruyère, Linda Dudajek, and Debbie Malicoat of R. R. Donnelley; Natasha Tabori Fried, Katie Kerr, Lyuba Konopasek, Miles Kronby, Arif Lalani, Laura Poole of Archer Editorial Services, Edward Samuels, Stacy Schiff, Ben Shykind, John Ward of Ward & Olivo, Terry Wybel and Continental Sales, and Bristol Books in Wilmington, North Carolina.
The editor and publishers gratefully acknowledge the following for permission to reproduce copyright material in The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter.
The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., London
Latin for all Occasions by Henry Beard, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., London
The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, © 1949 by Bollingen Foundation
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. Copyright © The Intervivos Trust for the Le Guin children
Reprinted by permission of the publishers and Trustees of the Loeb Classical Library from Aelian: On the Characteristics of Animals, Loeb Classical Library Vol. I, Books 1-5, translated by A. F. Schofield, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1958-1959. The Loeb Classical Library is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
“The Playing Fields of Hogwarts,” The New York Times, October 10, 1999. Copyright © Pico Iyer. Reprinted by permission of Pico Iyer. The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft by Rosemary Ellen Guiley (New York, Facts on File, 1999). Copyright © 1999 Rosemary Ellen Guiley, reprinted by permission of Facts on File Inc.
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders, but in a few cases this has proved impossible. The editor and publishers would be happy to deal with any inquiries retrospectively.
Bibliography
Becker, Ernest. The Denial of Death (New York: Free Press, 1973).
Borges, Jorge Luis, with Margarita Guerrero. The Book of Imaginary Beings (New York: Dutton, 1969).
Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham. Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (New York: Harper, 1952).
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968).
Clute, John, and John Grant. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (New York: St. Martin’s, 1999).
Culpeper, Nicholas. Culpeper’s Complete Herbal (New York: W. Foulsham, 1923)
Culpeper, Nicholas. The English Physician [The English Physitian] (London: Peter Cole, 1652). Hypertext edition courtesy of Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library, Yale University, New Haven. info.med.yale.edu/library/historical/culpeper/culpeper.htm
Foster, Robert. The Complete Guide to Middle-earth (New York: Ballantine, 1979).
Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits (New York: Facts on File, 2000).
Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft (New York: Facts on File, 1999).
Helms, Randel. Tolkien’s World (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974).
Le Guin, Ursula K. A Wizard of Earthsea (Berkeley, California: Parnassus Press, 1968).
Lepper, John Heron. Famous Secret Societies (London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd., 1932).
Nigg, Joseph. The Book of Fabulous Beasts: A Treasury of Writings from Ancient Times to the Present (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).
Nigg, Joseph. Wonder Beasts: Tales and Lore of the Phoenix, the Griffin, the Unicorn and the Dragon (Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1995).
South, Malcolm. Mythical and Fabulous Creatures: a Source Book and Research Guide (New York: Greenwood, 1987).
Ogden, Tom. Wizards and Sorcerers: from Abracadabra to Zoroaster (New York: Facts on File: 1977).
Rose, Carol. Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth (Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2000).
Rose, Carol. Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia (New York: Norton, 1998).
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965). White, T. H. The Sword in the Stone (New York: Putnam, 1939).
Willis, Roy. Dictionary of World Myth (London: Duncan Baird, 1995).
Van Den Broek, R., The Myth of the Phoenix (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1972).
Internet resources of interest:
Steve Vander Ark’s “Harry Potter Lexicon”: www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon
The Leaky Cauldron: www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/
Accio Quote!, a great archive of Rowling articles and interviews: www.accio-quote.org/index.html
Notes
In most cases, reference is made in the text to the original source. For classic texts such as The Odyssey, interested readers will find many excellent translations and editions. Here is further information:
Introduction
page 16: Online chat with J. K. Rowling at Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), 20 October 2000.
page 16: “it’s the sort of touch”: “Wild About Harry,” TIME, 20 September 1999, Paul Gray, Elizabeth Gleick, Andrea Sachs.
page 16: J. R. R. Tolkien’s essay “On Fairy-Stories” (1938), quoted in Helms, Randel, Tolkien’s World (Boston: Houghton, 1974).
Animagus
page 28: Online chat with J. K. Rowling at America Online, 19 October 2000.
page 29: “Rowling says Harry will not become an Animagus”: Speech at National Press Club, Washington, D.C., 20 October 2000.
Basilisks
page 34: “He kills all trees and shrubs”: Pliny the Elder [C. Plinius Secundus], The Historie of the World, translated by Philemon Holland, Book VIII (1601).
Beasts
page 36: “Winds howl”: Pliny the Elder [C. Plinius Secundus], The Historie of the World, translated by Philemon Holland, Book VIII (1601).
page 37: “When the fish of the sea”: Translated by James Carlill and included in The Epic of the Beast, ed. by William Rose (1900).
page 37: “the fact that certain animals”: Aristotle, Historium Animalium, translated by D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson. From The Works of Aristotle, vol. 4 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910). Quoted in Nigg.
page 38: “lives in the midst of flame”: Isidore of Seville,, An Encyclopedia of the Dark Ages, trans. by Ernest Brehaut (New York, 1912). Quoted in Nigg.
page 38: “Oh, come though dear infant”: Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, The Poems of Goethe, trans. by E.A. Bowring (New York: T.Y. Crowell & Co., 1882).
Black, Sirius
page 42: “Magical creature expert”: Rose, Carol, Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia (New York: Norton, 1998) p. 42.
page 42: where the souls of humans traveled: Temple, Robert K. G., The Sirius Mystery (Rochester: Destiny Books, 1976).
page 43: guide one’s soul: Lamy, Lucie, Egyptian Mysteries (New York: Crossroad, 1981).
page: 45: quotations regarding black dogs: G. MacEwan, Mystery Animals of Britain and Ireland (London: Robert Hale, 1968); Bord, J. and Bord, C., Alien Animals (London: Panther Books, 1985). Cited at website of Simon Sherwood, Ph.D. candidate, University of Edinburgh Department of Psychology: moebius.psy.ed.ac.uk/~simon/homepage/blackdog.htm
Broomsticks
page 49: Holmes: from The Broomstick Train, 1891.
Cauldrons
page 53: Francis Potter: See letter quoted in Jardine, Lisa, On a Grander Scale (New York: HarperCollins, 2002) p. 88.
Dark Mark
page 59: “the Devil makes a mark on them”: Sinistrari, Ludovico Maria, Demoniality, translated by the Rev. Montague Summers (London: The Fortune Press, 1927).
Death Eaters
page 61: “Rowling says the Death Eaters were originally known as”: “Newsnight,” British Broadcasting Corporation, 19 December, 2003.
Dragons
page 71: J. R. R. Tolkien’s essay “On Fairy-Stories” (1938), quoted in Helms, Randel, Tolkien’s World (Boston: Houghton, 1974).
page 71: “To kill a dragon”: Clute, John, and John Grant, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (New York: St. Martin’s, 1999).
page 72: “The dragon is the largest of all serpents”: from Isidore of Seville, An Encyclopedist of the Dark Ages. Translated by Ernest Brehaut (New York 1912), quoted in Nigg, Joseph, The Book of Fabulous Beasts (New York: Oxford, 1999).
page 73: “dreadful fore-warnings”: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Translated by Rev. James Ingram (London: Longman, Hurst, 1823). Amendments by the author of this volume.
page 75: “There is cut out of the dragon’s brain”: Solinus, From The worthie work of Iulius Solinus Polyhistor contayning many noble actions of humaine creatures . . . translated out of Latin into English by Arthur Golding, Gent. (Facsimile of 1587 edition. Gainesville, FL: Scholars’ Facsimiles & Reprints, 1955).
Druids
page 77: “discuss and teach to the youth”: Caesar’s Commentaries on the Gallic and Civil Wars: with the Supplementary Books attributed to Hirtius; Including the Alexandrian, African and Spanish Wars, 6.14. Translated by W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1869.
Egypt
page 89: “He who is a priest”: quoted by Michael Poe, www.sibyllinewicca.org /lib_historical/lib_h_egypt4.htm
Fawkes
page 91: “There is a bird”: More, Brookes. Ovid’s Metamorphoses in English blank verse (Boston: The Cornhill Publishing Company, 1933).
page 92: “I am the keeper”: The Book of the Dead; an English translation, by E. A. Wallis Budge (London, K. Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1901).
Flamel
page 95: “Flamel, look at this book”: Flamel, Nicolas, Nicolas Flamel, his explanation of the hieroglyphicall figures, etc., by Eirenaeus Orandus (London, 1624).
page 96: “finally I found”: Flamel, Nicholas, Testament of Nicolas Flamel, quoted in Askin, Wade, The Sorcerer’s Handbook (New York: Philosophical Library, 1974).
Fortescue
page 104: “My ideal writing space”: originally in The High, the magazine of Edinburgh’s Broughton High School, from interview conducted by students Nicola Nairn, Adam Knight, and Jennifer Milne. Quoted here from “J. K. Rowling’s Fame Spoils Her Café Culture,” Brian Ferguson, Edinburgh Evening News, 6 February 2003.
Giants
page 107: “If you want to grace the burial place”: Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain, translated by Sebastian Evans (New York: Dutton 1920).
Giant Squid
page 110: “Before my eyes was a horrible monster”: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, from The Omnibus Verne ( J. B. Lippincott Company, Garden City, NY, 1873).
Goblins
page 116: “They hated all things”: Foster, Robert, The Complete Guide to Middle-earth (New York: Ballantine, 1978) p. 388.
Griffins
page 119: “I have heard”: Aelian, On Animals, quoted in Nigg.
page 121: “A fabulous animal”: Biedermann, Hans, Dictionary of Symbolism (Meridian, 1994).
page 122: “The griffin is very popular”: Franklyn, Julian, Shield and Crest (New York: Sterling, 1961).
Herbology
page 126: “I used to collect”: 60 Minutes, CBS News, New York, 12 September 1999.
Hippogriff
page 132: “They descended from the mountain�
��: Bulfinch, Thomas, The Age of Fable: or Beauties of Mythology, Rev. Ed (New York: Review of Reviews company, 1913).
page 134: “Hawk and eagle soar”: The Orlando Furioso, translated into English verse by William Stewart Rose (London, Bell, 1907-10).
Hogwarts
page 135: “Here are all the rites”: from “The Playing Fields of Hogwarts,” Pico Iyer, The New York Times, 10 October 1999.
page 135: “Hogwarts is located in Scotland”: Online chat with J. K. Rowling at Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), 8 September 1999.
Latin
page 142: Online chat with J. K. Rowling at Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), 20 October 2000.
Manticore
page 149: “There is in India”: Aelian, On Animals, quoted in Nigg.
page 152: “The gleam of my scarlet hair”: Gustave Flaubert, The Temptation of St. Anthony, translated by Lafcadio Hearn (New York, Grosset and Dunlap, 1932).
Merpeople
page 158: “I fancied you”: Hawthorne, Nathaniel, “The Village Uncle,” in Twice-Told Tales (Boston: Ticknor, 1849).
Mirrors
page 160: “Buy a looking glass”: The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft (New York: Facts on File, 1999).
Names
page 165: “Rowling says Harry”: J. K. Rowling on The Connection, National Public Radio, 12 October 1999; several other names: Barnes & Noble Online, 19 March 1999.
page 166: “Rowling says Ron Weasley”: “Harry Potter and Me,” British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC1, 28 December 2001.
page 183: thestrals: Royal Albert Hall interview, 26 June 2003.
Order of the Phoenix
page 190: “For the right moment”: quoted in Cole, Margaret, The Story of Fabian Socialism (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1961).
The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter Page 19