The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter

by David Colbert

  It was an important symbol of the city of Heliopolis (“Sun City”). In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, a religious text written about 2000 BC, the phoenix claims, “I am the keeper of the Tablet of Destiny, the volume of the book of things which have happened and of things which shall be.” In Egyptian hieroglyphics, the phoenix image conveys the passage of time, and it remains a symbol of immortality today. Writers also use the phoenix to signify undying love and loyalty. In “The Canonization,” the seventeenth-century poet John Donne writes to his wife,

  The phoenix riddle hath more wit

  By us; we two being one, are it.

  So, to one neutral thing both sexes fit,

  We die and rise the same, and prove

  Mysterious by this love.

  FAWKES’S NAME

  Fawkes’s name is related to the phoenix legend—but with a historical twist. Obviously he is named for Guy Fawkes, member of a famous attempt to blow up the English ParliamentIn Asia, the phoenix is among the four mystical animals with great influence. The others are the dragon, the unicorn, and the tortoise.

  See also: Black, Sirius Egypt Order of the Phoenix

  building on November 5, 1605. The Gunpowder Plot, as it is called, was to be the start of a revolt by English Catholics, who were being persecuted at the time. The conspirators hid thirty-six barrels of gunpowder under the House of Lords, but there were so many conspirators that the plan leaked. Authorities arrested the men and executed many of them. (The situation for Catholics only became worse.) In Britain, November 5 is now Guy Fawkes Night, celebrated with bonfires—like the funeral pyre of a phoenix.

  Was the Real Flamel a Successful Alchemist?

  NICOLAS FLAMEL, AS MANY HARRY POTTER fans know, was an actual historical figure. Born near Paris about 1330, he tried several Alchemists careers—poet, painter, and public scribe—guarded their before pursuing an interest in astrology. Then secrets with in 1357 he was visited in a dream by an angel care, often who showed him a book and said, “Flamel, look using codes at this book. You will not in the least understand for their notes it, neither will anyone else; but the day will and letters. come when you will see in it something that no one else will see.” The next day he saw that same volume in a bookseller’s stall, offered for a cheap price because no one could understand its writing. With great effort, and the help of a Spanish scholar who could read Hebrew, Flamel deciphered the text, which seemed to be a manual for changing common metals into gold.

  Unfortunately, the instructions called for a special ingredient—a philosopher’s stone—without describing it specifically. Flamel experimented for decades to find the mysterious substance, described only by pictures and symbols such as dragons, griffins, a king leading soldiers, a rose bush, and an oak tree.

  On January 17, 1383, as he related in his memoir:

  A building said to be the oldest existing house in Paris was built in 1407 by Nicolas Flamel. It is located at 51 rue de Montmorency.

  Finally I found the object of my search, and I knew it by its strong smell; and with it I accomplished the magic. I had learned the preparation of the first agent and had only to follow my book word by word.

  The first time I carried out the operation, I worked with quicksilver and transmuted about one and a half pounds of it into pure silver, better than silver from a mine. I put the results to the test several times. Later I accomplished the operation with the red stone on a similar amount of quicksilver on the 25th day of April of the same year when I transmuted the quicksilver into about the same amount of gold.

  This gold was clearly superior to ordinary gold. I accomplished the magic three times with [my wife] Perenelle’s help.

  This description—“its strong smell”—led other alchemists to believe the philosopher’s stone was sulfur. But no one is known to have repeated the process.

  Legends say that Flamel became rich with his discovery. There’s certainly real proof of his wealth—almost too much proof. The real Flamel was very generous, paying for the building of hospitals, churches, and housing for the poor. Yet he left no sign of having mastered alchemical details. People have ransacked Flamel buildings many times since Flamel’s death in 1417 but found nothing.

  The truth, some scholars say, is thatAlchemists commonly worked with dangerous substances such as quicksilver (mercury), lead, arsenic, and strong acids. As a result they often suffered from strange illnesses.

  See also: Alchemy Voldemort Wizards

  Flamel’s alchemy hobby may have been just a convenient cover for a less reputable source of wealth. It seems he actually became rich by lending money for a high fee. His supposed contact with Hebrew scholars in Spain is believed to have been a way to avoid admitting he did business with Jews there, because Jews were hated in France. Flamel would have faced the same resentment and anger if he hadn’t discovered a way to hide the real reason he became rich.

  Other legends say that in addition to creating gold Flamel produced the Elixir of Life, which offers immortality. Some of his followers said he and his wife actually lived on, sustained by the elixir. That fairy tale found its way into Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. At the beginning of the story Flamel and his wife are both alive and well, despite being just shy of 660 years old. Unfortunately, when the Philosopher’s Stone is destroyed their elixir can no longer be produced, so they pass away.

  Why Would Fluffy Come from “a Greek Chappie”?

  FLUFFY IS HAGRID’S PET DOG, GUARDIAN OF the Philosopher’s Stone after it is removed from Gringotts Bank: Rowling describes him in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone as “a monstrous dog, a dog that filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. It had three heads; three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in their direction; three drooling mouths.”

  J. K. Rowling says that Hagrid bought Fluffy from “a Greek chappie I met in the pub.” That makes sense, because Fluffy is actually a magical creature from Greek mythology known as Cerberus. He was a sentry there too. He guarded Hades, the underworld, where the souls of the dead go to live for eternity. It was his job to keep all living beings away, and to eat anyone trying to escape.

  According to some legends Cerberus had one hundred heads. In others, snakes also grew from his necks.

  See also: Centaurs Sphinx

  Cerberus, from an illustration drawn about AD 1500.

  CERBERUS AND HERCULES

  Cerberus plays a role in a famous Greek myth, the story of the twelve labors of Hercules. The hero Hercules had been tricked by the goddess Hera into committing horrendous crimes, and was punished by becoming a servant to an unworthy king for twelve years. The king demanded that Hercules complete twelve tasks considered impossible. Most of them involved killing or capturing vicious beasts, like the Hydra, a creature with many heads. The last, considered the most difficult, was to capture Cerberus from his post at the gates of Hades and parade him before the king. Amazingly, Hercules did so, using just brute strength.

  CERBERUS AND MUSIC

  One other person got the better of Cerberus, but it wasn’t with muscle. Orpheus, a gifted musician, braved the underworld to rescue his beloved, Eurydice. Lacking the strength of

  Hercules, he played his lyre to tame Cerberus. It worked. He was able to sneak by the creature, and to escort Eurydice away. That’s why the Greek chappie told Hagrid music is the way to tame Fluffy.

  Why Would the Forest Near Hogwarts Be “Forbidden”?

  FORESTS ARE A FAVORITE CREATION OF writers, and J. K. Rowling’s Forbidden Forest near Hogwarts has all the qualities one could expect. It is nature run wild, making it the opposite of civilized places like Hogwarts or the village of Hogsmeade. Within it live magical creatures older than humankind, like the unicorn. As well, just as there is knowledge in nature that humans have always tried to understand—such as the wisdom of the nature gods worshipped by the Druids—the Forbidden Forest near Hogwarts is a place where secrets are kept and mysteries can be unraveled. Most important of all,
it’s a general rule in legends that forests are where one meets the unexpected. Powerful wizards live there. Lost friends are found there. That’s also true of Rowling’s Forbidden Forest. Voldemort’s murder of a unicorn in Stone reveals his presence to Harry. In Chamber, Harry and Ron follow spiders into the Forest and meet Aragog, who tells them a little about the monster in Hogwarts. This won’t be Harry’s last visit to the Forest, nor his last meeting there.

  See also: Centaurs Druids Hogwarts Unicorns

  What Does Ice Cream Have to Do with Witchcraft?

  IN AZKABAN, FLOREAN FORTESCUE HELPS Harry by telling him about witch burnings, and in Phoenix he complains loudly that the Ministry of Magic has made a deal with criminals. Why does this ice-cream shop owner know so much about witchcraft law?

  The answer lies in his family name. The Fortescues are well known in English history. The career of one member of the family, Sir John Fortescue (c. 1531-1607), ranged from tutoring Princess Elizabeth (the future Elizabeth I) to serving as her Chancellor of the Exchequer when she was Queen. In between, it was his job to enforce the tough witchcraft laws that Elizabeth’s Parliament passed in 1563. He led the first important trials under those laws, apparently with the same severe attitude Florean Fortescue expresses. In one trial, a woman was executed on charges that included receiving instructions from a talking cat.Other members of the Fortescue family include one of the most influential legal minds in British history, and a saint.

  Some people say Elizabeth I’s laws against witches were harsh to prove that she was not one herself. Her mother, Anne Boleyn, had been executed on witchcraft charges by order of Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII. Sir John Fortescue was also a close relative of Anne Boleyn.

  So what about the name “Florean”? That may be an inside joke. You’ll recall that Harry gets to know Florean Fortescue when he spends a lot of time writing his essays at the ice-cream shop. That should bring to mind J. K. Rowling, well known for having planned and written so much of Harry’s story in a café. As she has said, “My ideal writing space is a large café with a small corner table near a window overlooking an interesting street (for gazing out of in search of inspiration). It would serve very strong coffee . . .” Since 1720, writers who feel the same way, including Lord Byron, Goethe, Charles Dickens, and Marcel Proust have worked at the tables of a particular coffee shop, making it the most famous in Europe. For inspiration they’ve looked out on Venice’s adored St. Mark’s Square. And their very strong coffee has come in cups decorated with the shop’s name: Caffè Florian.

  Are All Giants All Bad?

  GIANTS ARE THOUGHT BY MOST HUMANS—probably unfairly—to be as dangerous and cruel as they are large. But there’s no denying they can be difficult, as Hagrid learns in Phoenix when he meets Grawp, Karkus, and Golgomath. Whatever the truth, they have a troublesome history.

  EARLY GIANTS

  The first giants were the Gigantes of ancient Greek mythology, born when the blood of Uranus (the Heavens) fell upon Gaea (Earth). The Gigantes fought the gods of Mount Olympus—Zeus, Hera, Apollo, and others. The Olympian gods needed the help of the hero Hercules to defeat them. The Gigantes were buried underneath mountains that then became volcanoes.

  Another race of mythical Greek giants was known as the Cyclops. These monsters, whoThe Cyclops of Greek myth.

  In two early books of the Bible, Genesis and Ezekiel, Magog is the name of the place from which Gog comes. In a later book, Revelation, Magog is a second creature or force who joins Gog in trying to destroy the world.

  Perhaps Golgomath in Phoenix is a descendant of Gogmagog and another well-known biblical giant, Goliath of Gath.

  had only one eye, created the thunderbolts of Zeus. In Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, the hero Odysseus and his men encounter a Cyclops and barely escape.

  Both these races of giants, like those that followed, were said to be vicious cannibals.

  BRITISH GIANTS

  Among later giants, the legend of a pair named Gog and Magog spread throughout the world, changing a bit from place to place. In Britain the story survives in the form of two large statues in Guildhall in London, first erected in the 1400s and said to portray the last of a race of giants destroyed by the legendary founder of London. (The statues, public favorites, have been replaced twice: first after the Great Fire of 1666, then after an air raid during the Second World War.)

  A slightly different British legend combines those giants into a single monster named Gogmagog, who lived near Cornwall. In that version, a brave soldier threw the giant off a cliff, which is still called Giant’s Leap.

  Another British giant of legend, Gargantua, became famous in the 1500s as the main character in comical adventures written by a Frenchman, François Rabelais. Gargantua was something like the gigantic American woodsman Paul Bunyan. He was so huge that a tennis court could fit inside one of his teeth. It took the milk of 17,913 cows to quench his thirst.

  GIANTS AND MAGIC

  According to the early historian Geoffrey of Monmouth, Stonehenge, the mysterious circle of huge stones in southern England, originated with the giants of Ireland. As he records, Merlin had been asked for advice on building a war memorial. The wizard replied:

  “If you want to grace the burial place of these men with some lasting monument, send for the Giants’ Ring which is on Mount Killaraus in Ireland. In that place there is a stone construction which no man of this period could ever erect, unless he combined great skill and artistry. The stones are enormous and there is no one alive strong enough to move them. If they are placed in position round this site, in the way in which they are erected over there, they will stand for ever . . .

  “These stones are connected with secret religious rites and they have various properties which are medicinally important. Many years ago the Giants transportedIn William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Rosalind anxiously asks her friend Celia about a young man: “What said he? How looked he? Where went he? Did he ask for me? Where remains he? How parted with thee? And when shalt thou see him again? Answer me in one word.” Celia snaps back, “You must borrow me Gargantua’s mouth first; ‘tis a word too great for any mouth of this age’s size.” (Act III, scene ii)

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  Geoffrey of Monmouth, like most early historians, relied on stories he was told, so his history of Britain mixes legends with actual events.

  them from the remotest confines of Africa and set them up in Ireland at a time when they inhabited that country. Their plan was that, whenever they felt ill, baths should be prepared at the foot of the stones; for they used to pour water over them and to run this water into baths in which their sick were cured. What is more, they mixed the water with herbal concoctions and so healed their wounds. There is not a single stone among them that hasn’t some medicinal virtue.”

  As Geoffrey tells it, the king took Merlin’s advice and had the stones transported to their present site.

  A SECRET EVERYONE KNOWS

  In Harry’s world, most wizards are prejudiced against giants. Hagrid never told anyone his mother was the giantess Fridwulfa because he was worried about what they would think. For the same reason, the headmistress of Beauxbatons, Madame Olympe Maxime, is reluctant to admit she is also half-giant. But anyone with common sense would guess that secret from her name. Olympe refers to the original giants of Olympus, and maxime means “great” or “very large” in French.

  Which Real-Life Creature Still Eludes Scientists?

  IN THE LAKE AT HOGWARTS LIVES A REAL-LIFE creature that is as mysterious as any magical beast. It is not elusive because it is small; in fact, it is the largest invertebrate on earth. It is the giant squid, which lives in waters so deep and far from shore that no human living today has seen one alive.

  Architeuthis, as scientists call it, can grow to seventy feet long. Its eyes, the largest of any animal, are well-suited for gathering what little light exists in the mile-deep waters of its home. There is no sunlight at those depths, but certain creatures have chemicals in thei
r bodies that glow.

  The French science fiction author Jules Verne wrote about the giant squid in his novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The creature attacks the electric submarine in the story, Nautilus:

  Sailors called the giant squid the Kraken. Many people believed the exaggerated reports that the Kraken was two kilometers wide and looked like an island when it surfaced.

  Before my eyes was a horrible monster, worthy to figure in the legends of the marvellous. It was an immense cuttlefish, being eight yards long. It swam crossways in the direction of the Nautilus with great speed, watching us with its enormous staring green eyes. Its eight arms, or rather feet, fixed to its head, that have given the name of cephalopod to these animals, were twice as long as its body, and were twisted like the Furies’ hair. One could see the 250 air-holes on the inner side of the tentacles. The monster’s mouth, a horned beak like a parrot’s, opened and shut vertically. Its tongue, a horned substance, furnished with several rows of pointed teeth, came out quivering from this veritable pair of shears.