The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter

by David Colbert

  Veela are also gifted in the healing arts, with a special knowledge of natural remedies. In the story above, the veela Ravioyla heals Milosh and tells other veela not to bother theIt was said that a veela in the form of a particular fairy visited mothers on the seventh night after the birth of a baby to tell the mother the baby’s destiny.

  See also: Cornish Pixies

  men. In fact, veela tend to be kind to humans—and are known to marry mortal men.

  What upsets veela most is having their ritual dances disturbed. If that occurs, they may become fiercely angry. As spirits of the wind, veela can invoke whirlwinds and storms as they did during the Quidditch World Cup.

  What Kind of Nightmares Created Voldemort?

  NOTHING BRINGS OUT A GREAT HERO AS

  much as a great villain. Lord Voldemort—the half-Muggle born as Thomas Marvolo Riddle—fits the bill. It is no surprise that wizards call him the Dark Lord. That name describes a whole category of literary villains with whom Voldemort has much in common.

  Critics John Clute and John Grant note a few characteristics that make a classic Dark Lord:• A Dark Lord “has often been already defeated but not destroyed aeons before.”

  • He “aspires to be the Prince of this world.”

  • He is an “abstract force,” less flesh and blood than supernatural energy.

  • He represents “thinning,” the idea that “before the written story started there was a diminishment” such as the chaos and death Voldemort caused before Harry was sent to live with the Dursleys.As most Harry Potter fans know by now, the name Voldemort comes from the French words vol de mort, meaning “fly from death.”

  Voldemort’s many ties to serpents (Slytherin House; the form hidden under Quirrell’s turban in Stone; the snake Nagini in Goblet; the nightmares in Phoenix) fit with evil snake symbols going back even before Satan was described as a snake in the Bible. As well, since ancient times, Voldemort’s goals of rebirth and immortality have been symbolized by a snake curled into a circle.

  • He is also a symbol of “debasement,” a moral collapse, often as a result of a questionable bargain, such as the one struck by the many Death Eaters who sought to gain power through their alliance with Voldemort.

  • He “inflicts damage out of envy.”

  By this reckoning, Voldemort is the very model of a Dark Lord. But for all his similarity to other villians, he also embodies J. K. Rowling’s own definitions of evil. The first of those relates to society at large; the second is very personal.

  LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF

  Voldemort is a creature of our times. Because his Muggle father abandoned his mother, he hates Muggles with what Rowling herself has called a “racist” passion. She has said his obsession with “pure” wizard bloodlines is like the Nazis’ Aryan ideal or the Spanish Inquisition’s goal of sangre limpia (“clean blood”). And she has directly connected Voldemort’s mixed parentage to the odd case of Hitler, who fell far short of the ideal that he demanded others meet—or die. Voldemort, she explains, “takes what he perceives to be a defect in himself, in other words, the non-purity of his blood, and he projects it onto others . . . He takes his own inferiority, and turns it back on other people and attempts to exterminate in them what he hates in himself.” That commentary is meant as much for today’s society as for past injustices.

  LUST FOR LIFE

  The other aspect of Voldemort’s evil comes from fragments of Rowling’s own life. As he tells the Death Eaters who flock to him at the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, “You know my goal—to conquer death.”

  This matter of immortality is never far from J. K. Rowling’s imagination. The whole first book is devoted to Voldemort’s quest for the Philosopher’s Stone, an object that will allow him to create a new body and keep it alive forever.

  This lust for eternal life is the essence of the Dark Lord’s depravity. But is he really any different from the many people in our world who try to live as long they can? Dumbledore tells Harry, “The Stone was really not such a wonderful thing. As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all—the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them” (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling).

  A Greek myth tells of Tithonus, prince of Troy, who was loved by Eos, goddess of the dawn. Eos asked Zeus to grant Tithonus immortality so they could stay together forever, but forgot to ask that he be given eternal youth. Tithonus lived long but kept aging until he was withered. Finally, out of mercy, he was changed into a grasshopper.

  In J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the magnificent Elves endure great pain because they live forever. All the things they love disappear, and they cannot escape the feeling of loss. They try in vain to explain this to humans.

  See also: Dark Mark Dumbledore Potter, Harry

  In every culture, immortality, though desirable, is against the laws of nature. Things must die so other things may be born. This is a constant theme in Rowling’s work: accepting death and not fighting nature. She states it directly at the end of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix when Voldemort says, “There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!” But Dumbledore replies, “ . . . [T]here are things much worse,” adding that Voldemort’s fear of death is his “greatest weakness.”

  Immortality fascinates many writers, even those like Rowling who originally set out to write for young people. J. R. R. Tolkien was obssessed with the questions it raises. It is a strong element in Philip Pullman’s novels. They and others, including Rowling, have acknowledged a common reason: the early loss of a parent. Philip Pullman’s father died when Pullman was seven. Tolkien lost both parents as a child. When J. K. Rowling was just twelve her mother developed a severe illness that took her life when Rowling was only twenty-five. All of these authors wanted to fight nature. Writing Harry’s story is one of Rowling’s ways of coming to accept it. Like Harry, she has a personal reason for sharing Voldemort’s desire but knows it must be fought.

  Why Do Wizards Use Wands?

  WITHOUT QUESTION, A WAND IS A wizard’s most important tool. In Harry’s world, they are made by combining parts of magical creatures—such as “unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heart-strings of dragons”—with staffs of willow, mahogany, yew, oak, beech, maple, and ebony. Each wand is not only matched to the personality of the individual, but actually chooses the wizard.

  ANCIENT WANDS

  It seems wizards have always used wands. These sticks—or in some cases large rods—focus magical strength.

  Some anthropologists believe that Stone Age cave paintings showing people with sticks are meant to portray leaders of the clans holding wands to attest to their power. That is only a guess, but strong evidence goes back at leastThe Druids had different wands for each of their seven levels of priesthood.

  The Egyptian god Thoth was also pictured carrying an early version of a caduceus.

  See also: Druids Egypt

  to the time of ancient Egypt. Hieroglyphs show priests holding small rods. In Greek mythology, Hermes, messenger of the Greek gods, carried a special wand called a caduceus. This is a rod with wings, around which two serpents are twisted, meant to signify wisdom and healing powers. Physicians adopted it as their symbol hundreds of years ago and still use it today.

  In the past some wizards have favored wands made from the elder tree, which is considered especially magical. Those who practiced dark magic often used cypress, which was associated with death. However, J. K. Rowling tells us Voldemort’s wand is made of yew. That also makes sense. The yew has immense supernatural power. At one time the yew was one of the few evergreens in Britain, so it has become a symbol of both death and rebirth—the same immortality Voldemort desperately wants.

  Are Any of the “Famous Witches and Wizards” Real?

  WHEN THEY FIRST TAKE THE HOGWARTS Express to school, Ron introduces Harry to the Famous Witches and Wizards tra
ding cards that come with Chocolate Frogs. He mentions a few: Dumbledore, Merlin, Paracelsus, the Druidess Cliodna, Hengist of Woodcroft, Morgana, Ptolemy, and Circe. Some of these wizards are actual historical figures. Others exist in legends going back hundreds of years.

  AGRIPPA

  Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa was a wizard during the Renaissance. Born Heinrich Cornelis near Cologne, Germany, in 1486, he took the name Agrippa in honor of the founder of his hometown.

  He had a varied career, working as a doctor, lawyer, astrologer, and faith healer. But he made enemies as quickly as friends and wasAccording to legend, says witchcraft expert Rosemary Ellen Guiley, toads are considered “psychically sensitive” and can detect ghosts.

  Agrippa was said to be accompanied by a spirit (a “familiar”) in the form of a black dog.

  branded a sorcerer. In 1529, he published a book called On Occult Philosophy, combining ancient Hebrew and Greek texts to argue that the best way to know God was through magic. Because of his efforts he was forced to leave Germany. In France, where he had been a physician to the queen mother, he was jailed. He died in 1535.

  Agrippa was one inspiration for Wolfgang Goethe’s play Faust, in which a scholar makes a pact with the Devil—similar to the pact between Voldemort and his followers. His name also came to be the term for a special sorcerer’s handbook cut into the shape of a person.

  DRUIDESS CLIODNA

  In Irish mythology, Cliodna has several roles, from goddess of beauty to ruler of the Land of Promise—the afterlife. She is also goddess of the sea. Some say she is symbolized at the seacoast by every ninth wave that breaks on shore. She has three enchanted birds that heal the sick.

  PARACELSUS

  Paracelsus, born in Switzerland in 1493, is considered a founder of modern chemistry and medicine. He began his career as a medical doctor, then turned to the study of magic, especially alchemy and divination. His reputation as a wizard and his role as a doctor are linked. Because he refused to limit himself to the traditional medical education of the time and developed his own successful treatments, he was deemed a sorcerer. But Paracelsus ignored his critics. “The universities do not teach all things,” he said, “so a doctor must seek out old wives, gypsies, sorcerers, wandering tribes, old robbers, and such outlaws and take lessons from them. A doctor must be a traveller. Knowledge is experience.”

  Paracelsus developed several useful remedies. He also found the cause of silicosis, a The gifted doctor Paracelsus.

  miner’s disease that comes from inhaling metal vapors, which previously had been blamed on evil spirits. He helped stop an outbreak of the plague in 1534 with a form of vaccination.

  Paracelsus was born Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim. The name he created for himself is immodest. It means “beyond Celsus,” referring to a noted physician of ancient Rome.

  Because of his attitude and accomplishments, other doctors disliked him. He spent almost a decade in academic exile—and was even forced to flee the city of Basel under cover of darkness in 1528. But by the time of his death in 1541 his reputation had improved greatly.

  MORGANA

  Morgana—sometimes known as Morgan Le Fay—was a powerful enchantress of British myth, especially gifted in the healing arts. Merlin was her tutor, and she is sometimes said to be the half-sister of King Arthur. She was often Arthur’s rival, stealing his sword Excalibur and plotting his death. But she is also said to have been the queen of Avalon, the fairyland where dying heroes are rewarded, and to have tried to heal Arthur there when he was wounded. According to some legends she lived in the Straits of Messina, off Italy. An unusual sea current in that area often draws phosphorescent creatures from the depths to the surface, creating the impression of strange lights or objects floating above the water. These are called Fata Morgana, from fata, the Italian word for fairy.

  MERLIN

  Merlin is considered one of the wisest wizards ever. A master sorcerer, he was said to have been an adviser to the British kings Vortigern, Uther Pendragon, and Arthur. Although he may have been based on a wizard who actually lived, the Merlin we know is a character created from fantastic legends. For instance, some say he arranged the huge stones at Stonehenge. Others say he was gifted in prophecy because he lived backward, so he had already seen the future.

  Some legends of Morgan le Fay come from tales of the ancient Greek sorceress Medea. Both of them cast a spell on a cloak so that it would burst into flames and kill whoever wore it.

  “Merlin” is an English version of the Welsh name “Myrddhin.” The stories now associated with Merlin draw on early tales of a wizard named Ambrosius, who supposedly lived in the sixth century. The historian Geoffrey of Monmouth, who relied heavily on legends, connected him to the tales of King Arthur.

  He is best known as King Arthur’s mentor. In a noteworthy parallel, he hid the infant Arthur just as Dumbledore knew to hide Harry from Voldemort. The poet Alfred Lord Tennyson recounted that part of the legend in Idylls of the King:

  By reason of the bitterness and grief

  That vext his mother, all before his time

  Was Arthur born, and all as soon as born

  Delivered at a secret postern-gate

  To Merlin, to be holden far apart

  Until his hour should come; because the lords

  Of that fierce day were as the lords of this,

  Wild beasts, and surely would have torn

  the child

  Piecemeal among them, had they known;

  for each

  But sought to rule for his own self and hand,

  And many hated Uther.

  Wherefore Merlin took the child,

  And gave him to Sir Anton, an old knight

  And ancient friend of Uther; and his wife

  Nursed the young prince, and reared him with

  her own;

  And no man knew. And ever since the lords

  Have fought like wild beasts among themselves,

  So that the realm has gone to wrack.

  Merlin then became both Arthur’s tutor and his counselor, using his keen intelligence and innumerable acts of wizardry to help the young king fight Britain’s enemies.

  According to some stories, Merlin was tricked by the Lady of the Lake, whom he loved, into creating a magical column of air that she then used to imprison him forever.

  HENGIST OF WOODCROFT

  This wizard either is or is named for a Saxon king of Britain. King Hengist and his brother Horsa—their names come from the German words for “stallion” and “horse”—arrived in Britain in AD 449 as mercenaries to help King Vortigern put down Pict and Scot rebels, but they eventually led a rebellion of their own. Hengist founded the kingdom of Kent.

  The name Woodcroft may simply be one that J. K. Rowling spotted on a map and liked. In Peterborough, north of Kent, you can find a Woodcroft Castle, site of a grisly murder and an old ghost. In 1648 Dr. Michael Hudson, chaplain to King Charles II, was killed there while battling Oliver Cromwell’s troops. He is said to haunt the castle on the anniversary of his death. Sounds of the battle can be heard, as well as Hudson’s cries for mercy.

  Many Merlin stories are related to the legends of another early Welsh wizard, Taliesen (see pages 27 and 53).

  CIRCE

  In Homer’s ancient epic poem The Odyssey, Circe is a “great and cunning goddess” who lives on an island. Odysseus’s men, returning home after the Trojan War, stop at her island and become victims of this enchantress:

  When they reached Circe’s house they found it built of cut stones, on a site that could be seen from far, in the middle of the forest. There were wild mountain wolves and lions prowling all round it—poor bewitched creatures whom she had tamed by her enchantments and drugged into subjection. Presently they reached the gates of the goddess’s house, and as they stood there they could hear Circe within, singing most beautifully as she worked at her loom, making a web so fine, so soft, and of such dazzling colours as no one but a goddess could wea
ve.

  They called her and she came down, unfastened the door, and bade them enter. They, thinking no evil, followed her.

  When she had got them into her house, she set them upon benches and seats and mixed them a drink with honey, but she drugged it with wicked poisons to make them forget their homes, and when they had drunk she turned them into pigs by a stroke of her wand, and shut them up in her pigsties. They were like pigs—head, hair, and all—and they grunted just as pigs do; but their senses were the same as before, and they remembered everything.

  Odysseus himself, having taken a special potion, resists Circe’s charms and eventually frees his men.

  ALBERIC GRUNNION

  This name must have been inspired by the Alberich who is a powerful wizard in the German epic poem Nibelungenlied (“Song of the Nibelungen”). The poem is a mythical account of a historical event, the defeat by the Huns of the kingdom of Burgundy (now part of France) in A.D. 437. It has been the basis of many modern works, most importantly the Ring Cycle, a series of linked operas written in the nineteenth century by Richard Wagner. (When you see cartoons of opera singers wearing horned helmets, it is Wagner’s Ring Cycle they’re singing.)