LONG: School-locations, mostly Durmstrang

Tue Nov 21 23:40:21 UTC 2000

No: HPFGUIDX 5961

I spotted a comment some time ago, where somebody
(Rita Winston) mentioned Latvia as a likely location
for Durmstrang., and, as the location of the two known
schools of magic besides Hogwarts has intrigued me for
some time, I decided to break out my encyclopedia and
atlas, and I have some random thoughts.  I am no
expert on the things in question here, but it is a
start, and this can be improved upon by others more
knowledgeable in these fields.  I hope I am not too
unstructured and difficult to follow (it is midnight
here), as I am reopening a discussion at least 5000
messages old.

Unfortunately, we are not told too much about the
location of Beauxbatons, though the impression seems
to be given of a palace like to the royal palaces in
the Loire-valley (decorated tastefully, without
stuffed k-niggets and poltergeists).  I will assume it
to be in a relatively mild area, in a chateau akin to
Chambord or Azay le Rideau (the ultimate Romantic
Fairytale palaces).

Of Durmstrang we know as much that it must be quite a
distance to the North, in a region with lakes (I am
presuming Viktor Krum knows the difference between
lakes and fjords) AND mountains, and also with access
to the sea (I am presuming the ship is an oceangoing
ship).  This rules out all of Lithuania, Latvia and
Estonia, as these, between them, do not contain a
single peak higher than 318 metres (1043ft) - sorry,
Rita.  In fact, Latvia is no further North than
Scotland  it edges just North of the 58th Parallel,
and it is South of all of Norway (save Queen Maud Land
and the Bouvet Island in Antarctica, and the halfway
mythical Sjettnans Isle in the South Pacific). 
Formally speaking, it was also outside the Holy Roman
Empire of the German Nation, which stretched no
further North than the borders of Denmark (at least
according to my Atlas of History from school, but then
it labelled Yugoslavia as a NATO-member too...).
Denmark proper, being even flatter than the Baltic
states, is all out, the Faeroe Islands are to small,
and Greenland is too far out of the way for anyone to
bother going there.  

Finland has plenty with lakes, but no mountains except
in the extreme West and North, where there are few
lakes.  Norway all the way up to the Polar Circle has
plenty of both, and is plenty dark in the Winter. 
Sweden likewise has plenty of both along the 62nd
latitude all the way to the joint between Finland,
Norway and Sweden.  Unfortunately, the combination of
lakes and mountains is mostly found inland, a distance
away from the sea  only in Norway can it be found
near the sea, mainly on the Western coast between 62N
and 64N, and between 65N and 66N.  There is also a
location near Narvik, at ca. 68N.

Besides these, there is a further opportunity, even
further to the North:  Murmansk Oblatsk (I am not
certain if Oblatsk means county, shire, state or
something else), on the Kola Peninsula.  It is an
appropriately barren area, with a number of lakes, and
a number of proper mountains.  The need to be close to
the sea, seems to favour a location at the inner end
of the bay called Kandalakskaja Guba, in the White
Sea.

One could also look at this linguistically.  While
Durmstrang is a name derived from German (from Sturm
und Drang, a literary movement advocating the
abandonment of sense), and seems to indicate a German
relation, both Karkaroff and Viktor Krum are Slavic. 
This suggests a closer connection to Russia and
Eastern Europe than Germany, though that may be a
later development.  To me, it doesn't not seem
immediately logical that Slavic students would accept
learning in German, rather than Russian, for instance,
when Slavic-speakers certainly are numerous enough to
justify one or more schools on their own 
particularly as see have the impression of a historic
form of antipathy between Slavic and German nations in
Europe (the Teutonic Order wasnt always nice guys,
even if Eisenstein overdid things a bit).  Both the
connection to Germany and the connection to the East,
reduce the probability of Norway being the location of
Durmstrang, as Norway at the time Hogwarts was founded
was primarily oriented towards England, Scotland and
the West, while Sweden was oriented towards the East
(essentially Russia was founded by Swedish Vikings)
and the South (Sweden had an extensive trade with the
Hansa-Bund).  If Scandinavian students are split
between the large academies, then it is more plausible
to me that the Norwegians end up at Hogwarts, with the
Swedes at Durmstrang, than all of Scandinavia being
under Durmstrang.  This is also because of the very
strong influence from Danes and Norwegians in the time
before William the Conqueror (just look at the
linguistic parallels  York-Jorvik, church/kirk-kirke,
husband-husbond, (hus-)wife-(hus-)viv, etc.)

In the region in question here (Northern Germany,
Scandinavia, Northern Russia West of the Ural
Mountains) there are four Language-groups: the
Finnish-Ugrian (sp?) group (Finnish, Estonian, Sami,
Hungarian), the Baltic-Slavic group (Lithuanian,
Russian, most East-European languages), the
North-Germanic languages (Norwegian, Swedish, Danish,
Icelandic) and West-Germanic (primarily German in this
context (but English belongs in this group too,
according to my source)).  I rather suspect that these
language-groups, rather than mixing and matching,
would each tend to itself, education-wise.

I would rather not see Durmstrang end up in
Scandinavia, due to a fanfic-project I have, which may
(or may not) lift off sometime before book V.  I have
presumed that Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Iceland have
a joint school somewhere (In Norway, in my case, as I
am Norwegian, and Norwegian folklore is the only one I
know much), as the Scandinavian languages are (and
have always been), very close.  This leaves for me
only the option of putting Durmstrang in Murmansk
Oblatsk, probably somewhere near the city of
Kandalaka, at the White Sea.  I am wondering whether
to include Finns and Estonians in this, only
Swedish-speaking Finns or no Finns or Estonians at all
(with, perhaps, a joint Finnish-Estonian-Hungarian
Institute (due to the languages being related), of
course founded by Ilmarinen and Vainaminen.) , as
Finland was very strongly tied to Sweden for
centuries.

I hope I did not get too boring (again, it is late,
with the attendant bad effects on my ability to
structure.  I have to do it at home, however, as that
is where I have all my books).

Regards

=====
"There are two trillion six-houndred and sixtyfive billion  eight-houndred and sixtysix million, seven-houndred and fortysix thousand, six-houndred and sixtyfour litte devils in the world"
---------------------------------------------
Christian Stub
Student of Technology, architectura navalis

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