[HPforGrownups] 1.Fudge, 2.Hogwarts Founders

[Jinx]

No: HPFGUIDX 1744


> I think the surnames of the Founders are not family names, as family
> names hadn't been invented yet (for example, Harry's history textbook
> told of a witch who was burned 47 times: Wendilyn the Weird, not
> Wendilyn Weisenheimer). Instead, they were epithets, nicknames ('surnom'
> in French) given to them by their associates.

I don't know, I think the nobility had family names back then.

> 1. Gryffindor
>
> I just figured out a few days ago that the name Gryffindor is a merger
> of GRUFFYDD (Griffith) and GLYNDWR (glendower). Both are Welsh names. (I
> posted that on hpa but no one responded).
>
> If he's Gruffydd Glyndwr rather than Godric Gryphon d'Or, then he's
> Welsh rather than Norman, which is much more suitable for someone
> founding a wizarding school in Britain circa 990 CE ('more than a
> thousand years ago'), considering that the Norman Conquest was 1066.

Yes, but if Welsh, where does Godric come from?  It sounds like a Saxon name
to me.  Maybe he's the son of a Welsh father (inheriting the Gryffindor
surname) and an English mother (who gave him an Anglo-Saxon first name).

> Ffor Gruffydd Glyndwr to have allowed his name to be changed to Godric
> Gryffindor, he must have been excessively tolerant of the Sassenachs who
> can't
> pronounce a decent language....

The Welsh call us Sais, not Sassenachs.  Although I think both words mean
"Saxon".



Jinx