Durmstrang-location; HeidiT; Ice-swimming

[pengolodh_sc at yahoo.no]

No: HPFGUIDX 24956

Ahh...  School-locations - a favourite of mine.

I'll start with swimming, however.  Beeing Norwegian myself, I echo 
the sentiments of Bente and hannata (messages included below; I 
didn't find a name for hannata, although I did search), and add 
this:  I come from Lofoten, which is far to the North.  We have here 
a beach which this summer was named the best beach in norway.  Water-
temperature ranges between 4 degrees centigrade and 12 degrees 
centgrade in the summer.  People still go swimming.  While I have no 
factual numbers, it does not seem unreasonable to me that the water-
temperatures in the lake during winter are comparable.  And at any 
rate, there surely must be some charms to keep you warm?  Also, Krum 
was practising for the second task, and may have already brough in 
the transfiguration-trick (with the shark's head), and that may have 
made him partially immune to the cold temperatures.

Regarding school-locations, JKR did a book-reading in Glasgow 
sometime last autumn, where she stated that she thought Beauxbatons 
was in Southern France, while Durmstrang was in the rather extreme 
North of Norway or Sweden.  She went on to add that she wasn't quite 
certain, because these schools were so very secretive about their 
location.  Myself, I had a brilliantly argued theory about Durmstrang 
being located near Kandalaksa, a city on the Southern coast of the 
Kola-peninsula,  towards the White Sea.  My theory is thoroughly laid 
out at message 20286, ( 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/20286 ; you may 
have to cut&paste to get the correct link) which also contains links 
to previous messages by me on the subject (the first one made around 
the end of November last year).  The city of Kandalaksa is on a 
similar latitude to the Northern parts of Norway and Sweden.  
Kandalaksa is also in European Russia.

The school needs not be close to Bulgaria for Krum to be part of the 
Bulgarian team; Norway has or has had professional female soccer-
players playing on Japanese and American teams; this has not 
prevented them from participating on the Norwegian national team, 
although they have access only to modes of transport that are far 
less convenient and far more tiring that those of wizards.

Heidi Tandy, could you send me a mail offlist, please?

Best regards
Christian Stubø

--- In HPforGrownups, Bente wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups, hannata wrote:
> 
> > >Then we are told how awkward Krum looks while walking.  Not to
> > >mention his swimming in that freezing lake in January.  Normal 
> > >people can't swim in water like that.
> > 
> > OK, I'm from Finland and that is not normal, but I really do have
> > to tell this "truth" about swimming in January. We actually do
> > swim winters, we just make this hole in the ice and there we go..
> > I don't believe that the water is really freezing in Scotland in
> > January, while our lakes are really frozen..
> > 
> > What becomes to the names Durmstrang, Igor Karkakoff, Viktor Krum
> > and  so on, they mind sound like german, but I think that they may
> > come from a really large area.. but let's face it. Krum plays
> > quiddich in Bulgarian team, which means, that the school has to be
> > close to Bulgaria (like Hogwarts is school for Irish and British 
> > wizardstudents, might Durmstrang be shcool for several countries 
> > wizardstudent).
> 
> I'm from Norway, and I have to agree about the whole swimming in 
> winter thing. It's done, all over Scandinavia, and people don't
> seem to suffer in the least for it. Krum probably spends most of
> his time  in a climate that's much colder than that of Scotland.
> My thinking  has always been that Durmstrang is located somewhere
> on the northern  coast, hence the ship the Durmstrang students
> arrived in. The Black  Sea would work, I suppose, but it's more
> likely to be somewhere much  colder. If it was inland, the ship
> wouldn't make much sense though, would it? According to the
> students' names, Durmstrang seems to be a school for wizards of
> Slavic distraction, anyway. 
> 
> Bente