Cultural clues to locations/origins

[blpurdom at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 22722

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., catherine at c... wrote:
  The school gates are flanked by winged pigs, the 
> symbolism of which currently eludes me, but because of this I was 
> assuming that the name Hogwarts preceded the name Hogsmeade.  Mead 
= an alcoholic drink made from fermented honey.   

Hogwarts probably did come before the village, just as many other 
villages around Europe grew up outside the walls of a castle 
originally built for protection.  The winged pigs made me laugh when 
I first read about them because I'm studying architecture, and I love 
visual jokes in architectural ornamentation.  I believe that these 
particular images are a way of labeling Hogwarts as a place where 
impossible things happen, as in the expression, "When pigs fly."

--Barb