Where do the wizards live?

[rcraigharman at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 22909

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., dfrankiswork at n... wrote:
> "Rachelle Elliott" <relliott at j...> wrote:
> 
> >In GoF (Bagman and Crouch Chapter), Mr. Crouch stated that he has
> >been very busy organizing portkeys across 5 continents.  Well,
> >there are 7 continents total in the world.  What two continents
> >are wizard free or not invited to The Quidditch World Cup?  I was
> >thinking Antarctica (for sure) and ?????
> 
> Traditionally, the five continents were: Europe, Asia, Africa,
> America, and Australasia.  

Nitpick: even traditionally, it would have been Australia, not
Australasia.

And, of course, the fact that Crouch was organizing portkeys across
5 continents does not imply that the wizarding world only extends
to five continents.  **It's quite possible that a continent simply
didn't have any qualifying Quidditch teams.**

And for those talking about the five continents symbolized by the
Olympic rings, the IOC does not specify these per se, but the USOC
website states: "The Olympic Rings were created by Baron Pierre de 
Coubertin in 1913 and first displayed on the Olympic Flag in 1920. 
The Olympic symbol of five interlocked rings represents the five 
original continents: Africa, America (North & South), Asia,
Australia, Europe."  [commas added]


> David, trying to remember which the seven seas were

Well, this one's more disputable.  The term generally applies to
all the world's oceans.  A link concerning all the disparate meanings
this term has had can be found at:

http://www.graphicmaps.com/aatlas/infopage/sevensea.htm

The simplest explanation for the disparity is the fact that seven
is seen as having numerological significance for many cultures, so
that "Seven Seas" comes up time and again, despite having different
signifieds.

The same hold true for "seven hills".  Consider the seven hills of
Rome (Palatine, Aventine, Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline,
and Caelian), Bonn (die Siebengebirge), Paris (Montmartre,
Montparnasse, Montsouris, Ménilmontant, Chaillot, la Butte-aux-
Cailles, and Champ-l'Evêque), Istanbul, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro,
Saint Etienne (France), Bergen (Norway), Plovdiv (Bulgaria),
and on and on.

Heck, even Rome, Georgia (USA) has seven hills: Tower Hill, Old
Shorter Hill, Lumpkin Hill, Blossom Hill, Jackson Hill, Mt. Aventine,
and Myrtle Hill.  Everywhere you look people claim their cities have
seven hills, and that their country/landmass's seas are THE seven
seas.  :^)

....Craig