Discussion: Sorting Hat, Founders, and the Hogwarts Houses

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 26285

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Genevieve Pratt" <jheen at m...> wrote:

> 9)  What do you think the reasons are for the colors and animals of
> the different houses? You can choose to answer this either from
> JKR's perspective (i.e. the mythological reasons) or from the 
> Founders (like Slytherin being a Parselmouth.)

>From the mythological view, the colors and animals of the Houses go 
well with the Element that goes with their main trait. Element as in 
the ancient Greek and medieval and alchemical theory that everything 
is made of Four Elements: Fire, Air, Water, and Earth.

Gryffindor - Fire - red - lion - courage, dedication, passion - the 
bad side of those traits would be bad-temper, arrogance, and 
recklessness.

Ravenclaw - Air - blue - eagle - intellect - the bad side would be 
being a dreamer, the 'absent minded professor' stereotype, or being
cruel/evil just because it seems logical..  

Hufflepuff - Earth - yellow - badger - patience, strength, slowness - 
the bad side would be laziness, gluttony, being stuck in habits,
and stupidity.

Slytherin - Green - water - serpent - the attributes are a little 
messed up here by the story's need to have one-quarter of Hogwarts be 
evil.

For example, if I were going to assign ambition to one Element, I
would choose Fire rather than Water. I normally would assign Water
traits like intuition, psychic knowledge, emotional, nurturing, 
flexible, with downsides like moodiness, irrationality/unrealism,
and flexiblity can all  too easily become dishonesty. That is where
the Element of Water connects to Slytherin House: the deviousness
with which they pursue their goals ("Those cunning folks use any
means  To achieve their ends.") is like the way water can take the 
shape of any container and sneak out through the SMALLEST hole. I 
argue that it is not actually absurd to connect nurturing to 
Slytherin House: I believe they help Each Other out: "Or perhaps in 
Slytherin You'll make your real friends, " -- Real Friends!

I think that if the beasts were assigned for personal reasons,
Gryffindor would have a gryphon and Ravenclaw would have
a raven.

It is my theory that Godric Gryffindor was really a Welshman named 
Gryffydd Glyndwr, who went off to seek adventure, first becoming a 
mercenary with Saxon colleagues who couldn't pronounce his name, so 
they called him Godric Gryphon d'Or (golden griffin), which he 
accepted because the symbol of Wales (as seen on their flag) is 
called a Gryphon altho' IIRC it is really a Dragon. And then he went 
to be a pirate with some Vikings, and met up with Danes living in 
Northeastern England (the Danelaw) and married one of them: Helga 
Hufflepuff.

I theorize that Helga was a 'Dane' only because her name sounds 
Scandinavian. And that she was blonde only by my hunch.

And I theorize that Rowena Ravenclaw was a Saxon because the 
character in IVANHOE named Rowena was a Saxon, and that she had red 
hair because rowans are red, and that she was a raven Animagus only 
because of her nickname. Altho' I have seen a baby name book that 
said that Rowena comes from the Welsh name Rhonwen meaing 'fair hair'.

And once again Slytherin is the problem. Wouldn't all Scots just love 
me if I suggested that old Salazar was a Scot just because that was 
the other major ethnic group of the island at that time!

Dai objected to my theory. 
Dai posted: In GoF the Sorting Hat describes Godric Gryffindor as 
being from 'Wild moor.' it is unlikely he came from Wales (we don't 
have any moors). Hufflepuff seems to have Wales covered as she came 
from 'Valley Broad', somewhat stereotypically Welsh. Ravenclaw is 
said to come from 'glen', ie Scotland, and Slytherin from 'fen' ie 
the north of England. That leaves the South of England for Gryffindor 
to cover, Dartmoor in Devon perhaps?  

Me: I'll allow as how Godric actually IS a Saxon name, but since when 
is Helga a Welsh name?