Relative school-sizes (was Numbers (Re: The Scale of Things))

[pengolodh_sc]

No: HPFGUIDX 43335

--- In HPforGrownups, "jferer" wrote:
> Christian:"While this evidence is not rock-hard (i.e., it might
> only mean that back then there were other schools, of lesser
> standing than the three great, with these lesser schools having
> now disappeared), it does make it plausible and probable that
> there are more than three wizarding-schools in Europe."
> 
> Excellent point, thanks. it may well be, then, that there are
> more wizarding schools in Europe.  That's more likely, I
> believe, than Beauxbatons or Durmstrang being much larger
> schools than Hogwarts. I have no evidence of that, except
> that the 'three greatest wizarding schools in Europe' suggest
> an equivalency in most things.  Otherwise it would be like
> Fairfield University in Connecticut (4,000 students) fielding
> their best athletes against UCLA's (30,000 students) best 
> athletes.

Well, the thing is that what we know about Durmstrang does point 
towards it potentially being much larger than Hogwarts, if one 
assumes even distribution of wizards per European population.  The 
name Durmstrang does points towards a German language of instruction, 
but all we have seen (not much, admittedly) of students and staff 
point towards a recruitment among Slavic peoples in Europe.  Someone 
expressed a long time ago on this list the opinion that the names we 
see are atypical for Russia, so one might presume that Durmstrang 
does not recruit in Russia - I do not recall in what part of Europe 
it was said that names like Karkaroff and Poliarkoff were typical, 
though.  Still, the Slavic-speaking population in Europe outside 
Russia is close to three times that of English-speakers, and the 
population of German-speakers is almost 40% greater than that of 
English-speakers, so Durmstrang's area of recruitment potentially 
holds a wizarding-population 4 times that of Hogwarts.  Beauxbatons, 
in comparison, does not get too much larger than Hogwarts, even if 
you factor in Francophone Canada and Louisiana.

It is of course not a given that all non-Russian Slavic-speaking 
wizards-and-witches-to-be go to Durmstrang - it depends on when and 
why Durmstrang was founded.  One could theorise, for instance, that 
Durmstrang perhaps was founded in response to the Ottoman victories 
against the Byzantine Empire - as the Bysantine Empire lost more and 
more European territory (such as present-day Greece, Rumania, 
Bulgaria, etc.), wizards in those countries still not occupied might 
set up a school in exile, for children in the areas conquered by the 
Ottomans. Durmstrang would in that scenario only take students from 
the countries nearest Turkey, such as Bulgaria and Rumania, while 
students in countries like Poland, Hungary, Czecy, Slovakia would be 
taken care of partly by schools descending from the times of the 
Austrian and German empires, partly by new national schools set up 
following the collapse of those empires.

Best regards
Christian Stubø