Location of Durmstrang and Durmstrang musings

[mlfrasher at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 33772

Christian Stubø wrote:

>That is known, but not all the FAQs are in a similar state of 
update.  I have myself postulated locations in Scandinavia or on the 
Kola peninsula (at the inner end of the Kandalaksa bay), and JKR has 
since that time (at a book-reading in Glasgow some eight months ago, 
IIRC, stated the location to probably been in the far North of Sweden 
or Norway.

I can't say I wasn't surprised about this.  When I read the FAQ, Latvia 
didn't seem right to me. 

 "Durmstrang" is an obvious derivative of a Germanic language roots, and 
since no part of Germany, past [Prussia] or present, has that kind of 
day/night conditions/mountains/cold, (the province of Schleswig-Holstein too 
flat, and the Teutons hung out in Poland for a while, but didn't go too far 
North) I thought farther up North would make more sense.  

Latvia does have roots with the Western Prussians, but this is through 
language, not direct occupation (Scandinavia, however was all over this 
area).  Latvian is part of the Indo-European family  - West Baltic and East 
Baltic are the Latvian family group, and West Baltic has a *distant* trace 
with Old Prussian, which according to the UCLA language web, has been extinct 
since the 1700s.  

But then thinking about these dates I thought that if the school was 
established before the 1700s (as Hogwarts was) then there would be a chance 
-- with both the occupation of the Scandinavian groups and the weak Old 
Prussian language connection.  The climate is right and the day/light factor. 
[Incidentally, having spent WAY too much time in Alaska in the winters I 
would not last in Durmstrang!  Walking outside in -40 below temps, is not 
fun!  I sympathize with these students...and it also made me think I'd turn 
to some DA real fast without sunlight....]

Having said all this, Scandinavia still made more sense because of the 
connection to the German language sounding name and the geography.  Also, the 
Nordic boat imagery was a nice touch.  I pictured a big Erik the Red kind of 
boat bringing the students to Hogwarts.

Just thought I'd ramble on my thoughts and wondered if this had occurred to 
anyone.  I don't think JKR researched the Baltics this indepth to come up 
with a name for the school though.....

A few other musings about Durmstrang:

I wonder if they sort them into houses like Hogwarts?  I got the impression 
it was DA focused.....headmaster a former DE and all....

If Krum was a Bulgarian, why go to school way up North?  No schools in the 
East?  I would think language might be a problem, as Bulgarian is the closest 
language cousin to Russian.  (His 'accent', although hard to tell in a 
paraphrased english text, and it sounds germanic.  I know there are others on 
this list who read HP in other languages, so I wonder how they translate an 
accent in Russian.  Alexander?  :)