The female founders and Latin

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 40196

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., yaoifreak14 at y... wrote:
> Hello, my name is Tessy and I am new on this list. I
> scanned a few messages and the various FAQs on the
> web site, but I couldn't find the answer to my question.
> 
Hi Tessy!

> I have spent the last few days thinking about the four
> founders, particularly about the two women Rowena and
> Helga. My first question is: Is there anything
> stated, when Hogwarts was founded? I assumed that it was
> somewhere around 100 AD or something. 

In CoS p. 114 Ch. 9 (UK paperback) Professor Binns tells the students 
that Hogwarts was founded 'over a thousand years ago - the precise 
date is uncertain.' So that would place it 10th or 11th Century, not 
1st or 2nd. 

There may be a joke here for English readers, who traditionally start 
history with general stuff about the Egyptians, the Romans, and for 
some reason only known to history teachers, the three-field system of 
agriculture. We only start actual 'dates' with the Norman Invasion of 
England - 1066. 1066 is practically the only date the average English 
non-history-specialist is at all certain of. :-)


>So how did Helga and Rowena learn Latin? [Snip about 1st Century]

Still pretty unusual for women in the 10th and 11th Century, but not 
unknown. Latin speaking women tended to be nuns, and some of their 
writings have survived to this day - as witches were also 
an 'educated' class, they would have had to learn the language of 
international scholarship - Latin.

Pip (who would like to salute the 10th Century nun Hroswitha of 
Gandersheim, first known woman playwright, who wrote in Latin, and 
would probably have got on very well with Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga 
Hufflepuff)