Founders/Werewolf in F Forest/Firebolt/# of Students/Abomination/HP Birthday

[catlady_de_los_angeles]

No: HPFGUIDX 40558

Squeak!Pip wrote:

<< there was not just one native language in 10th Century Britain 
[Even today English is *not* the native language of the whole of the 
British Isles - though Welsh and Gaelic speakers do generally have 
English as their second language]. Languages included Anglo-Saxon, 
Old Danish (Northern England), Gaelic and the Welsh variant of Gaelic 
(now Welsh).>>

Darrin Burnett wrote:

<< Godric Gryffindor might be British, but Salazar Slytherin strikes 
me as Latin (maybe Moorish?) and Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena 
Ravenclaw need not necessarily be British. (Perhaps Hufflepuff is an 
English-izing of a good Germanic name.) >>

Ooh! An excuse to share my theory! But first I will be a nit-picking 
pain in the ass... the Welsh (Cymric) language is not a form of 
Gaelic (it IS a form of Celtic). Gaelic is from the Goidelic branch 
of the Celtic language family and Welsh is from the Brythonic branch. 
The two branches diverged a very long time ago and have something to 
do with the letters P and Q. Back in the time of the Founders, the 
term "British" could only apply to Brythonic speakers ("The 
subdivision of the Insular Celtic languages that includes Welsh, 
Breton, and Cornish", says dictionary.com), not to Gaels or Saxons. 
(This very patchwork language in which I am writing descended from 
Saxon.)

In MY theory, the founders come from the different ethnic groups that 
were on the island of Britain at that time (for the PC-ness that has 
been so recently criticised on list). Rowena is the Saxon (because 
'Rowena' is a Saxon name, okay? You can look it up on 
www.behindthename.com :"Latinized form of a Germanic name meaning 
"fame and joy" from hrod "fame" and wynn "joy". According to the 
12th-century chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth, this was the name of a 
daughter of the Saxon chief Hengist") and Helga is the Dane (it's a 
Scandinavian name), from the Danelaw, which is sort of around 
Yorkshire. 

I say Godric Gryffindor was the Welshman -- I say his orginal name 
was Gryffydd Glndwr, but as a very young man, he left home in search 
of adventure and joined up with a group of mercenaries who were 
mostly Saxons and just as unable to pronounce his Welsh name as I am, 
so they mangled it into something they *could* pronounce: Godric 
Gryffindor. This shows what a generally good-natured wizard he was, 
allowing them to call him a Saxon name (Godric). Gryffindor *does* 
sound like Norman for 'golden gryphon' -- I was told that the golden 
gryphon is just as much a Welsh national symbol as the red gryphon 
(which is on their flag), so that fits. And I found this site that 
says that there were Norman mercenaries in Britain before the 
Conquest, so it *can* be Norman.

(That site www.regia.org says "Regia Anglorum attempts to recreate a 
cross section of English life around the turn of the first 
millennium. Our actual self imposed brief is AD950 - 1066, although 
our events may sometimes be set a few decades either side of these 
dates. It was a time of great flux and change and, as all our public 
shows are 'datelined', we can demonstrate the changing fashions of 
the times. It was a time when Britain was host to many peoples - 
Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Danes, Norse, Cymry, Viking raiders and even a 
number of Norman mercenaries.")

The other ethnic group(s) that must be represented is the one(s) left 
out of that last sentence in the quote: the Scots and Picts, who 
occupied that other major country on the island, the one now called 
Scotland. The Picts were there first and the Scots arrived from 
Ireland as settlers starting in the sixth century. In the ninth 
century they were joined together as the Kingdom of the Scots and 
Picts (Kenneth MacAlpin 843 CE). Salazar *might* have been a Pict. 
Apparently not much is known about their origin, so maybe they were 
related to the Basques. See post #36995 by elirtai for possible 
Basque origin of the name Salazar. My other idea is that he was a 
Byzantine originally named Lazar-us but changed it to Sa-lazar to 
sound more salacious.

Debbie wrote:

<< I had thought it was just a rumor invented by the students to 
explain why the forest is forbidden. Draco is the first to mention 
it, in PS/SS ch. 15 ("We can't go in there at night--there's all 
sorts of things in there--werewolves, I've heard.") And in CoS ch. 
15, Ron raises the same concern ("Er--aren't there--aren't there 
supposed to be werewolves in the forest?"), but Harry responds, 
"There are good things in there too. . ." with the "too" suggesting 
that he also believes there are werewolves in the forest. It doesn't 
make sense that there would actually be werewolves in the forest. >>

Someone suggested that the rumor of werewolves in the Forbidden 
Forest was started by sightings of Moony and his 'near-misses' back 
in the 1970s! The rumor-believers, and Harry, might not understand 
that werewolves are only a danger -- only exist -- at Full Moon. That 
brilliant student Tom Riddle could make a wisecrack about Hagrid 
raising werewolf cubs under his bed (JKR,in an interview, explained 
that as "It was a lie") suggests that very few people in the 
wizarding world read all the way to the W's in FABULOUS BEASTS to 
reach the article on werewolves and learn that they are perfectly 
human the rest of each month.

Aesha wrote:

<< In my opinion, the moment that BartyJr. started crying and 
screaming to his daddy that he didn't do it, and so on and so 
forth- well, he denounced the Dark Lord. How is that loyal? >>

This is a forbidden "I agree" post.

Alexander wrote:

<< Reply may seem strange, but it's logical: Firebolt is NOT a 
sporting broom, it is a racing broom. But then... why did Irish team 
choose that stupid broom to use on Quidditch World Cup? >>

IIRC the Firebolt was *not* a stupid choice for Quidditch, as it is 
the most manuverable broomstick on the market. Manuverable: fastest 
response to rider's controls, narrowest turning radius, that kind of 
thing. I can see how a very, very fast racing broom would need fast 
responses. Ridden at a slower speed, that manuverability lets the 
Seeker plunge straight down to the Snitch and turn horizontal just 
skimming the top of the grass (while catching the Snitch on the 
ground), where a less manuverable broom would have had to turn 
horizontal sooner or else crash into the ground. 

Dave Haber Phoenix wrote:

<< for a total of 280 total students at Hogwarts, not a thousand as 
Gretchen mentioned in a thread about breakfast owls last week. >>

The novels depict approximately 280 students at Hogwarts, but JKR 
said in an interview that there are around 1000 students at Hogwarts. 
There is endless argument between the 'small Hogwarts' and 'large 
Hogwarts' believers, but someone supplied the BEST answer during one 
of our debates on what JKR means by Arithmancy: "4 (Houses) times 7 
(years) times 10 (students) = 1000. That Arithmancy is powerful 
magic!"

I say there have to be around 1000 Hogwarts-age children to maintain 
a wizarding population in Britain of around 20,000, which I estimate 
is the *absolute minimum* that can support, even with magic, the 
amount of wizarding economy that we see. If there are other wizarding 
schools in Britain, the other 720 students can be at the other 
schools. But JKR said, in another interview, that Hogwarts is the 
only wizarding school in the UK.

I have invented a complicated rationalization for how all this can be 
true! If the other two or three schools are officially considered to 
be branch campuses of Hogwarts, with their Headmasters (or would they 
only have Deputy Headmasters?) reporting to Dumbledore about very 
major things, then official Hogwarts (the Hogwarts coalition) would 
be the only wizarding school and it would have 1000 students. But 
really they are three or four different schools. The 'original 
campus' founded by the Founders continues to be called Hogwarts. The 
other campuses would be named something like the Hengist of Woodcroft 
Campus of Hogswarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and be called 
something like Woodcroft School.

Elkins wrote:

<< I also think that people tend to react so strongly to this 
sequence because it comes across as perverse, as an offense, a 
*Wrongness.* It is depicted as Abomination. >> 

You mentioned that one of the things that Voldemort violated in that 
scene is Religion, specifically Christian religion. As horrified 
reader, I didn't consciously notice the sex symbolism or family 
symbolism, but I was consciously quite shocked at the Blasphemy. I'm 
not even a Christian, but the Risen Voldemort surrounded by his 
Apostles, promising eternal life to those who have unshakeable faith 
in him, drinking blood.... ugh! 

Ronale7 wrote:

<< It's unlikely she accidentally picked this birthday for Harry. >>

JKR made Harry's birthday be July 31 because that is her own 
birthday, not because it is Lammas / Lughnasadh / August Eve. 

I wish the kids *did* have important birthdays. She said Hermione's 
birthday is September 19. In some years, 9/19 is Fall Equinox, does 
anyone know whether 1979 or 1980 was one of those years? She said 
Ron's birthday is March 1. I have terrible difficulty believing that 
-- he so much doesn't seem like a Pisces to me! Ron'd be a good 
Taurus; he could be born on May 1 / May Day / Beltane / Roodmas.