Swedish Cockatrice, and the basilisk as a Tri-Wizard task

[evangelina839]

No: HPFGUIDX 79164

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Fred Uloth <prof_uloth at h...> wrote:
> I found this interesting, so I actually looked up the words
> Cockatrice (Latin in origin): a legendary serpent that is hatched by a 
> reptile from a cock's egg and that has a deadly glance 
> <http://webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=cockatrice>
> Basilisk (Greek in origin): a legendary reptile with fatal breath and 
> glance <http://webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=basilisk>
> 
> I found many references to them being the same thing. I'm just wondering 
> why DD wasn't aware that it was a basilisk running around Hogwarts in CoS. 
> I had always assumed that it was a very ancient animal that hadn't been 
> seen for centuries. It also seems odd to me that a basilisk would have been 
> one of the tri-wizard tasks.

Thank you so much, Fred! I was beginning to think there was a serious mistake made 
in the translition here, especially since I too found it odd that they would put a 
basilisk as one of the tasks. My impression of it from CoS was that it was something 
more rare and extremely dangerous and that the Parseltongues of the world alone 
stood any chance of surviving an encounter with it. How exactly would they organise 
such a tri-wiz task? Certainly not like the dragons; imagine all the champions 
stepping out to face their surprise opponent and dropping dead one by one. Did they 
inform the champions that they would have to fight a basilisk, then put blindfolds on 
them before letting them begin the fight? Then, what, hand them swords? And how 
exactly did the basilisk injure the judges (or if it was the champions)? Maybe one 
reading-inclined champ conjured a rooster and that's how the basilisk "went on the 
rampage". ;)

Also, was it common knowledge among all you English-speaking folk that a 
cockatrice and a basilisk were the same animal? This is more than a little bit 
confusing.

evangelina