Quirrel and Scandinavia?

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 87570

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Berit Jakobsen" <belijako at o...>
wrote:
> bboy_mn wrote:
> 
> > JKR said in an interview that Durmstrang is in Scandinavia. 
> >
> >...European/Scandinavian maps ... a very  large sparsely inhabited 
> >Russian peninsula to the north east of Finland. ...the largest city
> > ... 'Murmansk'
> >
> > ...eidted...
> > 
> > I guess my point here is the despite being in such close proximity
> > to Scandinavia, and generally considered in the Scandinavian 
> > region, this Russian peninsula that I speculate is the location of
> > Durmstrang.
> 
> Berit replies:
> 
> Actually, I didn't know Rowling said in an interview that Durmstrang 
> is located in Scandinavia. Do you have the exact quote? I'm also a 
> bit hesitant of including the Russian peninsula and Murmansk among 
> the Scandinavian countries. According to my knowledge no part of 
> Russia has ever been considered Scandinavian.
> 
> ...eidted...
> 
> I still find it very odd that Durmstrang's in Norway or Sweden. Both 
> the name of the school (German-sounding) and the name of its 
> students (Slavic-sounding) are very foreign to the Scandinavian 
> language. Well  well...
> 
> Berit

bboy_mn:

I will admit that my point was somewhat lost amid my scattered and
jumbled thoughts, but the point was the Murmansk Peninsula of Russia
while not technically a Scandinavian country; it is without a doubt in
the Scandinavian region far more than it is in the European region. I
mean, it touches Norway and Finland in the north, and completely
borders Finland in the west, that's about as deep in the Scandinavian
region as you can get, and equally far from what is traditionally
considered Europe. Remember we can be talking about Russia in a
discussion of Asian just as easily as we can talk about it being in
Europe. It's a big diverse country. 

To refer to the Murmansk Peninsula as Europe may be technically
correct, but it does not fit people's standard view of what
constitutes Europe. For the most part, we have found in our past
discussions that most people don't even know that the place exists. To
most people, Russia is either Eastern Europe or Siberia, both of which
do not fit the available information. 

As to the interview, I am at my mother's house on a terribly slow
modem connection. When I get home I will look it up, but it has been
discussed many times here before. If you search for past Durmstrang
locations discussions you are certain to find a link to it.


In a few days, I'll be at home on my own computer with my ever ever
ever so nice DSL connection, and I'm sure I can be more help then.

Happy Holidays to all.

bboy_mn