Origins of the Founders (British Geography input needed) (No OOP at all)

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 67117

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Penny Linsenmayer" 
<pennylin at s...> wrote:
<Snip>
> > > In GoF the Sorting Hat describes Godric Gryffindor as being
> > > from 'Wild moor.' it is unlikely he came from Wales (we don't 
> 
> > > have any moors). 
> 
> Every website I'm seeing says that the moor lands are 
> concentrated in Yorkshire (duh), Wales, Cumbria and Dartmoor.  
> 
> So, does Wales have moors or not?  

As far as I'm aware, Wales is completely moor free. It contains 
hills, mountains, and valleys between the hills and the mountains. 
What it doesn't have is the long, large section of high ground that 
becomes a 'moor'. I don't remember *anywhere* in Wales that would be 
called a 'moor'. 

Possibly the websites are confusing the description of moor as high 
ground with an oversupply of mountains/high hills. Moors are high-
but-flat. The Yorkshire moors look like mile upon mile of cold, 
windy, heather covered prarie. The Welsh Brecon Beacons, on the 
other hand, are high-and-distinctly-bumpy. They are not moors.

Penny:
> Hufflepuff seems to have Wales covered as she came
> > > from 'Valley Broad', somewhat stereotypically Welsh.>>>
> Even if that is stereotypically Welsh, are there not other areas 
> of the UK with broad valleys?  
> > 

Somebody Welsh could say that they are 'from the Valley's, yes. On 
the other hand, Hufflepuff could also be from Neville Longbottom's 
neck of the woods, ie North West England, probably Lancashire or 
Derbyshire. 'Long bottom' actually means Long Valley in dialect. 

There is a village called Broadbottom in Derbyshire. That would 
translate as 'Broad Valley.'


Penny:
> Ravenclaw from glen does suggest to *me* anyway that she 
> hailed from Scotland.

Glen is also Irish, so Rowena could be either Scottish or Irish.

> Penny:
> At the time of these discussions earlier, Neil came up with a 
> theory that the fen origin of Slytherin might be referring to     
> Ireland:

Or Norfolk/Cambridgeshire, which is famous for its Fens.

> So, if you say that Slytherin came from Ireland, Ravenclaw from 
> Scotland .........and you assume that the four houses are meant to 
> correspond with England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland (which may 
> be a faulty assumption in and of itself), is there really no way 
to 
> associate Gryffindor with Wales?  I'm thinking the moors could 
> very definitely be in Wales from what I'm reading, and I can't 
> imagine that England is completely without an area fitting the 
> description "valley broad."  
> Penny

Umm.. many may be unaware that Cornwall, which quite definitely has 
moors, was the last bastion of Celtic England. The Cornish are 
Celts. Cornish, Gaelic, Irish and Welsh (and Breton) are members of 
the same language group.  It may be that the Four Founders don't 
represent modern England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales as much as 
they represent Celt, Dane, Anglo-Saxon and Scot - the four peoples 
who made up pre-Norman Britain. 

Pip!Squeak