Side note: St.Mungos

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 79406

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "mochajava13" <mochajava13 at y...>
wrote:
> Geoff:
> > St.Mungo was leader of a 6th century ecclesiatical community on
> > the site of the present day Glasgow and is considered to be the 
> > city's founder.
> 
> 
> But still, why would wizards name a hospital after a religious
> figure? The ones that do that here in the US are usually connected 
> to a church of some sort.  

bboy_mn:
If you look at my post on St Mungo's you will see several references
to organizations named 'St. Mungo's'; many churches, charity
organizations,  museums, etc...
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/79363

Typing 'St Mungo' into a search engine (Google) brings up 38,500 matches. 

So, I think this is just another case of JKR providing things that are
familiar to us. She uses a lot of muggle world icons and stereotypes,
and she uses alot of magical/wizard/witch icons and stereotypes, to
give us points of reference, and points of comfortable familiarity in
her writing. Since St. Mungo's seems a very common institutional name
in Britian, I think this just another point of familiarity, as well as
a bit of a subtle joke on her part. 



> Plus, St. Mungo's is in London.  My geography of Britain isn't too
> good anymore, but isn't Glasgow nowhere near London?  Just curious 
> about it!

bboy_mn:
No, London is in England, and Glasgow is in Scotland. Glasgow and
Edinburgh, Scotland are roughly equally far north, and both located in
 somewhat southern Scotland, but Edinburgh in on the East coast (North
Sea), and Glasgow is on the West coast (Firth of Clyde; near the North
Channel of the Irish Sea).

For maps, see...
http://www.homestead.com/BlueMoonMarket/Files/Hogwarts/hogwarts1.htm

Just a thought.

bboy_mn