Quirrel and Scandinavia?

[Berit Jakobsen]

No: HPFGUIDX 88026

Carol wrote:
> 
> Obviously you've researched this more than I have, but I still think
> the area above St. Petersburg is a valid possible location for
> Durmstrang. Like the Murmansk Peninsula, it's in Russia, is farther
> north than Britain with long winter nights and all the other
> Durmstrang attributes, and has both mountains and *very large* 
lakes,
> not small ones like those yoou mention on the Murmansk Peninsula. 
The
> St. Petersburg area is also somewhat closer than the peninsula to 
the
> Slavic countries (Krum's home country of Bulgaria, for one). Anyway,
> you and I agree that Durmstrang could be in Russia rather than
> Scandinavia. I'm not arguing that you're wrong, just suggesting that
> the slightly more southern location should be considered as a 
possible
> location for Durmstrang. Too far north and there are no towns or
> settlements at all--it's just too cold even for wizarding villages. 
> 
> I'll yield to anyone who shows me the passage quoting JKR as stating
> that Durmstrang is in Scandinavia. Till then, I agree with you that
> it's probably in Russia, but hidden from Muggle eyes through a spell
> rather than through a location so far north that a student from
> Bulgaria like Krum would find the cold unbearable.

Berit replies:

I just thought of something: The Durmstrang ship seems to be a tall 
ship with riggings, mast(s?), deck and portholes. Sounds like a 
seafaring ship to me, not just a boat built for sailing on inland 
lakes. I know that the Durmstrang ship seems to have travelled under 
water by magic rather than travelling the Muggle way on the sea 
surface, but still; the choice of transport probably is a clue as to 
where Durmstrang is located. My guess is that the use of a tall ship 
suggests Durmstrang is located in an area close to the sea/ocean. Not 
sitting on an inland lake, but on the sea-coast. Looking at a map of 
Russia, this could still include the area around St.Petersburg as it 
is (just) north of Scotland, and there's quite a lot of coastline 
going from St.Petersburg to the Finnish border in the north-west. The 
only problem with Durmstrang being located along this sea coastline 
is that the winter days wouldn't be much shorter than the Scottish 
ones because this area is not considerably further north than 
Scotland. In that respect not only the Murmansk area but the whole 
coastline from Murmansk in the norhtwest to Archangel'sk in the east 
looks considerably more promising... There's hundreds and hundreds of 
kilometres of coastline up there, and so dark in the winter there is 
no daylight at all; the closest you get is a greyish dusk; the sun 
doesn't even rise for several months... And by the way; it's not too 
cold for people to live there; they do, it's just sparsely populated 
(and Krum and his fellow students can bear the cold because they 
dress in cloaks of fur; GoF p. 217 UK Ed.). And I have no problem 
imagining a school specializing in Dark Magic prefering such a 
location :-)

Berit