My take on the Half-blood Prince

[ericoppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 105494

One thing that I haven't seen (pardon me if this has come up; my e-
mail is slightly on-the-fritz, so I'm a bit behind on this group) is 
the possibility that the Half-Blood Prince might be Viktor Krum.

Krum's last name itself provides a clue---it is the name of the Khan 
whose Turkic people founded the Bulgarian nation.  They were absorbed 
by their Slavic-speaking subjects, but retained the name and 
continued to identify in many ways with the original, non-Slavic 
Bulgars.  

AFAIK modern Bulgarian names mostly sound pretty Slavic, and I don't 
think I've ever heard of a modern Bulgarian named "Krum" (however, I 
am not an expert on this, nor do I play one on TV, so I'm open to 
correction) and we know that Herself doesn't pick names at random.  
Hence, calling a Bulgarian character by the name of a half-legendary 
prince, founder of his nation, that is not used in contemporary 
Bulgaria ought to be a big fat Clue.  

We also know nothing about Viktor Krum's ancestry---it would be a 
hoot if he _was_ descended from Bulgarian royalty somehow, wouldn't 
it?  For that matter, we don't know that non-British wizards worry 
too much about blood purity---for all we know, they might take the 
position that "if you can cast spells/do magic, you're a wizard; if 
not, you're a (you should pardon the expression) _Muggle!_"  Wouldn't 
it be a hoot and a half if Draco got his wish to transfer to 
Durmstrang and found out that everybody there thought his obsession 
with wizard-blood purity was a bit stupid?  "You're so proud of your 
ancestors, Malfoy, you remind me of a potato---the best parts are 
underground!"