JKR website - Quintaped

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 149713

Flop:
> I have never seen metal referred to as an element, but
> various other fantasy series that I have read have
> introduced a fifth element. Elizabeth Haydon has Ether
> as the fifth element, the substance her world's
> legends say the stars are made from. My personal
> favourite is in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, in
> which the fifth element is Spirit. Or how about the
> movie The Fifth Element, in which the fifth element
> was... Mila Jovovich.

Ceridwen:
In Chinese Feng Shui, there are five elements: Earth, Water, Wood, 
Fire, and Metal (not sure about the order, but the order counts).  
The Western system has four elements: Fire, Earth, Air and Water.  
Some New Age sites cite Ether as a fifth element or the 'center', the 
person himself, and some cite Spirit.

If there is any symbolism to the five-legged Quintaped, then maybe 
Hogwarts itself is the 'fifth', or the 'joining'?

Ceridwen.