Durmstrang. Voldemort and the Scholomance

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 167872

---  "Eric Oppen" <technomad at ...> wrote:
>
> I was rereading _Dracula,_ and it mentioned that Count
> Dracula, when alive, had attended something called the 
>"Scholomance."  Wikipedia says that it's a legendary 
> school of dark magic, near Sibiu in Romania, attended 
> by ten scholars at a time, ...
> 
> I wonder if JKR was thinking of this legendary school
> when she created Durmstrang?  ...
> 

bboyminn:

Note that after much research and consulting of maps, I
have determined that Durmstrang is in the Kola Peninsula
of Russia, right next to Finland.

http://bluemoonmarket.homestead.com/files/murmansk/pg1.htm

To see my other maps, go to the LINKS section in this 
group and look under "Speculative Geography', then look
for location titles starting with 'Where in the World...'.

>Eric Oppen:
>
> ..., could Voldemort have attended after leaving 
> Hogwarts?  It does sound like a Muggle distorted 
> version of an advanced Dark Arts-only school that 
> only lets in a few of the most dedicated Dark Artists
> at a time.  And if he did attend---what happened to 
> his schoolmates?
>

bboyminn:

Two points, first Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons
are the THREE LARGEST wizarding schools in Europe, it
doesn't say they are the ONLY wizarding schools.

I have always speculated that the wizarding schools
broke from the tradition of Master/Apprentice wizard
training. It was very innovative to gather all the 
magical children into one protected place rather than
teach them in small groups, at the local castle of
individual wizards. There is an element of risk in
doing this since whole generations of wizards are
gathered in one place and are therefore vulnerable to
attack. But it offered the advantage of making sure 
all wizards were equally and correctly trained. I 
suspect that most Master Wizards willing to train
Apprentices had to wander the country side hoping
to stumble across of potential wizard they could
invite into an apprenticeship. Not a very efficient
method, and I suspect many potential wizards and
witches went /unfound/. 

I suspect other wizards, especially in smaller more
traditional countries, continued on with the small
school Master/Apprentice training. Therefore there
could very well be many smaller schools scattered 
around Europe for training wizards.

So, yes, Voldemort might have gone to the small
Dark Arts School in Romania.

Steve/bboyminn