[HPforGrownups] Off With Their Heads :) or The Headless Horseman Wannabe

[Jordan Abel]

No: HPFGUIDX 167904

> Goddlefrood:
>
> The King and Queen mentioned may
> have influenced this, but they certainly did not produce the
> Papal Bull, not being Popes themselves :).

Random832:
Except in discordianism.

> Goddlefrood:
> There may be further significance in the year, but what it also
> does go to show is another example of JK not doing her sums
> properly. For Nick to have celebrated his five hundredth Death
> day party on 31st October 1992 he must have been nearly beheaded
> on or around 20th October 1492 (you do the maths ;))

Random832:
You have it rather backwards - the commonly-used 1992 date is derived
chiefly from his five-hundredth deathday of having been beheaded in
the explicitly-stated 1492.

> Goddlefrood:
> due to the
> anomaly of the change over in the British Isles (barring one
> small community in Wales that retains the Julian Calendar to this
> day, and who would like a bet that JK does not also know this ;))

Random832:
I'd like to hear more about this.

> Goddlefrood:
> from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar. Well, none of
> you can say I didn't warn you about this ;). This changeover, of
> course, occurred in September 1752.

Random832:
Not that it'd have made a difference for the purpose of comparing 1492
and 1992 if it was so early as 1582 (most roman catholic states) or so
late as 1923 (greece). There's hardly an anomaly peculiar to britain
here.

Anyway, there's no particular reason to suppose that Sir Nicholas
didn't have a "short" year sometime between 1582 and 1923, celebrating
his deathday on the same calendar date between oldstyle and newstyle.

Or perhaps the WW uses a still different calendar, one which would
have to be only 364 days long in order for September 1st to fall on a
monday each year. If you want examples of JKR Bad Maths, you need look
no further than that.

> Goddlefrood:
> At that time wizards and witches, acording to the boundaries set
> up in canon, still lived amongst Muggles. The Statute of Secrecy
> did not take effect for a further two hundred years.

Random832:
Ah, but, you see, it's not actually in evidence that wizards did live
openly among muggles. We certainly had copyright law in most countries
before the Berne Convention was ever passed, and while the Geneva
Convention currently in effect is from 1949 (as amended 1977, 2005),
the first passed in 1864. Just because the international statute of
secrecy per se passed in 1692 does not mean wizards were not largely
separated from muggle society long before that.

--Random832