The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter Read online

  Some of J. K. Rowling’s Animagi:

  Minerva McGonagall can be a cat.

  James Potter became a stag, leading to his nickname, “Prongs.”

  Peter Pettigrew, “Wormtail,” disguised himself as Ron’s pet rat, Scabbers.

  is the source of the Protean Charm used by Hermione in Phoenix. In keeping with the high status of Proteus in mythology, the Proteus Charm is advanced magic, not something even a fifth-year Hogwarts student would normally know. The other students are impressed.

  DUELING ANIMAGI

  This sort of rapid-fire shape-shifting was remembered by the author T. H. White, whose novel The Sword in the Stone retells the legend of young King Arthur and his tutor, Merlin (spelled “Merlyn” by White). Merlin battles another sorcerer, Madame Mim, in one of the most imaginative duels in literature:

  The object of the wizard in the duel was to turn himself into some kind of animal, vegetable or mineral which would destroy

  the particular animal, vegetable or mineral that had been selected by his opponent. Sometimes it went on for hours . . .

  At the first gong Madame Mim immediately turned herself into a dragon. It was the accepted opening move and Merlyn ought to have replied by being a thunderstorm or something like that. Instead, he caused a great deal of preliminary confusion by becoming a field mouse, which was quite invisible in the grass, and nibbled Madame Mim’s tail, as she stared about in all directions, for about five minutes before she noticed him. But when she did notice the nibbling, she was a furious cat in two flicks.

  Wart [Arthur] held his breath to see what the mouse would become next—he thought perhaps a tiger that could kill the cat—but Merlyn merely became another cat. He stood opposite her and made faces. This most irregular procedure put Madame Mim quite out of her stride, and it took her more than a minute to regain her bearings and become a dog. Even as she became it, Merlyn was another dog standing opposite her, of the same sort.Some Animagi (cont.)

  Sirius Black, whose name means “black dog,” can be one.

  Rita Skeeter can become a beetle.

  T. H. White’s Merlyn also changed Arthur into animals, to teach him each animal’s skills.

  “Oh, well played, sir!” cried the Wart, beginning to see the plan.

  Madame Mim was furious . . . She had better alter her own tactics and give Merlyn a surprise . . .

  She had decided to try a new tack by leaving the offensive to Merlyn, beginning by assuming a defensive shape herself. She turned into a spreading oak.

  Merlyn stood baffled under the oak for a few seconds. Then he most cheekily—and, as it turned out, rashly—became a powdery little blue-tit, which flew up and sat perkily on Madame Mim’s branches. You could see the oak boiling with

  indignation for a moment; but then its rage became icy cold, and the poor little blue-tit was sitting, not on an oak, but on a snake. The snake’s mouth was open, and the bird was actually perching on its jaws. As the jaws clashed together, but only in the nick of time, the bird whizzed off as a gnat into the safe air. Madame Mim had got it on the run, however, and the speed of the contest now became bewildering. The quicker the attacker could assume a form, the less time the fugitive had to think of a form that would elude it, and now the changes were as quick as thought.

  The battle ends when Madame Mim changes herself into an aullay, an animal that looks like an enormously large horse with the trunk of an elephant. She charges at Merlyn, but he simply disappears. Suddenly,

  ... strange things began to happen. The aullay got hiccoughs, turned red, swelled visibly, began whooping, came out in spots, staggered three times, rolled its eyes, fell rumbling to the ground. It groaned, kicked and said Farewell . . .

  The ingenious magician had turnedThe duel in The Sword in the Stone was inspired by the Welsh legend of Cerridwen and Taliesen. (See page 53)

  J. K. Rowling says one’s personality is a factor in determining what animal one can become. She once said that she would like to transform herself into an otter, as it is her favorite animal. As we learn in Phoenix, that is the shape of Hermione’s Patronus. No surprise there, because Rowling has said Hermione is a lot like her.

  himself successively into the microbes, not yet discovered, of hiccoughs, scarlet fever, mumps, whooping cough, measles and heat spots, and from a complication of all these complaints the infamous Madame Mim had immediately expired.

  ROWLING’S RULES

  A great difference between Rowling’s world and that of other authors is the restriction on Animagi. According to Rowling, this ability is highly regulated by the Ministry of Magic, which keeps track of wizards with this skill. In most other fictional worlds, wizards are capable of becoming any animal they please.

  Perhaps Rowling is aware of the risks of taking animal form. In Quidditch Through the Ages she warns, “The witch or wizard who finds him- or herself transfigured into a bat may take to the air, but, having a bat’s brain, they are sure to forget where they want to go the moment they take flight.” Another famous writer, Ursula K. Le Guin, describes in a story titled A Wizard of Earthsea what can happen to wizards who aren’t careful:

  As a boy, Ogion like all boys had thought it would be a very pleasant game to take by art-magic whatever shape one liked, man or beast, tree or cloud, and so to play at a thousand beings. But as a wizard he had learned the price of the game, which is the peril of losing one’s self, playing away the truth. The longer a man stays in a form not his own, the greater this peril. Every prentice-sorcerer learns the tale of the wizard Bordger of Way, who delighted in taking bear’s shape, and did so more and more often until the bear grew in him and the man died away, and he became a bear, and killed his own little son in the forests, and was hunted down and slain. And no one knows how many of the dolphins that leap in the waters of the Inmost Sea were men once, wise men, who forgot their wisdom and their name in the joy of the restless sea.

  Odin, the chief god of Norse mythology, is a sorcerer who often changes into animals. Zeus, the chief god of Greek mythology, does the same in many legends.

  This is just the sort of risk that Harry, who often pushes himself beyond ordinary boundaries, might be expected to face. But J. K. Rowling says Harry will not become an Animagus as his father and godfather did. The training takes too much time, and he is too busy fighting Voldemort.

  A BUG’S LIFE

  In Phoenix, Rowling introduces a new kind of shape-shifter, Nymphadora Tonks, who is a “Metamorphmagus.” Rowling invented that word in the same way as “Animagus.” She combined “magus” with “metamorphosis,” which means the same in English as in ancient Greek:

  to change or transform.

  Nymphadora’s name refers to the same idea. At first glance, it may remind readers of nymphs, the young female nature spirits in Greek mythology. And just as Nymphadora Tonks’s mother is named Andromeda, the Greek nymphs are linked to a mythological Andromeda. That character, a princess, was

  See also: Black, Sirius McGonagall, Minerva

  punished severely by the sea god, Poseidon, when her mother said she was as beautiful as the sea nymphs. However, there’s more to the name Nymphadora. The original Greek word nymph referred to young brides who had just changed from one stage of life to another. Later it was used by scientists to describe insects going through the process of changing their shape.

  Is “Avada Kedavra” a Real Curse?

  IN HARRY’S WORLD, THIS IS THE KILLING curse, the worst of the three Unforgivable Curses, any of which can bring a life term in Azkaban for a wizard who uses it against another human. It is the curse that Lord Voldemort used to kill Harry’s parents, the one with which he tried to kill Harry, and, sadly, the fatal blow to Cedric Diggory. Harry is the only person known to survive it.

  Although J. K. Rowling invents most of her spells and curses entirely from her imagination, the Avada Kedavra curse derives from a phrase in an ancient Middle Eastern language called Aramaic. Abhadda kedhabhra means “disappear like this word.” It was use
d by ancient wizards to make illnesses disappear. However, there’s no proof it was ever used to kill anyone.

  The phrase is one likely origin of the magical word abracadabra. Now just part of a magician’s entertaining chatter, that word was once used by doctors. Quintus Serenus Sammonicus, a Roman physician who lived about A.D. 200, used it as a spell to make fever vanish. According to his prescription, it was to be written eleven times on a piece of paper, with one letter “disappearing” each time:

  A phony legend says Egyptian King Tutankhamen’s tomb was carved with this curse: “Death will come on swift wings to whoever disturbs the pharaoh.” It was invented by a newspaper when one of the discoverers died soon after the tomb was opened.

  In most cases, a charm is a bit of temporary magic that can be good or bad; a jinx will bring bad luck, but nothing serious; curses and hexes involve evil; and spells are serious magic that last a long time.

  See also: Latin

  The paper was to be tied around the patient’s neck with flax for nine days, then tossed over the shoulder into a stream running to the east. When the water dissolved the words, the fever would disappear. The popularity of this cure grew in the centuries after Sammonicus, and it was even used to make the Black Death disappear. Clever readers will notice that this remedy, if it does nothing else, lets time pass. Because many diseases run their course naturally in a week or two, the spell probably did not do any good at all. On the other hand, it didn’t hurt.

  Are Basilisks Just Big Snakes?

  BASILISKS ARE AMONG THE MOST DREADED magical creatures. “Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land,” Hermione reads in Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, “there is none more curious or more deadly.”

  The basilisk is certainly more than just a large snake. Also known as a cockatrice, it has existed in legend for centuries. Rowling is just having fun in Beasts when she credits a Greek wizard named Herpo the Foul with breeding the first basilisk. Herpein is a Greek word meaning “to creep” that came to be a word describing snakes. The study of reptiles such as snakes is now called herpetology.

  However, just as she suggests, by legend the basilisk was said to be the offspring of a rooster or hen mated with a snake or toad. Some artists followed that description literally, and drew strange beasts combining features fromBasilisks, from an early woodcut and a later engraving.

  Humans who looked at the snaky head of Medusa were turned to stone. The hero Perseus slayed it by looking only at its reflection in his metal shield, just as Hermione avoids the full force of the basilisk’s power because she sees only its reflection.

  See also: Beasts Nagini Spiders

  those animals. But more often the basilisk was portrayed as a serpent with a crown or a white spot on his head. Cobras, which have such marks, may be the origin of the basilisk legend.

  The basilisk was reported to be deadly even from afar. The Roman naturalist Pliny said, “He kills all trees and shrubs, not only those he touches but all he breathes upon. He burns the grass, and breaks stones, so venomous and deadly is he.”

  Some sources describe three varieties: The golden basilisk could poison with a look; another sparked fire; a third, like the famous snaky hair of Medusa in Greek mythology, caused such horror that victims were petrified.

  William Shakespeare even mentioned a basilisk in his play Richard III. The evil title character kills his brother then immediately flatters his brother’s widow by mentioning her beautiful eyes. But she replies, “Would they were a basilisk’s, to strike thee dead!”

  HOW TO FIGHT A BASILISK

  A basilisk controlled by Lord Voldemort slinks through Hogwarts in Chamber, almost killing Harry and his friends. Fawkes, Professor Dumbledore’s pet phoenix, attacks the monster. That also matches legend. A bird—the rooster—is fatal to the beast. In the Middle Ages travelers carried roosters as protection against basilisks.

  Which “Fantastic Beasts” Come from Legend?

  MANY OF THE CREATURES IN THE TEXTBOOK Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them are known in our world as well as Harry’s, even if they are legendary. Here are some of the stories from which J. K. Rowling drew:

  RED CAP

  According to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Red Caps “live in holes on old battlegrounds or wherever human blood has been spilled . . . [and] will attempt to bludgeon [muggles] to death on dark nights.” This creature has long existed in the legends of England and Scotland, neighbors who fought many gruesome wars. He is also known as Bloody Cap or Red Comb. His cap is red because he uses it to catch the blood of his victims.

  RAMORA

  True to a legend that goes back thousands ofBritish legends also tell of a Blue Cap, a spirit who helped miners.

  The author of Beasts, Newton (“Newt”) Artemis Fido Scamander, has a name filled with puns. Newts are small salamanders (see page 37). Artemis was the Greek goddess of hunting—good for an animal scholar. Fido, from the Latin fidus (“faithful”), is a common name for pets. “Scamander” means to wander in a winding way, as Newt did while exploring.

  years, Rowling says this fish—which does exist and which we know as the remora—has the power to stop ships. In fact, the name remora comes from the Latin word for “delay.” Using a suction cup on its head, it attaches itself to ships and sharks in order to feed on scraps. Also known as the Mora and Echeneis, its strength had already been exaggerated by the first century A.D., when Pliny the Elder wrote, “Winds howl, storms rage: this fish commands their frenzied force to be still, stopping ships with a great power, greater than any anchor. Humankind is a vain weak creature when its giant warships are stopped by a tiny fish!” Pliny claimed the ship of Marc Antony was anchored by remoras during the Battle of Actium, causing him to lose the battle and changing the course of Roman history.

  HIPPOCAMPUS

  This sea horse gets its name from the Greek words for horse (hippos) and sea monster (kampos). It is also called the Hydrippus (the Greek word for “water” is hydro.) The chariot of the Greek sea-god Poseidon is pulled by hippocamps.

  A book called the Physiologus, written about the second century A.D., says some legends deemed the Hippocampus “the leader of all fishes.” Judaism and Christianity were on the rise at the time, and the Hippocampus was imagined to be a prophet or guide similar to Moses. It was said to lead other fish to a Holy Land (or Holy Sea, that is) where a special golden fish lives: “When the fish of the sea have met together and gathered themselves into flocks, they go in search of the Hydrippus; and when they have found him, he turns himself toward the East, and they all follow him, all the fish from the North and from the South; and they draw near to the golden fish, the Hydrippus leading them. And, when the Hydrippus and all the fish are arrived, they greet the golden fish as their King.”

  SALAMANDER

  In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Rowling says these are “fire-dwelling” lizards that live “only as long as the fire from which they sprang burns.” This legend goes back thousands of years. The Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote in the fourth century B.C. that “the fact that certain animals cannot be burnt is evidenced by the salamander, which puts out a fire by crawling through it.” It could do this because it was said to be extremely cold. Almost a thousand years later St. Isidore, Bishop of

  Hippocampus, from a Dutch woodcut.

  Salamander in flames, from a family crest.

  Seville, agreed that the salamander “lives in the midst of flames without pain and without being consumed,” adding, “amid all poisons its power

  is the greatest. Other poisonous animals strike individuals, but this slays many at the same time by crawling up a tree and infecting the fruit, killing all those who eat it.”

  Some legends said the salamander lived in cocoons that were used to spin a fireproof fabric. Instead of being washed in water, clothes made from it were supposedly cleaned with fire.

  ERKLING

  Rowling has transposed a few letters in the name o
f the Erl King or Erl König (“elf king”) of German legend. Otherwise, her description holds true. It is an evil creature in the Black Forest of Germany that tries to snatch children. In Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s poem “Erl King” it calls out to a young boy who is traveling through the woods with his father:

  “Oh, come, thou dear infant! Oh, come thou with me!

  Full many a game I will play there with thee.”

  Although the boy tries to warn his father (who can’t hear the Erl King), the poem ends badly. Like legends of grindylows in England and kappas in Japan, the story of the Erl King was concocted by parents to prevent children from wandering.

  CHIMAERA

  The description of the Chimaera in Beasts, odd as it sounds, is true to the early Greek legend of a monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a dragon or serpent. (In another version the heads of all three animals were on a lion’s body. Yet other versions added wings.) It is a sibling of both the Sphinx and Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guarded the Underworld.