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Professor Koniphorus Swamp is at it again, writing about the flora and fauna in the world of Harry Potter as no other essayist! Be sure to have a look at her new essay, speculating about the surprising importance of one of the most boring critters in the Potterverse: Flobberworms. Read More
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The new Wizard of the Month for October is now on Jo’s site, Idris Oakby. This gives us another new canon character along with a new canon organization. Am I on new canon overload? Nah, not possible!… Read More
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Hi everyone, I have been collecting bits and pieces that may be of use to people taking the W.O.M.B.A.T. It has *no* commentary, just canon and bits from reference books. Crib sheet: http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizworld/wombat/cribsheet.html [No longer found here] The Lexicon staff commentary is also in the works and will be posted… Read More
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I’ve created a page of Instructions for working the puzzle behind the Door, including pictures, and updated most of the relevant pages in the Guide to JKR.com with the other additions from today. We will be working on our commentary of the W.O.M.B.A.T. grade 2, as Steve said, and… Read More
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Just noticed that the door is open on jkr.com. No time to explore further (Real Life and all that…), but you know we’ll be all over it! Watch for more…… Read More
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Jo has added to her site today: 2 News articles, 3 Rumours, Diary entry #8, and a new Fan Site Award. I’ll finish updating the Lexicon later today. I had to leave for work right in the midst of the update.. ARGH! So yes, the door is open… Read More
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I just got back last night from London where I spent a glorious, magical day visiting the studios where they are busy filming the latest Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Warner Bros reps took us on tours of the sets, let us watch filming,… Read More
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It is my very great pleasure to announce the posting of a new essay, Snape’s Eyes, by Edward M. Kern, Associate Professor of History at Lawrence University. If you attended Lumos 2006, you may recognize this essay — it was originally presented at Lumos in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July… Read More
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Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
Presented at Lumos 2006 Las Vegas, Nevada 29 July 2006[*] How wonderful it is that the second chapter of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is titled “Spinner’s End.” Wonderful, because, if read ironically, it refers not only to a place, but to Severus Snape’s fate, a rubric revealing that the… Read More
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Hi, this is a minor change, but I just updated all the links on our index page of Lexicon artists. Some of the website links no longer worked, some had moved, etc. Read More
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Jo has updated her website in the News section, in Extra Stuff- Miscellaneous (a NAQ ‘Never Asked Question’) and her Diary. I have the Guide to JKR.com updated. 😀 Wheee! It’s wonderful to hear from her! Thanks Jo! I’d also like to point out a fairly new feature I’ve… Read More
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Makani made my day today. It was an OK day. Pulled weeds, went to work, grocery shopped and came home, but something made me check my subscriptions to “friend’s” Livejournals and Harry Potter fanartist Makani (Heather Campbell) had posted no fewer than 5 new Potter drawings (3 canon and 2… Read More
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Hi, everyone. I hope that everyone’s enjoying the new Timelines! This project has been in the works since February, and there’s a lot to it. Permit me to put on my Knight Bus Tours hat for a moment and tell you about some of the great things the new Timelines… Read More
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We here at the Lexicon are delighted to announce the new and amazingly improved Timeline of the Wizarding World. For quite a few months now we’ve been working on this incredible resource, which combines the detailed and carefully researched information from the original timeline with a powerful search tool called… Read More
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With the addition of the zoom feature in the Scrapbook on JKRowling.com it’s now easier to view the minute details of the Potterania extra content. On the “Very early page of Philosopher’s Stone” you can see the faint shadow of backwards typewritten words. This is probably typed on… Read More
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I’ve just finished updating the page Map of Hogwarts in the movies ; by Quentin Lowagie, the webmaster of the Lexicon in French (L’Encyclopédie Harry Potter). Quentin does a marvelous job of mapping out the buildings and grounds of Hogwarts as it appears, and changes, through… Read More
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You may remember the funny introduction to Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them where Scamander writes about how hard it has been to figure out what is a beast and what is a magical being. Well, John and I have been wrestling with the same question because we’ve been… Read More
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The Wizard of the Month on JKRowling.com is once again a new canon character. Lisa has added Hambledon Quince to the Lexicon wizards pages, and I’ve updated the Guide to JKR.com. Now what to do with the new mention of the planet Mars? Perhaps we’ll compile all the astronomy,… Read More
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It’s funny that I haven’t posted here in a while, because I’ve probably worked harder on the Lexicon in the last two weeks than ever before. You’ll hear more about that in the near future, but tonight I’m taking a break as Clint does some serious programming over in our… Read More
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Steve has just created an “explainer” page compiling all the information about how we calculate dates for Snape, Lily and the Marauders. A few months ago you could still find Lexicon birthyears for James, etc. that said c.1960 or c.1961. These dates had implications for how many years he and… Read More
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We got some illuminating comments about my recent work on Fred and George’s page. They raised several “Weasley” issues, mainly ones having to do with Prewett and Weasley names on the Black Family Tree — so I’ve been revising all of the Weasley pages to clarify what is canon and… Read More
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With the many references to stars and constellations throughout the books (especially with the Black family), I wondered about the stars that appear in the window on Jo’s site. So I asked an expert! Check out the page on Day/Night changes in the Guide to JKR.com for a bit of… Read More
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Next to Snape and Dumbledore, I probably get the most mail about Fred and George’s page. Not for suggestions or errors, but because the whole page badly needed to be updated and reorganized. Well, I am almost finished with it (I’m still fact-checking stuff from books 5 & 6), so… Read More
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The Wizard of the Month calendar on Jo’s website: jkrowling.com has been updated with another birthday. This marks the third year in a row that she has wished Percy Weasley a happy day… hmmmm……… Read More
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Posted by in Canon discussion
In various places around the Lexicon, ages are given for the main characters. Some character’s ages are fairly easy to determine. However, the ages of the Marauders and those who were at Hogwarts with them are a bit tricky to work out. Rather than explain over and over how we… Read More
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Dobby actually has 2 new pages. One for character information, and one for his quotes! I will be adding artwork, but the pages are essentially finished. Comments and corrections appreciated! One quote that struck me as interesting was this one “Dobby likes Professor Dumbledore very much, sir, and is… Read More
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Posted by in Characters
From Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets “Harry Potter!” said the creature in a high-pitched voice Harry was sure would carry down the stairs. “So long has Dobby wanted to meet you, sir … Such an honor it is … ” “Th-thank you,” said Harry, edging along… Read More
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Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
After walking—or rather riding—up the staircase to the Headmaster’s office, one knocks on the door, enters, and is greeted not only by the face of the Headmaster, or Headmistress, but by soft snores coming from the wall. We are first introduced to the Headmaster’s office, and the decorations it contains, in Chamber of Secrets (CS12). Here,… Read More
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I’ve moved twice this summer so I haven’t been around much, but Lumos re-invigorated me just as I was starting to settle down so I’m excitedly diving back into my sections again. 🙂 I’ve been messing around with the gazetteer some this morning, updating a few entries and so forth. Read More
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I just added a bit of historical background to the character entry for Mungo Bonham. It turns out that there was a real St. Mungo who was an early Bishop of Scotland (also called St. Kentigern) who evangelized pagans c. 600 in the Glasgow area. One local tradition even holds… Read More
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More new canon! Wheeee! I have just finished uploading to the Quick-Quotes-Quill what I hope are definitive versions of the press conference and readings Jo did in New York last week. These transcripts use the best from other fansites with corrections and extra research, so I hope you will… Read More
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We’d like to join Jo in wishing Ginny Weasley a Happy Birthday! As she has done for the past two years, Jo posted this birthday wish on the Wizard of the Month Calendar of her website: jkrowling.com today. Read More
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Welcome to the brand new What’s New page. I know it looks pretty much like the old one, but there is one important difference. This page is set up as a blog, which means that you can subscribe to get the RSS feed in your favorite RSS newsreader. Look for… Read More
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Once again the Wizard of the Month on Jo’s site, Erica Stainwright, is a new canon character. This has been the case for the past four months, providing us here at the Lexicon with fresh new canon to incorporate! (We always get excited over new canon.) Also this week… Read More
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We thought you’d enjoy reading the full list of questions that Lexicon staff came up with for the Lumos Trivia Challenge pitting The Leaky Cauldron against Mugglenet. Read More
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Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
The newly released Black family tree, now revealed in its full glory, is the topic of considerable discussion and is a source of considerable information on the relatedness of the various pure-blood  wizard lines. Many familiar names show up on that tree, including Weasley (blasted off, of course). Sirius Black comments in Order of the Phoenix, “Molly and I are… Read More
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I’ve posted a new essay: Arthur Weasley’s Relationship to Sirius Black: First Forays into the Black Family Tree, by new Lexicon contributor Sylvie Augustus. Of particular interest to the true Pottergeeks out there, I think!… Read More
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Posted by in Characters / What's New
The Wizard of the Month on Jo’s site for June (Daisy Hookum) and July (Tarquin McTavish) were both new characters. Most of the WotM have been from the Famous Wizard Cards, but occasionally she has given us these charming additions to the canon. Read More
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Two new essays have been posted. One is on the ever-popular subject of Horcruxes, by new Lexicon contributor Megan Bostelmann, arguing that Harry is not a Horcrux. And Professor Koniphorous Swamp, who in her own words “appears to have too much free time on her hands,” has written a new… Read More
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Since the arrival of Half-Blood Prince on July 16th, 2005, Harry Potter fans have been endlessly searching for Horcruxes. We find ourselves repeating the Horcrux possibilities just like Harry does in Half-Blood Prince: “the cup, the locket, the snake, something of Gryffindor or Ravenclaw’s . . . .” (HBP30). Several Horcrux identity theories have been circulating, with claims ranging from Tom Riddle’s mouth organ to Gryffindor’s old toothbrush. After reading… Read More