The Lexicon Blog
🎙️ Announcing the Twentieth Anniversary Canon Celebration!
• Podcast Episode
Twenty-one years ago, I created a small website to collect and organize information about the Harry Potter novels. I was part of an online discussion group called Harry Potter for Grown Ups, which is just what it sounds like, and we all needed a quick way to… Read More
To be clear ...
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Steve VanderArk
in Fandom News
A few hours ago, after discussion, we went ahead and retweeted the link to JK Rowling’s essay giving her opinions about the controversy she kicked up with her tweets about trans people, specifically trans women. Over the past few days we also retweeted Emma Watson’s comments and those of… Read More
🎙️ Encore Episode: "Oh wait a minute, who was that?"
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Steve VanderArk
in Lexicon Podcast
This is an encore presentation of an episode from June, 2011 Steve talks about Pottermore misconceptions, how Rowling changed the online world once before, cool and interesting sources of canon information, Galleons changing the world, the late Quidditch match in book one, and other bits of Potter lore. Links:… Read More
🎙️ Encore Presentation: Wizarding Currency
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Selena Gallagher
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
This is an encore presentation of an episode from February 2018. You may notice on the homepage of the Lexicon that it always shows the current exchange rate between a galleon and a range of different worldwide currencies. But did you ever wonder how J.K. Rowling came up… Read More
🎙️ Encore Presentation: OP2 - Kneazles
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Steve VanderArk
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
This is an encore presentation of an episode from March, 2018. Mister Tibbles? Mrs Norris? Why do the animals owned by Squibs seem to have similar names? And particularly human-sounding names at that? In chapter two of Order of the Phoenix, we meet Mrs Figg… Read More
Quotes By and About Peeves
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Steve VanderArk
in Characters
Quotes from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (UK ed.) Compiled by Lori Damerell ‘My dear Friar, haven’t we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he’s not really even a ghost…’ (PS7) ‘Peeves,’ Percy whispered to… Read More
Changes to the Lexicon Website
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Steve VanderArk
in Website news
I know it seems like nothing changes around here. That’s only partially true. I say partially because things don’t change fast since everyone working on the site does it in their spare time and on a volunteer basis. So real life being what it is, that means that big changes… Read More
🎙️ Encore Presentation: OP1 - Drought
• Podcast Episode
This is an encore presentation of an episode from March, 2018. Today we’re spending a little bit of time with chapter one of Order of the Phoenix. From the very beginning, we’re introduced to the theme of drought. Rowling writes: Cars that were usually gleaming stood dusty in their… Read More
🎙️ Encore Episode: Barebone Names
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Steve VanderArk
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
This is an encore episode from February 10, 2018. Chastity, Credence, and Modesty may have seemed like strange names to viewers of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but they are rooted in the Barebone family’s Puritan past. Not only is the Barebones’s… Read More
🎙️ Encore Episode: Why Ottery St Mary?
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Steve VanderArk
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
This is an encore presentation of an episode from February of 2018. Why do we assume that Ottery St Mary, an actual town in south Devon, is the same village as the one called Ottery St Catchpole in the books? There are a couple of good reasons… Read More
🎙️ Encore Episode: Bane was Right All Along
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Eileen Jones
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
This is an encore broadcast of an episode if the Harry Potter Lexicon Minute from November 2018. Today I’d like to talk to you about how, in the end, Bane didn’t need to get mad. When Bane gets mad at Firenze for saving Harry, he says “…we… Read More
🎙️ The Photograph and the Boggart
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Abby Koop
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
In chapter nine of Order of the Phoenix, Rowling does a lot of really poignant foreshadowing for the coming war against Voldemort. In re-reading it, I found new meaning in Harry’s confused anger after Moody shows him the photograph of the original members of the Order. This interaction is… Read More
🎙️ Encore Episode: Did Dumbledore Walk Around With It in His Pocket?
• Podcast Episode
This is an encore broadcast of the first Harry Potter Lexicon Podcast from June of 2011. Welcome to the Harry Potter Lexicon Podcast, in this first episode: Steve introduces the podcast thanks a few people reminiscing about visiting the graveyard in Godric’s Hollow the missing twenty-four hours the mystery… Read More
🎙️ Encore Episode: Whatever Happened to Sally-Anne?
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Steve VanderArk
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
This is an encore podcast episode originally aired in January of 2018. Did you know that one of Harry’s classmates apparently vanished between first and fifth year? I don’t mean “vanished” in the same way that Montague disappeared into a Vanishing Cabinet only to reappear a few weeks later. I… Read More
🎙️ Canon Thoughts: Goblet of Fire
• Podcast Episode
In my last canon thoughts podcast, I talked about the amazing third book in the Potter series, The Prisoner of Azkaban. Now we move on the book four, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I’m always a bit surprised by how many people consider this to be their… Read More
🎙️ Hearts & Treasures
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Selena Gallagher
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
There comes a point as a Harry Potter fan when you think you have found or heard about all the connections between the series and the world of literature and mythology. And then, out of nowhere, another one smacks you in the face. I have just finished reading Paulo Coelho’s… Read More
🎙️ Fan Conversations: Gryffindor Characters
• Podcast Episode
Lexicon editor Eileen Jones chats with her friend Angela about interesting characters from Gryffindor House, focusing on on Ginny and Dean. https://media.blubrry.com/hplex/media.hp-lexicon.org/podcasts/archive/canon-celebration-intro.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:47 — 9.0MB)… Read More
🎙️ Goodbye Pottermore
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Steve VanderArk
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Pottermore is no more. I guess having the name “Potter” in the title was too limiting, since now the website is called “Wizarding World” and encompasses the “Fantastic Beasts” films as well as the Potter books and films. My reaction? Whatever. I loved Pottermore for Rowling’s… Read More
🎙️ Fan Conversations: Ravenclaw Characters
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Eileen Jones
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Lexicon editor Eileen Jones continues her conversation with her friend Angela about characters each of them feels a connection to. Angela talks about Filius Flitwick which Eileen discusses Cho Chang. https://media.blubrry.com/hplex/media.hp-lexicon.org/podcasts/archive/canon-celebration-intro.mp3Podcast: Play in new window… Read More
🎙️ GF6: Foreshadowing - Lovegoods and Apparition
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Susan
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
In this Harry Potter Lexicon Minute I will discuss the sixth chapter of Goblet of Fire: The Portkey. When I discovered the Harry Potter Lexicon years ago, one of the things I loved most about the website were the chapter discussions. From each book, the Lexicon has descriptions… Read More
🎙️ Fan Conversations: Hufflepuff Characters
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Eileen Jones
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Lexicon Editor Eileen Jones chats with her friend Angela about their favorite Hufflepuff characters. Angela starts out by choosing probably the best-known Hufflepuff of Harry’s time, Cedric Diggory. Eileen discusses Ernie Macmillan. https://media.blubrry.com/hplex/media.hp-lexicon.org/podcasts/archive/canon-celebration-intro.mp3Podcast: Play in new window… Read More
🎙️ Mysteries: Scabbers the Rat
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Steve VanderArk
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Eleven years ago, after the publication of the last Harry Potter novel and, as far as we knew, the end of canon, I wrote a piece for the Lexicon entitled “Puzzles, Mysteries, and Loose Ends” in which I discussed the things we still didn’t know and the questions which… Read More
🎙️ Chocolate
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Selena Gallagher
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
As any Muggle knows, chocolate is a truly magical substance. We see it in many forms throughout the Harry Potter novels – the birthday cake that Hagrid brings for Harry’s 11th birthday is a chocolate cake, chocolate eclairs and chocolate gateau are regularly served in Hogwarts’ feasts, and of course… Read More
🎙️ OP35: Who's Going to Die?
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Steve VanderArk
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Chapter 35 of The Order of the Phoenix describing the Battle of the Department of Mysteries is certainly one of the most action-filled passages in any of the books.Rowling takes us on a wild ride indeed. When the book first came out, we fans read it with quite… Read More
🎙️ Is A Regurgitating Toilet Sentient?
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Abby Koop
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Today I want to talk about objects that can think for themselves. When Ginny emerges from the Chamber of Secrets, Mr. Weasley scolds her, “Haven’t I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps… Read More
🎙️ "Canon" Musings
• Podcast Episode
Here at the Lexicon, we do our best to organize the information that has been presented to us by or with the express approval of J.K. Rowling. It’s an important job, because this fictional world of hers is an escape for many people, and in order to escape to… Read More
🎙️ Coincidence or Something More?
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Steve VanderArk
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
An idea came to me during a re-read of Deathly Hallows. I believe that there is evidence of a magical force in the Wizarding World that I am calling “convergence.” It’s a plot device, I know, but if we think within the story, it seems that there is something in… Read More
🎙️ OP34: Angrier Than the Occasion Warranted
• Podcast Episode
In the 34th chapter of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, we get to explore the wondrous Department of Mysteries. Anyone reading the books for the first time will tell you that by the time we get to this chapter, our curiosity is definitely piqued. Between… Read More
🎙️ Wizards Unite: The Calamity
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Abby Koop
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
In the new Wizards Unite game by Niantic, the mysterious Calamity is threatening the Statute of Secrecy. It’s stealing magical people, creatures, and items of significance from different periods of time and leaving them randomly scattered around the world with the protection of… Read More
🎙️ Free Will, Divination, and Time Travel Part 2
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Abby Koop
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
We know that prophecies exist in Harry’s world. All of the prophecies that affect Harry in some way eventually come to pass. The wording is always ambiguous enough to cause anxiety, though. “The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord” meets these particular characteristics and will either… Read More
🎙️ Free Will, Divination, and Time Travel Part 1
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Abby Koop
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
I’ve been reading the Jim Kay-illustrated edition of Sorcerer’s Stone to my cat, because I feel like that version deserves to be read aloud, and Scraps is a pretty good audience. We just finished Chapter 15 – The Forbidden Forest, and it brought something to the front of my… Read More
🎙️ About Platform Nine and Three-Quarters
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Steve VanderArk
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
It’s the first of September and in the Wizarding world, children starting at age eleven will board the Hogwarts Express at King’s Cross Station to travel north to Scotland, and the new school year will begin. I thought I’d take this opportunity to talk about some of the interesting facts… Read More
🎙️ Canon Thoughts: Prisoner of Azkaban
• Podcast Episode
In my series called Canon Thoughts, I’ve given my comments about books one and two of the Harry Potter series as well as about some of the early interviews which Rowling gave back in 1999 and 2000. I’ve also given my take on Crimes of… Read More
🎙️ CC5: Act 1 Scenes 6-7: Living in the Past
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Eileen Jones
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
In today’s minute I’m going to discuss Act 1 Scenes 6 and 7. Both of these scenes share a similar characteristic: Harry takes a lot of heat from someone who is stuck in the past. Delphi speaks a line in scene six, referring… Read More
🎙️ Horcrux Deaths
• Podcast Episode
Today we’re going to talk Horcruxes. Specifically, how they’re made. I started thinking about this subject when I read a particularly interesting passage from Half-Blood Prince. Here’s what caught my eye: Dumbledore says that Voldemort “seems to have reserved the… Read More
🎙️ OP33: What Was She Thinking
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Steve VanderArk
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
At the end of the last chapter, Hermione launched an impromptu plan to free herself and Harry from Umbridge, who had caught them using her office fireplace to talk to someone. Hermione’s plan was to pretend that they were talking to Dumbledore, telling him that the powerful secret… Read More
🎙️ New Historicism and Harry Potter
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Bridget Bartlett
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
New historicism is an approach to literature which regards a work of literature as a product of the historical moment in which it was created and as embedded in the ideas and ideologies present in that time. For example, a new historicist might be interested in what Elizabethan… Read More
🎙️ CC4: Act 1 Scene 5: Doings at the Ministry
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Eileen Jones
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
This is a short scene, but it’s a huge scene when it comes to important information. We get a glimpse of the time-turner that causes all of the timeline disasters in this play. We finally get a mention of Hugo! We get the official titles of Harry and… Read More
🎙️ The Smell of Love
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Selena Gallagher
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Love is obviously a powerful theme of the Harry Potter novels, but today I’d just like to talk about the powerful love potion amortentia, and how it induces the smell of what most attracts us. We first encounter amortentia in Slughorn’s classroom during his first potions lesson,… Read More
Harry's Dreams, Continued
• Podcast Episode
Since the original essay ‘Harry’s Dreams’ was written by Steve VanderArk in 2006, there have been quite a few new pieces of canon writing from J K Rowling. Two of these in particular contain further dreams of Harry Potter’s to examine. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows… Read More
🎙️ OP32: That "Saving People Thing"
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Steve VanderArk
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Hermione says something very important in chapter 32 of Order of the Phoenix, something which helps define the overarching plot of the entire seven-book series. When Harry is frantically describing the vision he had of Sirius captured and tortured by Voldemort in the Department of Mysteries, Hermione tries to… Read More
🎙️ Rumors and Ruses
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Abby Koop
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
In Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore shows Harry the memory in which he interviews Tom Riddle for a job at Hogwarts. I have a lot of questions about Dumbledore’s motives for allowing even this level of consideration. He does have a little bit of a thing about manners,… Read More
🎙️ Paratext
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Bridget Bartlett
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Think about when you first saw that dedication to you, the reader, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. You probably read that before you read a word of the novel itself. Think for a moment about whether reading that dedication impacted the attitude you had as you started in… Read More
Deleted Scenes - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
• Podcast Episode
Is “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay” really the Original Screenplay? Or is the widely available version actually “The Original Screenplay 2.0”? Every film has a screenplay or script. In Great Britain the norm is double-hole-punched A4 paper which is slightly taller and narrower than the North American… Read More
🎙️ GF5: Looking Back and Forward
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Susan
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
When I first read this chapter, it felt like coming home for Harry to me. After the grisly murders at Little Hangleton and the hostility of the Dursleys, I loved reading about the Burrow, encountering all the familiar faces and seeing a happy Harry. Upon re-reading this chapter,… Read More
🎙️ Seeing is Believing
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Eileen Jones
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
The inspiration for this podcast comes from several places. A recent Alohomora episode was all about Percy Weasley. In the comment section for that podcast I read a comment made by username BloodCharm. BloodCharm was talking about Percy’s falling out with his family, stating that… Read More
🎙️ Watch Out!
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Selena Gallagher
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
This Lexicon Minute is about time. No, not time travel – I only have a minute and I’d be crazy to try and tackle time travel in that short time, although technically if I could manipulate time I could make that one minute last as long as I… Read More
🎙️ CC1.4: A Little Bit About A Lot
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Eileen Jones
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
In this Minute about Cursed Child Part 1, Act 1, Scene 4 I’m going to discuss a little bit about a lot, because there’s so much that goes on in just this one scene, two years of stuff to be exact. So I’ll jump right in. Read More
🎙️ GF4: A Lot of Long Sentences
• Podcast Episode
Posted
by Susan
in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
In this Harry Potter Lexicon Minute, I will discuss the fourth chapter of Goblet of Fire: Back to the Burrow. In this chapter, the Weasley family picks up Harry at Privet Drive. The text paints a very clear and fast-paced picture of what is happening. I relish… Read More
🎙️ Canon Thoughts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
• Podcast Episode
Like pretty much every Potter fan out there, I eagerly went to see “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.” I was prepared to be disappointed. I’d read a number of reviews which decried the muddled storylines, the gratuitous easter eggs for fans, and the messed up timelines. So I saw… Read More
