Within the Harry Potter stories are many scenes that can be analyzed astronomically. As both an astronomer and a teacher, these interest me, and so I will present such analysis here. My goal is not to criticize Rowling when she is inaccurate in her astronomy (or, for that matter, to praise her when she… Read MoreIn Search of . . . The Burrow• Essay
Where is the Burrow—Harry’s second home (his first is Hogwarts, of course, not Privet Drive!)? Ottery St. Catchpole The books give the Burrow’s location as just outside the village of Ottery St. Catchpole, but give no direct clues as to where this is. The similarity of the name to Ottery St. Mary, in Devon has… Read MoreWizard Money• Essay
Introduction This interview that took place on March 12, 2001 became the historical point from which all theories and speculations about how much money would one need to go to Gringotts and to buy a Galleon started. Most researchers worked with the first JKR statement of “About five pounds,” while not addressing the more… Read MoreIn Search of . . . the Hut-on-the-Rock• Essay
The Hut-on-the-Rock holds a key place in the life story of Harry Potter. It was here, on his eleventh birthday, that he encountered the world of wizardry for the first time since infancy. But where was it? The address on the letter brought by Hagrid in PS4 is not very helpful: Harry Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock,… Read MoreMusic, Rhyme, and Dance• Article
Music songs by title “A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love” performed by Celestina Warbeck (HBP16) A “particularly jazzy number” with sentimental associations for Mrs. Weasley, as she and her husband danced to it when they were eighteen. Its lyrics include: Oh, come and stir my cauldron, And if you do… Read MoreThe Grail Hallows and Harry Potter• Essay
In medieval tales about the search for the Holy Grail, the word hallows has been used to describe a set of four sacred or magical objects. These objects have been connected back to Celtic mythology, as well as to the Tarot deck. Is Rowling referring to them in the title… Read MoreHigh Fidelity (or: How does the Fidelius Charm work?)• Essay
This is the first explanation of the Fidelius Charm we ever encounter in the Harry Potter books. While it might seem satisfactory at first glance, it clearly raises a lot more questions than it answers (as do many other plot elements in Rowling’s saga). Is the charm cast on people, or on a specific location?… Read MoreThe Curious Incident of the Flobberworm in the Night-Time• Essay
A famous Muggle consulting detective (suspected y some of us to have actually been a wizard) once directed the attention of his decidedly Muggle friend to the curious incident of the dog in the night-time. When the friend observed that the dog did nothing in the night-time, the detective remarked… Read MoreSnape’s Eyes• Essay
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 MoreThe Ages of Snape and the Marauders• Article
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 More20 Heads Are Better Than One: 1000 Years of Headmasters• Essay
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 MoreArthur Weasley’s Relationship to Sirius Black: First Forays into the Black Family Tree• Essay
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 MoreMore than You Ever Wanted to Know about Frog-spawn• Essay
In the first ten years that Harry Potter lived with the Dursleys, his Aunt Petunia never uttered a word to him about the magic ability of his mother, her sister Lily. When the truth finally comes out about his parents, this is the first statement Petunia makes about magic, and it must have summed up what in her mind were… Read MoreHarry and the Horcruxes• Essay
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 MoreWhat Came Before the Hogwarts Express?• Essay
The Hogwarts Express has been the subject of various essays exploring its nature and function. As has been plausibly noted elsewhere on this site, it isn’t really a steam engine, but rather a magical transportation device that mimics a Muggle equivalent in external form and function. This is consistent with the general trend in Wizard “technology,” which seems… Read MoreHow do they make all those books? Printing in the Wizarding World• Essay
I read the essay “When Magic Meets Muggle Technology” by PrefectMarcus. I thoroughly enjoyed the essay, which provides a pseudo-science, almost science fiction view of the wizarding world. Being myself an ardent fan of the sci-fi genre, I value this essay dearly. The essay ends with a question: how does a… Read MoreOpportunity Costs: What does it profit a man to defeat the Dark Lord but lose his soul?• Essay
Originally published at Books & Culture, November/December 2005, Vol. 11, No. 6, Page 22.[1] The stab of envy came instantly, unexpectedly. I was somewhere quite new to me: on one of the enormous ferries that run between the mainland of British Columbia and Vancouver Island. As we moved… Read MoreSome Thoughts on House-Elves• Essay
“One day,” said Hermione, sounding thoroughly exasperated, “you’ll read Hogwarts, A History, and perhaps that will remind you that you can’t Apparate or Disapparate inside Hogwarts.” (OP23) “Well, he [Dumbledore] can’t have Disapparated!” cried Umbridge. “You can’t inside this school—” (OP27) Quietly, tentatively, Harry spoke into the darkness. “Kreacher?” There was a very… Read MoreMagic• Article
Magic is what sets folks in the wizarding world apart from their Muggle neighbors. Magic is the heart and soul of the wizarding culture in the same way that science and technology are the heart and soul of Muggle culture. Where a Muggle would pound a stake into the ground… Read MoreThe List• Essay
“Ah, what a tangled web we weave… Or in this case, what a tangled web Jo Rowling has woven. With one volume left to wrap up all the threads, we Harry Potter fanatics have created a list of all the sphinx-like comments, unfinished story lines, incomplete character trajectories and cryptic references to… Read More
Wizard Money
• Essay
Introduction This interview that took place on March 12, 2001 became the historical point from which all theories and speculations about how much money would one need to go to Gringotts and to buy a Galleon started. Most researchers worked with the first JKR statement of “About five pounds,” while not addressing the more… Read More
In Search of . . . the Hut-on-the-Rock
• Essay
The Hut-on-the-Rock holds a key place in the life story of Harry Potter. It was here, on his eleventh birthday, that he encountered the world of wizardry for the first time since infancy. But where was it? The address on the letter brought by Hagrid in PS4 is not very helpful: Harry Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock,… Read More
Music, Rhyme, and Dance
• Article
High Fidelity (or: How does the Fidelius Charm work?)
• Essay
This is the first explanation of the Fidelius Charm we ever encounter in the Harry Potter books. While it might seem satisfactory at first glance, it clearly raises a lot more questions than it answers (as do many other plot elements in Rowling’s saga). Is the charm cast on people, or on a specific location?… Read More
The Ages of Snape and the Marauders
• Article
Magic
• Article