• Place A street located in Clapham, London, which at number two is home to Sturgis Podmore (OP14). There are two streets by this name in London – one is in Enfield, while the other is in Croydon. (Clapham Common is in Lambeth.)… Read More
• Place When slandering Elphias Doge in a newspaper interview, Rita Skeeter claimes that he’s gone completely crazy, and thought that he was sitting at the bottom of Lake Windermere, and that she should watch out for trout (DH1). Read More
• Regions, counties, and territories Lancashire was the site of a Quidditch match in 1385 that didn’t go too well for the local team. An Irish team from Cork beat them soundly and the fans of the Lancashire team chased the Irish players out of town (QA8). Read More
• Article
Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
Do we ever find out what the language of instruction used at Durmstrang Institute is? At Beauxbatons it would have to be French, but although “Durmstrang” sounds German, the Durmstrang students we meet are all of Slavic ancestry as far as we know. On the one hand, German continues to be sort of a “lingua franca”… Read More
• Pubs and inns The Leaky Cauldron is a wizarding pub located on Charing Cross Road in London. Introduction Built by Daisy Dodderidge around 1500 “to serve as a gateway between the non-wizarding world and Diagon Alley” (FW), the Leaky Cauldron has remained a famous and popular place for five hundred years… Read More
• Wizarding culture “Les Non-Magiques” was a French term for non-magical humans (CG). This was one of the names for Muggles mentioned by Gellert Grindelwald when he rattled off a list of such terms while speaking to the pure-blood audience in the underground auditorium in Paris (CG). Read More
• Page Books by Steve Vander Ark About The Reader’s Guide series Welcome to the Harry Potter Lexicon Reader’s Guide series. Each Guide expands a reader’s understanding of and appreciation for the books in the Harry Potter series of books by J.K. Rowling. The commentary and annotations presented are the observations… Read More
• Countries A tiny, mountainous country located between Austria and Switzerland, Liechtenstein is home to only about 33,000 people. Though it has not played a central role in Muggle history, it did have a place in wizarding history: the warlocks of Liechtenstein refused to join the International Confederation… Read More
• Event Harry James Potter was born to James Potter and Lily Evans Potter. His birth appeared to fulfill a prophecy given months before by Sybill Trelawney. This prophecy would be the impetus for many events, including the death of James and Lily 18 months later. Sadly, James’ parents, Fleamont and Euphemia Potter,… Read More
• Article
Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
We all know the amazing things that magic is capable of in JKR’s narrative. I’d like to look at some of the things that magic is apparently unable to do in the JKR universe (as opposed to things that wizards don’t do, such as the Unforgivable Curses, for legal reasons or because of… Read More
• Food and drinks A common wizarding sweet, offered on the food trolley on the Hogwarts Express (PS6). Read More
• Place Liverpool is a famous port town on the western coast of England, Liverpool was the site of a Celestina Warbeck concert in 1999 (DP). As late ticket-holders raced to the event, there was a three-broom crash over the Mersey River, which runs through Liverpool. Read More
• Place Perhaps the most famous loch in Scotland, we know that Loch Lomond is home to merpeople because Mirabella Plunkett fell in love with a merman from Loch Lomond (fw65). Read More
• Place Loch Ness is, of course, the home of the Loch Ness Monster – actually a kelpie that prefers to take the form of a sea serpent. Loch Ness is the largest loch in Scotland, and its famous monster has gotten the Ministry of Magic in trouble for repeatedly breaking the… Read More
• Magical artifacts The fake Moody kept various things in this magical trunk which had seven locks with seven keys. Depending on which lock you unlocked, you would see different things inside. When the first lock is opened, the trunk holds spell books. With the second lock, the trunk revealed broken Sneakoscopes,quills, and… Read More
• Cities Located in southeastern England, London is one of the largest and most famous cities in the world. For Muggles, it is the center of British commerce and government, and for wizards and witches things are no different. We know of more wizarding places in London than anywhere else in Britain,… Read More
• Character Lord Voldemort, born Tom Marvolo Riddle, was the son of Merope Gaunt (a descendent of Salazar Slytherin) and Tom Riddle, a handsome, wealthy Muggle from Little Hangleton whom Merope ensnared with a love potion. When her husband found out she was a witch, he abandoned her while she was pregnant… Read More
• Article
Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
Love and death are major themes in J.K.Rowling’s Harry Potter books. She herself has said in a recent interview in recent interview in The Tatler magazine that “My books are largely about death.” And in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, one of J.K. Rowling’s chosen spokespersons, Professor Dumbledore, impresses upon Harry that his “ability… Read More
• Countries Luxembourg is a tiny European country sandwiched between France, Germany and Belgium. According to Charlie Weasley, Luxembourg’s Quidditch team slaughtered Scotland in the Quidditch World Cup playoffs of 1994 (GF5). Bigonville, home of the Bigonville Bombers Quidditch team, is also located in Luxembourg (QA8). Read More