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The Life and Mind of DamnBlackHeart
This is to help me stay actively writing. So expect to see rants, tips on writing, thoughts on subjects, me complaining of boredom, reviews, anime, movies, video games, conventions, tv shows and whatever life throws at me.
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What do you think of the wizarding school names? |
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What do you think of the wizarding school names?
First of all, the name Hogwarts (the actual plant name is “hogwort”, spelled differently) is actually the name of a flower. J. K. Rowling did not deliberately name the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry after the plant. It was only after the books were published, that a friend reminded her of seeing the plant in the Kew Gardens. Many years beforehand Rowling speculated that the name had remain in her subconscious ever since.
And in the Harry Potter/wizarding universe J.K. Rowling actually suggested the reason was that Rowena Ravenclaw picked the location and the name of the school. She dreamed that a warty hog was leading her to the cliff by the lake. (source: W.O.M.B.A.T. Grade 3 Quiz on JKR’s website posted in June 13, 2007)
When I first heard the name of Hogwarts I always thought it wasn’t named literally for hogs with warts. I figured it must have been an ingredient to some sort of potion that the founders were fond of or famous for. Or that it was a plant that grew only in that location and they dubbed the school after it. When I thought of it that way it made sense that a magical school would be name after something like that. After all, they have Houses named after them and it would makes sense to give a neutral name to the school that had some meaning to it. But later on did I learn the truth and that it wasn’t intentional for J.K. Rowling to named it for a plant. I prefer to believe otherwise.
There’s also Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and Durmstrang Institute. Beaux batons is French for beautiful sticks, which likely refers to beautiful wands. As for Durmstrang, many believe it is a wordplay on the German phrase “Strang und Durm”, which translate to “storm and stress”, and that interpretation is quite likely. However, Durmstrang is not a German school because the climate in Germany does not match the descriptions given by the Durmstrang students. More likely, the school is located in a Slavic nation: Russia; Bulgaria; Ukraine; and the like. Strang translates to "strange" or “stranger” in Russian, and Durman and Durme are cities in Russia, Uzbekitan, Tajikistan, and Bosnia and Herzegovin. The name, then, might convey a sense of a strange city or strange place, rather than storm and stress, but either translation is possible.
I had two different reactions when I first heard the names of the schools. I found Beauxbatons to be a weird and out of place for a school to be named, but I found Durmstrang to be believable. I figured it may have been named after it’s founder/s or something to that extent.
When it came to the reveal of the new wizarding schools. Sometimes J.K. Rowling naming of characters and whatnot can be a hit or miss, but I found majority of them a miss. It just feels like there was a lack of effort and creativity this time.
Honesty, Castelobruxo is such a dull name. It’s derived from the Portuguese words “castelo”, meaning “castle”, and “bruxo”, meaning “wizard”, thus literally translating as “wizard castle”, or “wizardcastle”. I guess the name could have been worst? But it just sounds so obvious that someone didn’t bother doing their homework and check with the locals.
Mahoutokoro is a pretty lame name too. It’s composed of the Japanese words 魔法 (mahō), meaning “magic, witchcraft, sorcery,“ and 所 (tokoro), meaning “place,” “spot,” or “site”. Thus, the name could be translated as “magical place” or “place where witchcraft/sorcery occurs”. It’s even worst when you know that they didn’t even bother researching pronunciation, since apparently they believe “mahou” in Japanese is pronounced “mahoo”.
And finally, Uagadou and Ilvermorny which I have no idea what their meaning, translation or reference may be. I’ve done some research, but I haven’t found anything yet. They both sound a bit more creative, especially the latter. But I wouldn’t be surprise about that because IIvermorny will be mentioned in the upcoming film of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and so they’ll put more effort into it.
 DamnBlackHeart · Thu Feb 04, 2016 @ 07:01pm · 0 Comments |
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