• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
On a couple of previous podcasts, I have talked about Ottery St. Catchpole and the Burrow. I’ve discussed why we identify the town with Ottery St. Mary in Devon, near Exeter. I talked about the relationship between the town and the Burrow, located, according to the books,… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Let me just start out by saying that I cry easily. Just ask my wife. I cry at sappy commercials with fathers sending their daughters off into the world while remembering every father-daughter dance and scraped knee. So you’d think that reading the Harry Potter books, especially the first time… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Website news
A few days ago, Entertainment Weekly posted “A definitive timeline of every Harry Potter Horcrux.” I sure wish they’d research these things better before publishing them. Because they’re a mainstream magazine and because they’ve clearly been given a certain level a special access to the Fantastic Beasts team, fans… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Percival is a suspiciously common name in the Harry Potter universe, and I’m inclined to read way into that. Probably the most well-known of these is Percy Weasley, who is not actually a confirmed “Percival.” As the Lexicon’s entry for Percy notes, “In Arthurian legend, Percival was a chivalrous knight… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
What little we do know about Argus Filch, we learn perhaps the most personal detail about this man in Chapter 8 of Chamber of Secrets, entitled “The Deathday Party.” Harry just couldn’t squash his curiosity and opened Mr Filch’s mail and found his Kwikspell courses, alerting us to… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
I love this chapter. Rowling is on top of her game here. I talked about her skill at writing conversations in a previous episode, and she’s at it again in this chapter. The nuances of the conversations, first between the Trio and Hagrid and then between Hagrid and Umbridge, are… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Canon discussion / Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
In Chapter 8 of Chamber of Secrets, titled “The Deathday Party,” we get an up close look at the ghost of Gryffindor Tower, Sir Nicholas de Mimsey Porpington, aka Nearly Headless Nick. When Harry comes across him in the halls after Quidditch practice, Nick is reading a transparent… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
So, if you’re like me, and I assume you are, you’ve got some questions about wizard plumbing. We know Hogwarts has bathrooms, and that those bathrooms have toilets, and that the halls of Hogwarts are lined with pipes. This is all spelled out for us in Chamber of Secrets,… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Did Moaning Myrtle ever find out that it was Hagrid that was accused of being responsible for her murder? I know she was intent on haunting Olive Hornby for a while after her death. But, it was 50 years before Hagrid’s name was cleared. Did Myrtle ever wonder how… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
So as you know, I’ve been reading through Order of the Phoenix for the, I don’t know, maybe fortieth time, and that doesn’t include the dozen times I’ve listened to the audio version. The sentences feel wonderfully familiar and honestly, it’s like spending time with a dear friend. I guess… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
In Chapter 33, “The Prince’s Tale,” of Deathly Hallows we see a previous conversation that Dumbledore and Snape had at the end of the Yule Ball. They are talking about the Dark Mark and discussing whether Snape will flee if summoned by Voldemort, as Karkaroff plans… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
We’ve been exploring chapters from the fifth book in the Harry Potter series, The Order of the Phoenix. In several of these podcasts, I’ve marveled at the way Rowling can really bring us into the magical places in her books. The creaky, dusty old house in Grimmauld Place is… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
In this chapter, things really start heading downhill. Umbridge is appointed to be Hogwarts High Inquisitor — a name reminiscent of the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition. She begins harassing and demeaning the rest of the teaching staff immediately. These scenes where she stalks the classrooms of various… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
“They prefer the woman’s touch, unicorns,“ says professor Grubbly-Plank in chapter 24 of Goblet of Fire. Rowling uses existing myths in her wizarding world often. The unicorn is a great example of that. Unicorns have been noted as mythical creatures in both Eastern and Western mythology since antiquity. Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Website news
In celebration of Harry’s first visit to Diagon Alley on July 31, we’re very excited to present the Wizarding World Currency Exchange to help all you Muggles in your magical shopping. Hagrid may think that seventeen Sickles to the Galleon is “easy enough,” but we Muggles find it complicated. Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Has this ever happened to you? Recently, I was playing a Harry Potter Trivia game with my friends. The question was: How was the Diadem of Ravenclaw Horcrux destroyed? I definitely know this answer, my favorite book is Deathly Hallows, and I’m a Ravenclaw, this question hits my sweet spot… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Chapter 34 of Deathly Hallows is one of the most poignant, if not the most poignant chapter in the Harry Potter series. Harry realizes that he must die in order to kill the part of Voldemort that resides in him, so he leaves the castle to confront Voldemort… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Fandom News
With that headline, you’d probably be thinking that this is about Snape. But you’d be wrong. Snape was only mysterious while we were reading the books. Now that we’re finished, we have Snape pretty much figured out. Rowling did one of her classic “here’s all the answers, you’re welcome” chapters… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
In Chamber of Secrets Harry goes from living in one extreme to being brought to the opposite extreme. The first sentences of Chapter 4, At Flourish and Blotts, describes it perfectly: ‘Life at the Burrow was as different as possible from everything on Privet Drive. The Dursleys liked everything… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Have you ever wondered why an all-wizard rock band would call itself The Weird Sisters? Shakespeare fans may recognize the term “weird sisters” as a name applied to the witches in Macbeth. You might know that all roles in Shakespeare’s plays were played by male… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
In China the number four is considered unlucky, presumably because the Chinese word for four is very similar to the word for death. This association with bad luck seems to have followed the number four into the wizarding world. Four is sometimes seen as a source… Read More