"Witches make far better Quidditch players than wizards, everybody knows that."
-- interview with Gwenog Jones in the Daily Prophet (DP1)
Gwenog Jones is the retired Captain and Beater of the only all-female professional Quidditch team, the Holyhead Harpies, and manager of the Welsh National Team in 2014.
After a game she enjoys relaxing with friends, drinking butterbeer, and listening to The Weird Sisters (FW).
It has been said of Jones that “people who disagree with [her] have a nasty habit of turning into woodlice.” She herself says that the Harpies “are easily the most exciting team playing,” and added that witches make better Quidditch players than wizards. It is doubtful that anyone will disagree with her to her face (DP1). She is also accused of death threats against former team-mate Wilda Griffiths who defected to Puddlemere United (DP2). After a win following new Chaser Valmai Morgan joining the team, the Daily Prophet reported that Ms Jones said Griffiths was “lower than rat-droppings” (DP3). A riot during the game against Puddlemere United was blamed on Jones and she was said to be “helping the Ministry with its enquiries” (DP4).
Gwenog was a favorite of Horace Slughorn‘s while at Hogwarts. She was a member of his Slug Club. She still sends Slughorn free tickets to see the Harpies play whenever he wants them (HBP4, HBP7). He even invited her to one of his parties while back at Hogwarts during the 1996-1997 school year, and Hermione met Gwenog there (HBP14).
Ginny Weasley is a big fan and had a poster of Gwenog on her bedroom wall (DH7).
After retiring from the Holyhead Harpies, Gwenog took on the post of manager for the Welsh National Team during the 2014 Quidditch World Cup. When she heard that the manager of the Brazil team, José Barboza, had called her Chasers ‘talentless hags’ – a comment he claimed was taken out of context by reporter Rita Skeeter – she threatened to curse him. So it was no surprise that she was arrested after Wales lost their quarter-final match against Brazil when, in fury at the result, she cursed Barboza’s face off in front of a packed stadium (QWC).
Skills
Talented Beater with a volatile temper - and she says what she thinks....
Other canon notes and references
Hogwarts 1979-1986
"Wizard of the Month" for June 2004 on J K Rowling's website (JKR)
Commentary
Etymology
Gwenog is most likely a made-up Welsh name. Gwen is the feminine form of the name/word Gwyn, meaning "white". Og can mean "a harrow (type of plough)". However "og" can also be added to a noun (eg. "niwl" +og = niwlog "foggy") - as gwenu means "to smile", by extension her name could mean "smiley".
Jones is an extremely common Welsh surname, even though the Welsh alphabet does not include the letter "j"!
Notes
Related images:
Lexicon lists of:
Although the dates printed on the Daily Prophet Newsletters are:
the timeframe for these events is 1992-1993.
From the Web
Writing by J K Rowling on WizardingWorld (Pottermore):
Writing by J K Rowling on Imgur (Daily Prophet coverage of the 2014 Quidditch World Cup, originally from Pottermore):
- History of the Quidditch World Cup
- Quidditch World Cup 1990-2014
- Match reports and articles from the 2014 Quidditch World Cup
Harry Potter Wiki: Gwenog Jones
WizardingWorld (Pottermore) features:
- British and Irish Quidditch teams to support
- Pros and cons of joining the Slug Club
- Quidditch Collection
Pensieve (Comments)
Tags: arrest dangerous death threats excitement Gwenog Jones remembrall ruthless talented