Forewarning: If you do not love Harry Potter, you might not find this entry very interesting.
It is now Thursday in Edinburgh, and I did one of my favorite things, I took a tour. One of the best tours I have ever been on actually, and I highly recommend looking into this tour group. They have tours set up all over Europe. It is called Sandemans New Europe. It was founded by a Yale graduate who is trying to make learning about the wonderful cities of Europe affordable. So the day tours are free, and then you tip at the end according to what you can afford. Such a great idea!! Here are some of the things I saw/learned.
First off, I learned about Deacon Brodie. But being that I dedicated almost a whole entry to this
Now to my blog title...Harry Potter comes to life. The World of Harry Potter. Sigh. Dream come true. Growing up with this series of book, anything Harry Potter excites me (If I made you explore the Harry Potter amusement park website with me you understand, someday soon I need to go there!). Well what I did not know is that JK Rowling wrote much of the Harry Potter series in Edinburgh. She is English by birth, but she has adopted Scotland as her homeland. During our tour they took us to some notable Harry Potter sites...
Want to see Hogwarts in real life?! Visit Edinburgh. J.K. Rowling has said that Hogwarts is suppose to be in Scotland in the books. And here is the real inspiration for Hogwarts...the George Heriot's School. Crazy isn't? Can you believe that kids go to school there?! Unbelievable. Here is a brief history of the school. After George Heriot died he asked that his fortune go towards making a school for the poor. While it does not serve that purpose anymore (it's absurdly expensive) it does maintain a bit of this tradition. The school reserves a small percentage of its seats for underprivileged students. However, back to Hogwarts. This school also has 4 houses that the students are sorted into...sound familiar :)- Lauriston (green, after the school's address, Lauriston Place)
- Greyfriars (white, named after the adjacent kirk, Greyfriars Kirk)
- Raeburn (red, after a famous former pupil)
- Castle (blue, after Edinburgh Castle to the north)
Here I am at the gates of Hogwarts.As mentioned in the list of houses, there is a kirk neighboring the school. Rowling also spent a lot of time in this "kirk" or graveyard (apparently that is not weird in Scotland like it is in the States. Our tour guide said that a graveyard is the second most popular place for people to have sex in public...yeah). In the graveyard are tombstones that share names with some of Rowling's most famous characters. For instance, if you look near the gate that looks onto "Hogwarts" you will find McGonagall as well as Moodie!
Now perhaps this next part is not fair to Edinburgh or Edinburgh Castle, because it is magnificent in it of itself. But it is also part of the creation of Hogwarts in Rowling's mind. If you pick up George Heriot's School and then place it on top of the Edinburgh Castle you get Hogwarts!! How did Rowling come up with all of this? Well the place that she wrote looks out onto Edinburgh Castle...
Okay Okay. But enough Harry Potter. I know most do not have the same enthusiasm for the stories as I do even if you grew up with it. But PS there is more Harry Potter to come, because I am going to be seeing it in London when it comes out in theaters. So stay tuned!
So in the kirk where Rowling got a few of her names for characters is another famous story. The story of a dog who lived during the mid 19th Century: Greyfriars Bobby. The story goes that the night watchman of the graveyard, John Gray, bought a dog and the two became inseparable. However, two years later John died of tuberculosis, and he was subsequently buried at the graveyard he kept. Greyfriars Bobby lives for another 14 years. But he never forgets his old friend even and spends most of his time stationed near John's grave. This story has become famous worldwide for "Let his loyalty and devotion be a lesson to us all" (the worlds on the gravestone pictured here).
Okay last story now. And it is a weird one. As mentioned in the last entry, at one point in history public hangings were a form of entertainment. One of the most memorable story is that of a woman who is hanged and then comes back to life. I know, I know, it does not sound believable. But let me finish the story... In short, a woman gets pregnant out of wed-lock. She does not tell anyone, not even the father. However, she miscarriages. Feeling there is no need to tell anyone about the pregnancy she buries the evidence of the miscarriage. Yet, somehow the authorities learn of what occurred and bring her to trial. Her crime? Not telling the father of the child of her pregnancy. The punishment? Death by hanging. She is brought the gallows, hung, and pronounced dead by the attending doctor. Sounds pretty typical. But here is where things get weird. The body is taken in the back of a wagon outside of the city for burial. Suddenly, the wagon driver hears a commotion coming from behind him. So he stops and walks over to the back of the wagon. He hears pounding from inside the coffin! Terrified, he heads back to Edinburgh. The woman is alive!! The authorities debate what to do. Should they hang her again? No. They decide that she has ultimately served out her punishment that required she be hung and die. Both of things she fulfilled. Therefore, she was allowed to go free. Now the legends goes that the woman stayed in Edinburgh and regularly attended hangings. She would remind the guilty that everything would be okay, I mean she came alive didn't she? | |
| Where the Gallows used to Stand |
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