Wards

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering where the idea of magical protective wards comes from. It's a fairly ubiquitous concept in HP fan fiction, but I'm not finding anything about wards in the books. There is the blood protection on 4 Privet Drive, but I don't think that's ever called a ward.

Comments

[lisasimpsonfan.livejournal.com]

I am too lazy to look it up in the books but didn't they use something like wards to confuse and keep muggles away from The World Cup? Also doesn't Hermione cast wards around their camp in the last book and part one of the last movie? I think she even called it a ward in the movie.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

Ah, you're right, there are "Muggle Repelling Charms." And there are a few examples of "protective enchantments" and "protective charms" in DH. So, there's no actual mention of "wards," but the idea does exist. Interestingly, though, I can't find much about protective enchantments and charms until DH. So maybe she got the idea from fan fiction. :)

[oryx_leucoryx]

There are anti-Apparition wards. In the context of Hogwarts I don't think they are ever named 'wards' as such, mostly Hermione (and once Severus) explaining that it is impossible to Apparate to/from Hogwarts, but Dumbledore also casts them in OOTP at the Ministry to prevent the captured DEs from re-escaping. Also in HBP when Albus enables Apparition within the Great Hall. Those are places to look for mention of wards. Hmm, when Severus is leading the DE force away from Hogwarts, far enough to Apparate - is Harry thinking of wards?

Protective charms/enchantments are also mentioned when Sirius describes how his father protected 12GP. (Also Tom's protection of his cave by the sea and the locket within it.)

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

Like madderbrad, I did a word search through all the books for "wards" and didn't find anything.

Sirius says that his father put "every security measure known to wizard kind" on Grimmauld Place, but only says specifically that it's unplottable.

But I did look more carefully, and Rowling does use the language of "enchantments" throughout the books. Hogwarts has an anti-apparation "enchantment."

However, "enchantment" seems to be a rather vague term in the Potterverse. The teachers call the various protections around the philosopher's stone "enchantments," and none of those really fit the concept of wards that we find in fan fiction.

[oryx_leucoryx]

OK, at the Ministry Albus mentions an anti-disapparition jinx. And in HBP Severus managed to reach Hogwarts' boundaries to disapparate. So the word 'wards' isn't mentioned, but they clearly are there.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

I think there are mentions of such 'protective enchantments/charms' throughout the books - such as the wedding, the infinite camping trip, the World cup - but I believe you're correct in that the word 'ward' itself is never actually coined.

I just performed a quick word search and found lots of mentions of medical wards and St. Mungo wards, but no protective spell wards. :-)

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

Yeah I've been doing word searches as well. I had done a search for "protective" and didn't get any hits for "protective charms/enchantments/spells" except in book 7.

However, searching for just "enchantments" gave me some hits in the earlier books.

Hermione says in PoA, for instance, "The castle’s protected by more than walls, you know. There are all sorts of enchantments on it, to stop people entering by stealth. You can’t just Apparate in here."

And, in HBP, Dumbledore lifts the "anti-apparation enchantment."

So, I guess there are a few examples of magic in canon that may be conceptually similar to fanon wards.

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

They're mentioned in Diana Wynne Jones' Tough Guide to Fantasyland, so are probably common in fantasy (though oddly enough, none of the fantasy I've ever read). Probably fanficcers needed a name for protective spells that really should have been developed in the Potterverse and picked the generic one.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think Rowling really failed in this area of her world-building.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

The concept shows up in canon, but the rterm never does. Given that Rowling boasts of not reading or liking fantasy much, I suspect that she simply was displaying her ignorance.

The term has been around in fantasy writing for decades. I suspect that it may be a legitimate import from people who actually researched magical ritual and theory before writing their stories, and wanted to get the vocabulary right. Of course there is no guarantee that they did so, or that the term hasn't shifted through use by people who *didn't* do their research first, but it was probably a real term once. Even if only a hypothetical one.