Quidditch Through the Ages

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

 QUIDDITCH THROUGH THE AGES

 

Decided to do this for the sake of completeness.

 

*The intro is actually funny, something lacking in the later books

 

*”No spell yet devised enables wizards to fly unaided in human form.” Oh dear, continuity. Admittedly Voldemort may have invented the spell, but what’s the point of him doing so, apart from looking cool? Maybe to escape an anti-disApparition jinx, but there must be easier ways. And if “Levitation is commonplace”, why does no-one do it, given that it would be awesome to float everywhere?

 

*Given that wizards use other medievalisms, why were their brooms so rubbish in the Middle Ages? 

 

*”By the twelfth century, wizards had learned to barter services” - about 9,000 years behind Muggles, then.

 

*I speak Irish, and “Aingeingein” does not resemble an Irish word.

 

*Saxon language in the eleventh century? Unlikely, Old English (Anglo-Saxon) was already becoming Middle English by that time.

 

*The tale of Gunhilda and Goodwin shows us that domestic violence has a history far predating H&R. Isn’t it funny when a woman assaults a man?

 

*The flying gravel is funny.

 

*So by rule #6 Harry cheated with the Patronus in PoA! 

 

*The woman-hit-man-funny theme recurs in the Harpies’ entry.

 

Comments

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

You know, I don't even own this book... or the Fabulous Beasts one, or the Tales of Beedle the Bard. But it's really annoying that JKR sets up a stupid rule that wizards can't fly only to break it with Voldemort, only to have his power of flight be lamer than the alternatives.

Of course, in the movies, wizards are flying all over the place, so it's just kids who can't. Which sort of makes sense anyway--so why limit flying to Voldemort (and... Snape? How come Snape gets to fly?)

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Because he learned from Lily, and subsequently taught Voldemort. My favorite theory, anyway! Seriously, do you think that the Voldemort we see in DH either would or could teach anyone anything?

But yes, it's really hard to see why Rowling sets up all these silly rules in the first place if she was just going to break them all over the place. The one that still has me fuming, two years and more later, is the Unforgivable Curses. These are Unforgivable for a reason! It's not just the ministry being arbitrary; these are really, really bad things to do to another person! And yet the trio gets to throw them around like candy- grr!

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

I agree with Swythyv in her Thestrals essay: Snape didn't leap out of the window and fly. He called a Thestral as soon as he felt Alecto zap-call Tom, then when he got driven out, he lept out of the windo *onto* the Thestral and it was the Thestral's bat wings that Harry saw making a silhouette down toward the gate. He didn't see Snape, crouched low, clinging to its back.