J.K. Rowling Discusses American Wizarding School

Jun 07, 2015

Posted by: Catherine

News

Other than Hogwarts, which is the school of magic that serves only Britain and Ireland, not many other wizarding schools were mentioned in the Harry Potter series. The Beauxbaton Academy of Magic in France, and Durmstrang Institute in Bulgaria, were the only other European schools mentioned, nothing outside the continent. It has long been believed by many in the Harry Potter fandom, ever since the publication of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, that the Salem Institute of Magic was the fictional American school for witches and wizards in the Harry Potter universe. (Rowling mentioned in an interview that the American school would be mentioned in book four). The American school of witchcraft and wizardry, was supposed to be mentioned in Goblet of Fire, but never made an appearance. It has long been speculated that the witches giggling under a spangled banner, which read “Salem Institute of Magic,” at the Quidditch World cup, were students of the American school of witchcraft and wizardy. As Rowling is known for making very clever references, the American school has long been thought to be located in Salem, MA–home of the infamous Salem Witch Trials–and thus, long believed that the Salem Institute of Magic was the American school. This morning, Rowling tweeted and debunked all of our theories. However, she did give us hope that we would soon learn of the American magic school in the “Fantastic Beast Films.”

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We have officially learned that the American School will not be in New York–Salem, MA may still be in the running–and will be named from immigrant origins. Native American traditions are important to this school, but naming which tribes would give away the location of the school.

 

When first digesting this news, it was hard to believe that Rowling was not contradicting herself from statements she made in interviews 15 years ago (which can be forgiven, that was so long ago now) when Goblet of Fire was released. When Rowling made her visit to our Pottercast (episode 130) in 2007, she reconciled contradicting statements made about Hannah Abbot’s blood status (once mentioned in an interview as muggleborn, and later in Deathly Hallows as having wizarding ancestors buried alongside Harry’s parents in Godric’s Hallow) by “splitting it in half” and “let’s call her half-blood.”





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