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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the novel series. For the character, see Harry Potter (character). For the film series, see Harry Potter (film series). For the franchise, see Wizarding World. For the universe, see Fictional universe of Harry Potter. For other uses, see Harry Potter (disambiguation).
Harry Potter
Philosopher's Stone (1997)
Chamber of Secrets (1998)
Prisoner of Azkaban (1999)
Goblet of Fire (2000)
Order of the Phoenix (2003)
Half-Blood Prince (2005)
Deathly Hallows (2007)
Author J. K. Rowling
Cover artist Thomas Taylor, Cliff Wright, Giles Greenfield, Jason Cockcroft
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre Fantasy
Publisher Bloomsbury
Published 26 June 1997 – 21 July 2007
Media type
Print (hardback and paperback)
Audiobook
E-book
No. of books 7
Website harrypotter.com
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The main story arc concerns Harry's conflict with Lord Voldemort, a dark wizard who intends to become immortal, overthrow the wizard governing body known as the Ministry of Magic, and subjugate all wizards and non-magical people, known in-universe as Muggles.
The series was originally published in English by Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom and Scholastic Press in the United States. A series of many genres, including fantasy, drama, coming-of-age fiction, and the British school story (which includes elements of mystery, thriller, adventure, horror, and romance), the world of Harry Potter explores numerous themes and includes many cultural meanings and references.[1] Major themes in the series include prejudice, corruption, madness, love, and death.[2]
Since the release of the first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, on 26 June 1997, the books have found immense popularity and commercial success worldwide. They have attracted a wide adult audience as well as younger readers and are widely considered cornerstones of modern literature,[3][4] though the books have received mixed reviews from critics and literary scholars. As of February 2023, the books have sold more than 600 million copies worldwide, making them the best-selling book series in history, available in dozens of languages. The last four books all set records as the fastest-selling books in history, with the final instalment selling roughly 2.7 million copies in the United Kingdom and 8.3 million copies in the United States within twenty-four hours of its release. It holds the Guinness World Record for "Best-selling book series for children."[5]
Warner Bros. Pictures adapted the original seven books into an eight-part namesake film series. In 2016, the total value of the Harry Potter franchise was estimated at $25 billion,[6] making it one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a play based on a story co-written by Rowling. A television series based on the books is in production at HBO.
The success of the books and films has allowed the Harry Potter franchise to expand with numerous derivative works, a travelling exhibition that premiered in Chicago in 2009, a studio tour in London that opened in 2012, a digital platform on which J. K. Rowling updates the series with new information and insight, and a trilogy of spin-off films premiering in November 2016 with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, among many other developments. Themed attractions, collectively known as The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, have been built at several Universal Destinations & Experiences amusement parks around the world.
Plot
Further information: Fictional universe of Harry Potter
Early years
"The Elephant House", a small, painted red café where Rowling wrote a few chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
The Elephant House was one of the cafés in Edinburgh where Rowling wrote the first part of Harry Potter.
The series follows the life of a boy named Harry Potter. In the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the US), Harry lives in a cupboard under the stairs in the house of the Dursleys, his aunt, uncle and cousin, who all treat him poorly. At the age of 11, Harry discovers that he is a wizard. He meets a half-giant named Hagrid who gives him a letter of acceptance to attend the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry learns that his parents, Lily and James Potter, also had magical powers and were murdered by the dark wizard Lord Voldemort when Harry was a baby. When Voldemort attempted to kill Harry, his curse rebounded, seemingly killing Voldemort, and Harry survived with a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. The event made Harry famous among the community of wizards and witches.
Harry becomes a student at Hogwarts and is sorted into Gryffindor House. He gains the friendship of Ron Weasley, a member of a large but poor wizarding family, and Hermione Granger, a witch of non-magical, or Muggle, parentage. The trio develop an enmity with the rich pure-blood student Draco Malfoy. Harry encounters the school's headmaster, Albus Dumbledore; the potions professor, Severus Snape, who displays a dislike for him; and the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Quirinus Quirrell. Quirrell turns out to be allied with Voldemort, who is still alive as a weak spirit. The first book concludes with Harry's confrontation with Voldemort, who, in his quest to regain a body, yearns to possess the Philosopher's Stone, a substance that bestows everlasting life.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets describes Harry's second year at Hogwarts. Students are attacked and petrified by an unknown creature; wizards of Muggle parentage are the primary targets. The attacks appear related to the mythical Chamber of Secrets and resemble attacks fifty years earlier. Harry discovers an ability to speak the snake language Parseltongue, which he learns is rare and associated with the Dark Arts. When Hermione is attacked and Ron's younger sister Ginny Weasley is abducted, Harry and Ron uncover the chamber's secrets and enter it. Harry discovers that Ginny was possessed by an old diary, inside which the memory of Tom Marvolo Riddle, Voldemort's younger self, resides. On Voldemort's behalf, Ginny opened the chamber and unleashed the basilisk, an ancient monster that kills or petrifies those who make direct or indirect eye contact, respectively. With the help of Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes, and the Sword of Gryffindor, Harry slays the basilisk and destroys the diary.
In the third novel, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry learns that he is targeted by Sirius Black, an escaped convict who allegedly assisted in his parents' murder. Dementors, creatures that feed on happiness, search for Sirius and guard the school. As Harry struggles with his reaction to the dementors, he reaches out to Remus Lupin, a new professor who teaches him the Patronus charm. On a windy night, Ron is dragged by a black dog into the Shrieking Shack, a haunted house, and Harry and Hermione follow. The dog is revealed to be Sirius Black. Lupin enters the shack and explains that Sirius was James Potter's best friend; he was framed by another friend of James, Peter Pettigrew, who hides as Ron's pet rat, Scabbers. As the full moon rises, Lupin transforms into a werewolf and bounds away, and the group chase after him. They are surrounded by dementors, but are saved by a figure resembling James who casts a stag Patronus. This is later revealed to be a future version of Harry, who travelled back in time with Hermione using a device called a Time Turner. The duo help Sirius escape on a Hippogriff, while Pettigrew escapes.
Voldemort returns
The former 1st floor Nicholson's Cafe now renamed Spoon in Edinburgh where J. K. Rowling wrote the first few chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
In Harry's fourth year of school (detailed in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), Hogwarts hosts the Triwizard Tournament, a contest between Hogwarts and the schools Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. Harry is unwillingly entered into the contest, becoming Hogwarts' second participant after Cedric Diggory, an unusual occurrence that causes his friends to distance themselves from him. Harry claims the Triwizard Cup with Cedric, but he is teleported to a graveyard where Pettigrew kills Cedric, then resurrects Voldemort using Harry's blood. Voldemort convenes his supporters, the Death Eaters, and Harry manages to escape after a duel with Voldemort. Upon returning to Hogwarts, it is revealed that a Death Eater, Barty Crouch, Jr, in disguise as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, engineered Harry's entry into the tournament, secretly helped him, and had him teleported to Voldemort.
In the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the Ministry of Magic refuses to believe that Voldemort has returned. Dumbledore re-activates the Order of the Phoenix, a secret society to counter Voldemort; meanwhile, the Ministry tightens control of Hogwarts by appointing Dolores Umbridge as High Inquisitor of Hogwarts, and she gradually increases her powers. When Umbridge bans practical teaching of Defence Against the Dark Arts, Harry, Ron and Hermione form "Dumbledore's Army", a secret group to continue the teachings. Harry has recurring dreams of a dark corridor in the Ministry of Magic, eventually dreaming that Sirius is being tortured there. He races to the Ministry with his friends, but it is a trap, planted in his head by Voldemort. The group are attacked by Death Eaters and saved by the Order of the Phoenix, but Sirius is killed in the battle. A duel between Dumbledore and Voldemort convinces the ministry of Voldemort's return. A prophecy concerning Harry and Voldemort is revealed: one must die at the hands of the other.
In the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Snape teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts while Horace Slughorn becomes the Potions master. Harry finds an old textbook with annotations by the Half-Blood Prince, due to which he achieves success in Potions class. Harry also takes private sessions with Dumbledore, viewing memories about the early life of Voldemort in a device called a Pensieve. Harry learns from a drunken Slughorn that he used to teach Tom Riddle, and that Voldemort divided his soul into pieces, creating a series of Horcruxes. Harry and Dumbledore travel to a distant lake to destroy a Horcrux; they succeed, but Dumbledore weakens. On their return, they find Draco Malfoy and Death Eaters attacking the school. The book ends with the killing of Dumbledore by Professor Snape, the titular Half-Blood Prince.
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final novel in the series, Lord Voldemort gains control of the Ministry of Magic. Harry, Ron and Hermione learn about the Deathly Hallows, legendary items that lead to mastery over death. The group infiltrates the ministry, where they steal a locket Horcrux, and visit Godric's Hollow, where they are attacked by Nagini, Voldemort's snake. A silver doe Patronus leads them to the Sword of Gryffindor, with which they destroy the locket. They steal a Horcrux from Gringotts and travel to Hogwarts, culminating in a battle with the Death Eaters. Snape is killed by Voldemort out of paranoia, but he lends Harry his memories before he dies. Harry learns that Snape was always loyal to Dumbledore, and that Harry is himself a Horcrux. Harry surrenders to Voldemort and is hit with the killing curse; however he is not killed as the protection Lily gave him lives on within Voldemort since he used Harry's blood to resurrect himself. The defenders of Hogwarts continue to fight on; Harry comes back from limbo, faces Voldemort and kills him.
An epilogue titled "Nineteen Years Later" describes the lives of the surviving characters and the impact of Voldemort's death. Harry and Ginny are married with three children, and Ron and Hermione are married with two children.
Style and allusions
Genre and style
The novels fall into the genre of fantasy literature, and qualify as a type of fantasy called "urban fantasy", "contemporary fantasy", or "low fantasy". They are mainly dramas, and maintain a fairly serious and dark tone throughout, though they do contain some notable instances of tragicomedy and black humour. In many respects, they are also examples of the bildungsroman, or coming of age novel,[7] and contain elements of mystery, adventure, horror, thriller, and romance. The books are also, in the words of Stephen King, "shrewd mystery tales",[8] and each book is constructed in the manner of a Sherlock Holmes-style mystery adventure. The stories are told from a third person limited point of view with very few exceptions (such as the opening chapters of Philosopher's Stone, Goblet of Fire and Deathly Hallows and the first two chapters of Half-Blood Prince).
The series can be considered part of the British children's boarding school genre, which includes Rudyard Kipling's Stalky & Co., Enid Blyton's Malory Towers, St. Clare's and the Naughtiest Girl series, and Frank Richards's Billy Bunter novels: the Harry Potter books are predominantly set in Hogwarts, a fictional British boarding school for wizards, where the curriculum includes the use of magic.[9] In this sense they are "in a direct line of descent from Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown's School Days and other Victorian and Edwardian novels of British public school life", though they are, as many note, more contemporary, grittier, darker, and more mature than the typical boarding school novel, addressing serious themes of death, love, loss, prejudice, coming-of-age, and the loss of innocence in a 1990s British setting.[10][11][failed verification]
In Harry Potter, Rowling juxtaposes the extraordinary against the ordinary.[12] Her narrative features two worlds: a contemporary world inhabited by non-magical people called Muggles, and another featuring wizards. It differs from typical portal fantasy in that its magical elements stay grounded in the mundane.[13] Paintings move and talk; books bite readers; letters shout messages; and maps show live journeys, making the wizarding world both exotic and familiar.[12][14] This blend of realistic and romantic elements extends to Rowling's characters. Their names are often onomatopoeic[clarification needed]: Malfoy is difficult, Filch is unpleasant, and Lupin is a werewolf.[15][16] Harry is ordinary and relatable, with down-to-earth features such as wearing broken glasses;[17] the scholar Roni Natov terms him an "everychild".[18] These elements serve to highlight Harry when he is heroic, making him both an everyman and a fairytale hero.[17][19]
Each of the seven books is set over the course of one school year. Harry struggles with the problems he encounters, and dealing with them often involves the need to violate some school rules. If students are caught breaking rules, they are often disciplined by Hogwarts professors. The stories reach their climax in the summer term, near or just after final exams, when events escalate far beyond in-school squabbles and struggles, and Harry must confront either Voldemort or one of his followers, the Death Eaters, with the stakes a matter of life and death—a point underlined, as the series progresses, by characters being killed in each of the final four books.[20][21] In the aftermath, he learns important lessons through exposition and discussions with head teacher and mentor Albus Dumbledore. The only exception to this school-centred setting is the final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, in which Harry and his friends spend most of their time away from Hogwarts, and only return there to face Voldemort at the dénouement.[20]
Allusions
The Harry Potter stories feature imagery and motifs drawn from Arthurian myth and fairytales. Harry's ability to draw the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat resembles the Arthurian sword in the stone legend.[22] His life with the Dursleys has been compared to Cinderella.[23] Hogwarts resembles a medieval university-cum-castle with several professors who belong to an Order of Merlin; Old Professor Binns still lectures about the International Warlock Convention of 1289; and a real historical person, a 14th-century scribe, Sir Nicolas Flamel, is described as a holder of the Philosopher's Stone.[24] Other medieval elements in Hogwarts include coats-of-arms and medieval weapons on the walls, letters written on parchment and sealed with wax, the Great Hall of Hogwarts, which is similar to the Great Hall of Camelot, the use of Latin phrases, the tents put up for Quidditch tournaments, which are similar to the "marvellous tents" put up for knightly tournaments, imaginary animals like dragons and unicorns that exist around Hogwarts, and the banners with heraldic animals for the four Houses of Hogwarts.[24]
Many of the motifs of the Potter stories, such as the hero's quest invoking objects that confer invisibility, magical animals and trees, a forest full of danger and the recognition of a character based upon scars, are drawn from medieval French Arthurian romances.[24] Other aspects borrowed from French Arthurian romances include the use of owls as messengers, werewolves as characters, and white deer.[24] The American scholars Heather Arden and Kathrn Lorenz in particular argue that many aspects of the Potter stories are inspired by a 14th-century French Arthurian romance, Claris et Laris, writing of the "startling" similarities between the adventures of Potter and the knight Claris.[24] Arden and Lorenz noted that Rowling graduated from the University of Exeter in 1986 with a degree in French literature and spent a year living in France afterwards.[24]
Like C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter also contains Christian symbolism and allegory. The series has been viewed as a Christian moral fable in the psychomachia tradition, in which stand-ins for good and evil fight for supremacy over a person's soul.[25] Children's literature critic Joy Farmer sees parallels between Harry and Jesus Christ.[26] Comparing Rowling with Lewis, she argues that "magic is both authors' way of talking about spiritual reality".[27] According to Maria Nikolajeva, Christian imagery is particularly strong in the final scenes of the series: Harry dies in self-sacrifice and Voldemort delivers an "ecce homo" speech, after which Harry is resurrected and defeats his enemy.[28]
Rowling stated that she did not reveal Harry Potter's religious parallels in the beginning because doing so would have "give[n] too much away to fans who might then see the parallels".[29] In the final book of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Rowling makes the book's Christian imagery more explicit, quoting both Matthew 6:21 and 1 Corinthians 15:26 (King James Version) when Harry visits his parents' graves.[29] Hermione Granger teaches Harry Potter that the meaning of these verses from the Christian Bible are "living beyond death. Living after death", which Rowling states "epitomize the whole series".[29][30][31] Rowling also exhibits Christian values in developing Albus Dumbledore as a God-like character, the divine, trusted leader of the series, guiding the long-suffering hero along his quest. In the seventh novel, Harry speaks with and questions the deceased Dumbledore much like a person of faith would talk to and question God.[32][full citation needed]
Themes
J.K. Rowling, a blond, blue-eyed woman, who is the author of the series
The novelist, J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter's overarching theme is death.[33][34] In the first book, when Harry looks into the Mirror of Erised, he feels both joy and "a terrible sadness" at seeing his desire: his parents, alive and with him.[35] Confronting their loss is central to Harry's character arc and manifests in different ways through the series, such as in his struggles with Dementors.[35][36] Other characters in Harry's life die; he even faces his own death in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.[37] The series has an existential perspective—Harry must grow mature enough to accept death.[38] In Harry's world, death is not binary but mutable, a state that exists in degrees.[39] Unlike Voldemort, who evades death by separating and hiding his soul in seven parts, Harry's soul is whole, nourished by friendship and love.[38]
Love distinguishes Harry and Voldemort. Harry is a hero because he loves others, even willing to accept death to save them; Voldemort is a villain because he does not.[40] Harry carries the protection of his mother's sacrifice in his blood; Voldemort, who wants Harry's blood and the protection it carries, does not understand that love vanquishes death.[26]
Rowling has spoken about thematising death and loss in the series. Soon after she started writing Philosopher's Stone, her mother died; she said that "I really think from that moment on, death became a central, if not the central theme of the seven books".[41] Rowling has described Harry as "the prism through which I view death", and further stated that "all of my characters are defined by their attitude to death and the possibility of death".[42]
While Harry Potter can be viewed as a story about good vs. evil, its moral divisions are not absolute.[43][44] First impressions of characters are often misleading. Harry assumes in the first book that Quirrell is on the side of good because he opposes Snape, who appears to be malicious; in reality, Quirrell is an agent of Voldemort, while Snape is loyal to Dumbledore. This pattern later recurs with Moody and Snape.[43] In Rowling's world, good and evil are choices rather than inherent attributes: second chances and the possibility of redemption are key themes of the series.[45][46] This is reflected in Harry's self-doubts after learning his connections to Voldemort, such as Parseltongue;[45] and prominently in Snape's characterisation, which has been described as complex and multifaceted.[47] In some scholars' view, while Rowling's narrative appears on the surface to be about Harry, her focus may actually be on Snape's morality and character arc.[48][49]
Rowling said that, to her, the moral significance of the tales seems "blindingly obvious". In the fourth book, Dumbledore speaks of a "choice between what is right and what is easy"; Rowling views this as a key theme, "because that ... is how tyranny is started, with people being apathetic and taking the easy route and suddenly finding themselves in deep trouble".[50]
Academics and journalists have developed many other interpretations of themes in the books, some more complex than others, and some including political subtexts. Themes such as normality, oppression, survival, and overcoming imposing odds have all been considered as prevalent throughout the series.[51] Similarly, the theme of making one's way through adolescence and "going over one's most harrowing ordeals—and thus coming to terms with them" has also been considered.[52] Rowling has stated that the books comprise "a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry" and that they also pass on a message to "question authority and... not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth".[53]
Development history
Main article: Harry Potter influences and analogues
In 1990, Rowling was on a crowded train from Manchester to London when the idea for Harry suddenly "fell into" her head. Rowling gives an account of the experience on her website saying:[54]
I had been writing almost continuously since the age of six but I had never been so excited about an idea before. I simply sat and thought, for four (delayed train) hours, and all the details bubbled up in my brain, and this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who did not know he was a wizard became more and more real to me.
Rowling completed Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 1995 and the manuscript was sent off to several prospective agents.[55] The second agent she tried, Christopher Little, offered to represent her and sent the manuscript to several publishers.[56]
Publishing history
The logo used in British, Australian, and Canadian editions before 2010, which uses the typeface Cochin Bold[57]
After twelve other publishers had rejected Philosopher's Stone, Bloomsbury agreed to publish the book.[58] Despite Rowling's statement that she did not have any particular age group in mind when beginning to write the Harry Potter books, the publishers initially targeted children aged nine to eleven.[59] On the eve of publishing, Rowling was asked by her publishers to adopt a more gender-neutral pen name in order to appeal to the male members of this age group, fearing that they would not be interested in reading a novel they knew to be written by a woman. She elected to use J. K. Rowling (Joanne Kathleen Rowling), using her grandmother's name as her second name because she has no middle name.[60][61]
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published by Bloomsbury, the publisher of all Harry Potter books in the United Kingdom, on 26 June 1997.[62] It was published in the United States on 1 September 1998 by Scholastic—the American publisher of the books—as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,[63] after the American rights sold for US$105,000—a record amount for a children's book by an unknown author.[64] Scholastic feared that American readers would not associate the word "philosopher" with magic, and Rowling suggested the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the American market.[65] Rowling has later said that she regrets the change.[66]
The second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was originally published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and in the US on 2 June 1999. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8 September 1999.[67] Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was published on 8 July 2000 at the same time by Bloomsbury and Scholastic.[68] Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the longest book in the series, at 766 pages in the UK version and 870 pages in the US version.[69] It was published worldwide in English on 21 June 2003.[70] Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was published on 16 July 2005.[71][72] The seventh and final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published on 21 July 2007.[73] Rowling herself has stated that the last chapter of the final book (in fact, the epilogue) was completed "in something like 1990".[74]
Rowling retained rights to digital editions and released them on the Pottermore website in 2012.displayed the ebooks in the form of links to Pottermore, which controlled pricing.[75] All seven Harry Potter novels have been released in unabridged audiobook versions, with Stephen Fry reading the British editions and Jim Dale voicing the series for the American editions.[76][77] On Audible, the series has been listened to, as of November 2022, for over a billion hours.[78]
Translations
Main article: Harry Potter in translation
The Russian translation of The Deathly Hallows goes on sale in Moscow, 2007
The series has been translated into more than 80 languages,[79] placing Rowling among the most translated authors in history. The books have seen translations to diverse languages such as Korean, Armenian, Ukrainian, Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Bulgarian, Welsh, Afrikaans, Albanian, Latvian, Vietnamese and Hawaiian. The first volume has been translated into Latin and even Ancient Greek,[80] making it the longest published work in Ancient Greek since the novels of Heliodorus of Emesa in the 3rd century AD.[81] The second volume has also been translated into Latin.[82]
Some of the translators hired to work on the books were well-known authors before their work on Harry Potter, such as Viktor Golyshev, who oversaw the Russian translation of the series' fifth book. The Turkish translation of books two to seven was undertaken by Sevin Okyay, a popular literary critic and cultural commentator.[83] For reasons of secrecy, translation on a given book could only start after it had been released in English, leading to a lag of several months before the translations were available. This led to more and more copies of the English editions being sold to impatient fans in non-English speaking countries; for example, such was the clamour to read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix that its English language edition became the first English-language book ever to top the best-seller list in France.[84]
The United States editions were adapted into American English to make them more understandable to a young American audience.[85]
Cover art
For cover art, Bloomsbury chose painted art in a classic style of design, with the first cover a watercolour and pencil drawing by illustrator Thomas Taylor showing Harry boarding the Hogwarts Express, and a title in the font Cochin Bold.[86] The first releases of the successive books in the series followed in the same style but somewhat more realistic, illustrating scenes from the books. These covers were created by first Cliff Wright and then Jason Cockroft.[87]
Due to the appeal of the books among an adult audience, Bloomsbury commissioned a second line of editions in an 'adult' style. These initially used black-and-white photographic art for the covers showing objects from the books (including a very American Hogwarts Express) without depicting people, but later shifted to partial colourisation with a picture of Slytherin's locket on the cover of the final book.[citation needed]
International and later editions have been created by a range of designers, including Mary GrandPré for US audiences and Mika Launis in Finland.[88][89] For a later American release, Kazu Kibuishi created covers in a somewhat anime-influenced style.[90][91]
Reception
Commercial success
See also: List of best-selling books
A large crowd of fans wait outside of a Borders store in Delaware, waiting for the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Crowd outside a book store for the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The popularity of the Harry Potter series has translated into substantial financial success for Rowling, her publishers, and other Harry Potter related licence holders. This success has made Rowling the first and thus far only billionaire author.[92] The books have sold more than 600 million copies worldwide and have also given rise to the popular film adaptations produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, all of which have been highly successful in their own right.[93][79] The total revenue from the book sales is estimated, as of November 2018, to be around $7.7 billion.[94] The first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, has sold in excess of 120 million copies, making it one of the bestselling books in history.[95][96] The films have in turn spawned eight video games and have led to the licensing of more than 400 additional Harry Potter products. The Harry Potter brand has been estimated to be worth as much as $25 billion.[6]
The great demand for Harry Potter novels motivated The New York Times to create a separate best-seller list for children's literature in 2000, just before the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. By 24 June 2000, Rowling's novels had been on the list for 79 straight weeks; the first three novels were each on the hardcover best-seller list.[97] On 12 April 2007, Barnes & Noble declared that Deathly Hallows had broken its pre-order record, with more than 500,000 copies pre-ordered through its site.[98] For the release of Goblet of Fire, 9,000 FedEx trucks were used with no other purpose than to deliver the book.[99] Together, pre-sold more than 700,000 copies of the book.[99] In the United States, the book's initial printing run was 3.8 million copies.[99] This record statistic was broken by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, with 8.5 million, which was then shattered by Half-Blood Prince with 10.8 million copies.[100] Within the first 24 hours of its release, 6.9 million copies of Prince were sold in the US; in the UK more than two million copies were sold on the first day.[101] The initial US print run for Deathly Hallows was 12 million copies, and more than a million were pre-ordered through
Fans of the series were so eager for the latest instalment that bookstores around the world began holding events to coincide with the midnight release of the books, beginning with the 2000 publication of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The events, commonly featuring mock sorting, games, face painting, and other live entertainment have achieved popularity with Potter fans and have been highly successful in attracting fans and selling books with nearly nine million of the 10.8 million initial print copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince sold in the first 24 hours.[103][104] The final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows became the fastest selling book in history, moving 11 million units in the first twenty-four hours of release.[105] The book sold 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US.[72] The series has also gathered adult fans, leading to the release of two editions of each Harry Potter book, identical in text but with one edition's cover artwork aimed at children and the other aimed at adults.[106]
Book Sales[107]
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone 120 million
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 77 million
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 65 million
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 65 million
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 65 million
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 65 million
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 65 million
Literary criticism
Early in its history, Harry Potter received positive reviews. On publication, the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, attracted attention from the Scottish newspapers, such as The Scotsman, which said it had "all the makings of a classic",[108] and The Glasgow Herald, which called it "Magic stuff".[108] Soon the English newspapers joined in, with The Sunday Times comparing it to Roald Dahl's work ("comparisons to Dahl are, this time, justified"),[108] while The Guardian called it "a richly textured novel given lift-off by an inventive wit".[108]
By the time of the release of the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the books began to receive strong criticism from literary scholars. Yale professor, literary scholar, and critic Harold Bloom raised criticisms of the books' literary merits, saying, "Rowling's mind is so governed by clichés and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing."[109] A. S. Byatt authored an op-ed article in The New York Times calling Rowling's universe a "secondary secondary world, made up of intelligently patchworked derivative motifs from all sorts of children's literature ... written for people whose imaginative lives are confined to TV cartoons, and the exaggerated (more exciting, not threatening) mirror-worlds of soaps, reality TV and celebrity gossip."[110]
Michael Rosen, a novelist and poet, held the opinion that the books were not suited for children, as they would be unable to grasp the complex themes. Rosen also stated that "J. K. Rowling is more of an adult writer."[111] The critic Anthony Holden wrote in The Observer on his experience of judging Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for the 1999 Whitbread Awards. His overall view of the series was negative—"the Potter saga was essentially patronising, conservative, highly derivative, dispiritingly nostalgic for a bygone Britain", and he speaks of "a pedestrian, ungrammatical prose style".[112] Ursula K. Le Guin said, "I have no great opinion of it [...] it seemed a lively kid's fantasy crossed with a 'school novel,' good fare for its age group, but stylistically ordinary, imaginatively derivative, and ethically rather mean-spirited."[113] By contrast, author Fay Weldon, while admitting that the series is "not what the poets hoped for", nevertheless goes on to say, "but this is not poetry, it is readable, saleable, everyday, useful prose".[114]
The literary critic A. N. Wilson praised the Harry Potter series in The Times, stating, "There are not many writers who have JK's Dickensian ability to make us turn the pages, to weep—openly, with tears splashing—and a few pages later to laugh, at invariably good jokes ... We have lived through a decade in which we have followed the publication of the liveliest, funniest, scariest and most moving children's stories ever written."[115] Charles Taylor of Salon.com, who is primarily a movie critic,[116] took issue with Byatt's criticisms in particular. While he conceded that she may have "a valid cultural point—a teeny one—about the impulses that drive us to reassuring pop trash and away from the troubling complexities of art",[117] he rejected her claims that the series is lacking in serious literary merit and that it owes its success merely to the childhood reassurances it offers.[117] Stephen King called the series "a feat of which only a superior imagination is capable", and declared "Rowling's punning, one-eyebrow-cocked sense of humor" to be "remarkable". However, he wrote that he is "a little tired of discovering Harry at home with his horrible aunt and uncle", the formulaic beginning of all seven books.[8][118]
Sameer Rahim of The Daily Telegraph disagreed, saying "It depresses me to see 16- and 17-year-olds reading the series when they could be reading the great novels of childhood such as Oliver Twist or A House for Mr Biswas."[119] The Washington Post book critic Ron Charles opined in July 2007 that "through no fault of Rowling's", the cultural and marketing "hysteria" marked by the publication of the later books "trains children and adults to expect the roar of the coliseum, a mass-media experience that no other novel can possibly provide".[120] Jenny Sawyer wrote in The Christian Science Monitor on 25 July 2007 that Harry Potter neither faces a "moral struggle" nor undergoes any ethical growth and is thus "no guide in circumstances in which right and wrong are anything less than black and white".[121] In contrast Emily Griesinger described Harry's first passage through to Platform 9+3⁄4 as an application of faith and hope, and his encounter with the Sorting Hat as the first of many in which Harry is shaped by the choices he makes.[122]
In an 8 November 2002, Slate article, Chris Suellentrop likened Potter to a "trust-fund kid whose success at school is largely attributable to the gifts his friends and relatives lavish upon him".[123] In a 12 August 2007 review of Deathly Hallows in The New York Times, however, Christopher Hitchens praised Rowling for "unmooring" her "English school story" from literary precedents "bound up with dreams of wealth and class and snobbery", arguing that she had instead created "a world of youthful democracy and diversity".[124] In 2016, an article written by Diana C. Mutz compared the politics of Harry Potter to the 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign. She suggests that these themes are also present in the presidential election and it may play a significant role in how Americans have responded to the campaign.[125]
There is ongoing discussion regarding the extent to which the series was inspired by Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books.[126]
Thematic critique
The portrayal of women in Harry Potter has been described as complex and varied, but nonetheless conforming to stereotypical and patriarchal depictions of gender.[127] Gender divides are ostensibly absent in the books: Hogwarts is coeducational and women hold positions of power in wizarding society. However, this setting obscures the typecasting of female characters and the general depiction of conventional gender roles.[128] According to scholars Elizabeth Heilman and Trevor Donaldson, the subordination of female characters goes further early in the series. The final three books "showcase richer roles and more powerful females": for instance, the series' "most matriarchal character", Molly Weasley, engages substantially in the final battle of Deathly Hallows, while other women are shown as leaders.[129] Hermione Granger, in particular, becomes an active and independent character essential to the protagonists' battle against evil.[130] Yet, even particularly capable female characters such as Hermione and Minerva McGonagall are placed in supporting roles,[131] and Hermione's status as a feminist model is debated.[132] Girls and women are more frequently shown as emotional, more often defined by their appearance, and less often given agency in family settings.[128][133]
The social hierarchy of wizards in Rowling's world has drawn debate among critics. "Purebloods" have two wizard parents; "half-bloods" have one; and "Muggle-born" wizards have magical abilities, although neither of their parents is a wizard.[134] Lord Voldemort and his followers believe that blood purity is paramount and that Muggles are subhuman.[135] According to the literary scholar Andrew Blake, Harry Potter rejects blood purity as a basis for social division;[136] Suman Gupta agrees that Voldemort's philosophy represents "absolute evil";[137] and Nel and Eccleshare agree that advocates of racial or blood-based hierarchies are antagonists.[138][139] Gupta, following Blake,[140] suggests that the essential superiority of wizards over Muggles—wizards can use magic and Muggles cannot—means that the books cannot coherently reject anti-Muggle prejudice by appealing to equality between wizards and Muggles. Rather, according to Gupta, Harry Potter models a form of tolerance based on the "charity and altruism of those belonging to superior races" towards lesser races.[141]
Harry Potter's's depiction of race, specifically the slavery of house-elves, has received varied responses. Scholars such as Brycchan Carey have praised the books' abolitionist sentiments, viewing Hermione's Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare as a model for younger readers' political engagement.[142][143] Other critics including Farah Mendlesohn find the portrayal of house-elves "most difficult to accept": the elves are denied the right to free themselves and rely on the benevolence of others like Hermione.[144][145] Pharr terms the house-elves a disharmonious element in the series, writing that Rowling leaves their fate hanging;[146] at the end of Deathly Hallows, the elves remain enslaved and cheerful.[147] The goblins of the world of Harry Potter have also received criticism for following antisemitic caricatures – particularly for their grotesque "hook-nosed" portrayal in the films, an appearance associated with Jewish stereotypes.[148][149][150]
Controversies
Main articles: Legal disputes over the Harry Potter series, Religious debates over the Harry Potter series, Politics of Harry Potter, and Tanya Grotter
The books have been the subject of legal proceedings, stemming from various conflicts over copyright and trademark infringements. The popularity and high market value of the series has led Rowling, her publishers, and film distributor Warner Bros. to take legal measures to protect their copyright, which have included banning the sale of Harry Potter imitations, targeting the owners of websites over the "Harry Potter" domain name, and suing author Nancy Stouffer to counter her accusations that Rowling had plagiarised her work.[151][152][153]
Various religious fundamentalists have claimed that the books promote witchcraft and religions such as Wicca and are therefore unsuitable for children,[154][155][156] while critics have criticised the books for promoting various political agendas.[157][158] The series has landed the American Library Associations' Top 10 Banned Book List in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2019 with claims it was anti-family, discussed magic and witchcraft, contained actual spells and curses, referenced the occult/Satanism, violence, and had characters who used "nefarious means" to attain goals, as well as conflicts with religious viewpoints.[159]
The books also aroused controversies in the literary and publishing worlds. From 1997 to 1998, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone won almost all the United Kingdom awards judged by children, but none of the children's book awards judged by adults,[160] and Sandra Beckett suggested the reason was intellectual snobbery towards books that were popular among children.[161] In 1999, the winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year award children's division was entered for the first time on the shortlist for the main award, and one judge threatened to resign if Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was declared the overall winner; it finished second, very close behind the winner of the poetry prize, Seamus Heaney's translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf.[161]
In 2000, shortly before the publication of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the previous three Harry Potter books topped The New York Times fiction best-seller list and a third of the entries were children's books. The newspaper created a new children's section covering children's books, including both fiction and non-fiction, and initially counting only hardback sales. The move was supported by publishers and booksellers.[97] In 2004, The New York Times further split the children's list, which was still dominated by Harry Potter books, into sections for series and individual books and removed the Harry Potter books from the section for individual books.[162] The split in 2000 attracted condemnation, praise and some comments that presented both benefits and disadvantages of the move.[163] Time suggested that, on the same principle, Billboard should have created a separate "mop-tops" list in 1964 when The Beatles held the top five places in its list, and Nielsen should have created a separate game-show list when Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? dominated the ratings.[164]
Legacy
Influence on literature
Sculpture of Harry Potter in Leicester Square, London, 2020
Sculpture of Harry Potter in Leicester Square, London
Harry Potter transformed children's literature.[165][166] In the 1970s, children's books were generally realistic as opposed to fantastic,[167] while adult fantasy became popular because of the influence of The Lord of the Rings.[168] The next decade saw an increasing interest in grim, realist themes, with an outflow of fantasy readers and writers to adult works.[169][170]
The commercial success of Harry Potter reversed this trend.[171] The scale of its growth had no precedent in the children's market: within four years of the series' inception, it occupied 28% of that field by revenue.[172] Children's literature rose in cultural status,[173] and fantasy became a dominant genre.[174] Older works in the genre, including Diana Wynne Jones's Chrestomanci series and Diane Duane's Young Wizards, were reprinted and rose in popularity; some authors re-established their careers.[175] In the following decades, many Harry Potter imitators and subversive responses grew popular.[176][177]
Rowling has been compared to Enid Blyton, who also wrote in simple language about groups of children and long held sway over the British children's market.[178][179] She has also been described as an heir to Roald Dahl.[180] Some critics view Harry Potter's rise, along with the concurrent success of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, as part of a broader shift in reading tastes: a rejection of literary fiction in favour of plot and adventure.[181] This is reflected in the BBC's 2003 "Big Read" survey of the UK's favourite books, where Pullman and Rowling ranked at numbers 3 and 5, respectively, with very few British literary classics in the top 10.[182]
Cultural impact
Further information: Harry Potter fandom
"Platform 9+3⁄4" sign on London King's Cross railway station
Harry Potter has been described as a cultural phenomenon.[183][184] The word "Muggle" has spread beyond its origins in the books, entering the Oxford English Dictionary in 2003.[185] A real-life version of the sport Quidditch was created in 2005 and featured as an exhibition tournament in the 2012 London Olympics.[186] Characters and elements from the series have inspired scientific names of several organisms, including the dinosaur Dracorex hogwartsia, the spider Eriovixia gryffindori, the wasp Ampulex dementor, and the crab Harryplax severus.[187]
Librarian Nancy Knapp pointed out the books' potential to improve literacy by motivating children to read much more than they otherwise would.[188] The seven-book series has a word count of 1,083,594 (US edition). Agreeing about the motivating effects, Diane Penrod also praised the books' blending of simple entertainment with "the qualities of highbrow literary fiction", but expressed concern about the distracting effect of the prolific merchandise that accompanies the book launches.[189] However, the assumption that Harry Potter books have increased literacy among young people is "largely a folk legend".[190]
Research by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has found no increase in reading among children coinciding with the Harry Potter publishing phenomenon, nor has the broader downward trend in reading among Americans been arrested during the rise in the popularity of the Harry Potter books.[190][191] The research also found that children who read Harry Potter books were not more likely to go on to read outside the fantasy and mystery genres.[190] NEA chairman Dana Gioia said the series, "got millions of kids to read a long and reasonably complex series of books. The trouble is that one Harry Potter novel every few years is not enough to reverse the decline in reading."[192]
Many fan fiction and fan art works about Harry Potter have been made. In March 2007, "Harry Potter" was the most commonly searched fan fiction subject on the internet.[193] Jennifer Conn used Snape's and Quidditch coach Madam Hooch's teaching methods as examples of what to avoid and what to emulate in clinical teaching,[194] and Joyce Fields wrote that the books illustrate four of the five main topics in a typical first-year sociology class: "sociological concepts including culture, society, and socialisation; stratification and social inequality; social institutions; and social theory".[195]
From the early 2000s onwards, several news reports appeared in the UK of the Harry Potter book and movie series driving demand for pet owls,[196] and even reports that after the end of the movie series these same pet owls were now being abandoned by their owners.[197] This led J. K. Rowling to issue several statements urging Harry Potter fans to refrain from purchasing pet owls.[198] Despite the media flurry, research into the popularity of Harry Potter and sales of owls in the UK failed to find any evidence that the Harry Potter franchise had influenced the buying of owls in the country or the number of owls reaching animal shelters and sanctuaries.[199]
By 2003, a sign marking Platform 9 3/4 was put up at the London King's Cross railway station,[200][201][202] with a trolley fixed to the wall added by the year 2005.[203][204] The location of the trolley moved after renovations, and a Harry Potter-themed shop opened nearby in 2012.[205][206][207] Prince Charles visited the location in 2013.[208]
1 September, the day Harry Potter generally started school at Hogwarts, became known to fans as "Back to Hogwarts Day",[209][210] gaining more prominence starting in 2015 when J.K. Rowling suggested on social media that it was the year Harry Potter would be starting to send off his own children to Hogwarts, though in 2016 she later acknowledged that she was wrong by a year regarding the King's Cross events in the epilogue.[211][212][213] On the date in 2024, fans showed up at King's Cross Station even though no event was held and fans were discouraged from attending, reportedly due to crowding issues the year before, and booed when no Hogwarts Express announcement was made at 11 a.m. as in previous years.[214][215] Organisers had encouraged fans to participate in virtual events, while in-person events were held at other locations like Grand Central Terminal in New York City and Hamburg, Germany.[216][217][218]
British book publisher Bloomsbury announced the launch of "Harry Potter Book Night" and associated promotional events in 2014, first held in February 2015.[219][220][221] In 2023, the event was rebranded to "Harry Potter Book Day" and moved to October.[222][223]
Awards, honours, and recognition
Further information: List of awards and nominations received by J. K. Rowling
The Harry Potter series has been recognised by a host of awards since the initial publication of Philosopher's Stone, including a platinum award from the Whitaker Gold and Platinum Book Awards (2001),[224][225] three Nestlé Smarties Book Prizes (1997–1999),[226] two Scottish Arts Council Book Awards (1999 and 2001),[227] the inaugural Whitbread children's book of the year award (1999),[228] and the WHSmith book of the year (2006),[229] among others. In 2000, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novel, and in 2001, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire won said award.[230] Honours include a commendation for the Carnegie Medal (1997),[231] a short listing for the Guardian Children's Award (1998), and numerous listings on the notable books, editors' choices, and best books lists of the American Library Association, The New York Times, Chicago Public Library, and Publishers Weekly.[232]
In 2002, sociologist Andrew Blake named Harry Potter a British pop culture icon along with the likes of James Bond and Sherlock Holmes.[233] In 2003, four of the books were named in the top 24 of the BBC's The Big Read survey of the best loved novels in the UK.[234] A 2004 study found that books in the series were commonly read aloud in elementary schools in San Diego County, California.[235] Based on a 2007 online poll, the US National Education Association listed the series in its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children".[236] Time magazine named Rowling as a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year award, noting the social, moral, and political inspiration she has given her fandom.[237] Three of the books placed among the "Top 100 Chapter Books" of all time, or children's novels, in a 2012 survey published by School Library Journal: Sorcerer's Stone ranked number three, Prisoner of Azkaban 12th, and Goblet of Fire 98th.[238]
In 2007, the seven Harry Potter book covers were depicted on a series of UK postage stamps issued by Royal Mail.[239] In 2012, the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London featured a 100-foot tall rendition of Lord Voldemort in a segment designed to showcase the UK's cultural icons.[240] In November 2019, the BBC listed the Harry Potter series on its list of the 100 most influential novels.[241]
Adaptations
Further information: Wizarding World
Films
Main article: Harry Potter (film series)
The red locomotive train used as the "Hogwarts Express" in the film series. In the front it has the numbers "5912" inscripted on it
The locomotive that features as the "Hogwarts Express" in the film series
In 1999, Rowling sold the film rights for Harry Potter to Warner Bros. for a reported £1 million (US$2,000,000).[242][243] Rowling had creative control on the film series, observing the filmmaking process of Philosopher's Stone and serving as producer on the two-part Deathly Hallows, alongside David Heyman and David Barron.[244] Rowling demanded the principal cast be kept strictly British and Irish, nonetheless allowing for the inclusion or French and Eastern European actors where characters from the book are specified as such.[245]
Chris Columbus was selected as the director for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (titled "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in the United States).[246] Philosopher's Stone was released on 14 November 2001. Just three days after the film's release, production for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, also directed by Columbus, began and the film was released on 15 November 2002.[247] Columbus declined to direct Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, only acting as producer. Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón took over the job, and after shooting in 2003, the film was released on 4 June 2004. Due to the fourth film beginning its production before the third's release, Mike Newell was chosen as the director for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, released on 18 November 2005.[248] Newell became the first British director of the series, with television director David Yates following suit after he was chosen to helm Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Production began in January 2006 and the film was released the following year in July 2007.[249] Yates was selected to direct Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which was released on 15 July 2009.[250][251] The final instalment in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released in two cinematic parts: Part 1 on 19 November 2010 and Part 2 on 15 July 2011.[252][253]
Spin-off prequels
Main article: Fantastic Beasts (film series)
A prequel series is planned to consist of five films, taking place before the main series.[254] The first film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was released in November 2016, followed by the second Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald in November 2018 and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore in April 2022. Rowling wrote the screenplays for all three films,[255] marking her foray into screenwriting.
Games
See also: Harry Potter video games
Several non-interactive media games and board games have been released such as Cluedo Harry Potter Edition, Scene It? Harry Potter and Lego Harry Potter models, which are influenced by the themes of both the novels and films.
There are fourteen Harry Potter video games, eight corresponding with the films and books and six spin-offs. The film/book-based games are produced by Electronic Arts (EA), as was Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup, with the game version of the first entry in the series, Philosopher's Stone, being released in November 2001. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone went on to become one of the best-selling PlayStation games ever.[256] The video games were released to coincide with the films. Objectives usually occur in and around Hogwarts. The story and design of the games follow the selected film's characterisation and plot; EA worked closely with Warner Bros. to include scenes from the films. The last game in the series, Deathly Hallows, was split, with Part 1 released in November 2010 and Part 2 debuting on consoles in July 2011.[257][258]
The spin-off games Lego Harry Potter: Years 1–4 and Lego Harry Potter: Years 5–7 were developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The spin-off games Book of Spells and Book of Potions were developed by London Studio and use the Wonderbook, an augmented reality book designed to be used in conjunction with the PlayStation Move and PlayStation Eye.[259] The Harry Potter universe, the Wizarding World, is also featured in Lego Dimensions, with the settings and side characters featured in the Harry Potter Adventure World, and Harry, Voldemort, and Hermione as playable characters. In 2017, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment opened its own Harry Potter-themed game design studio, by the name of Portkey Games, before releasing Hogwarts Mystery, developed by Jam City, in 2018 and Hogwarts Legacy, developed by Avalanche Software, in 2023.[260][261]
Stage production
Main article: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child playing at the West End's Palace Theatre
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts I and II is a play which serves as a sequel to the books, beginning nineteen years after the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was written by Jack Thorne based on an original new story by Thorne, Rowling and John Tiffany.[262] It has run at the Palace Theatre in London's West End since previews began on 7 June 2016 with an official premiere on 30 June 2016.[263] The first four months of tickets for the June–September performances were sold out within several hours upon release.[264] Forthcoming productions are planned for Broadway[265] and Melbourne.[266]
The script was released as a book at the time of the premiere, with a revised version following the next year.
Television
Main article: Harry Potter (TV series)
On 25 January 2021, it was reported that a live-action television series has been in early development at HBO Max. Though it was noted that the series has "complicated rights issues", due to a seven-year rights deal with Warner Bros. Domestic TV Distribution that included US broadcast, cable and streaming rights to the franchise, which ended in April 2025.[267] On 12 April 2023, the series was confirmed to be in development, and will be streamed on the new streaming service Max (formerly known as HBO Max).[268][269][270] On 23 February 2024, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced that the series would debut on Max in 2026. On 25 June 2024, it was announced the series was moved from Max to HBO.[271] The series is planned to adapt one book per season, with seven seasons planned.[272]
An open casting call for the three leading young actors in the UK and Ireland was announced in September 2024, with Variety reporting that 32,000 children auditioned for the roles, with filming to start in summer 2025.[273][274][275] In November 2024, it was reported that Mark Rylance was the front runner to play Dumbledore in the series.[276] On 25 February 2025, American actor John Lithgow confirmed reports that he had been cast as Dumbledore in the series.[277][278] He acknowledged there would be controversy over him playing the role as an American, when the film series only cast British or Irish cast members at Rowling's request, and that he would work with a dialect coach. He also suggested filming would start in August after he finished portraying Roald Dahl on stage in London.[279] He said "I don't know the Harry Potter canon by heart as 98% of the world's population seems to," but said that in talks with the producers he was intrigued by how "as the kids grew older [in the books], you learn more and more about Dumbledore, and he became a much more surprising, complicated character."[280] He also said he had started reading the books in preparation.[281]
News reports also speculated in March 2025 that a casting notice seeking children as extras near Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden was for the new series.[282][283] On 7 March 2025, it was reported that English actor Paapa Essiedu and English actress Janet McTeer were in negotiations to portray Severus Snape and Minerva McGonagall respectively in the series.[284] On 27 May 2025, it was announced that Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout and Arabella Stanton were cast as Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger respectively.[285] On 9 June 2025, it was revealed that Bel Powley would play Petunia Dursley and Daniel Rigby would play Vernon Dursley.[286] It was also revealed that Lox Pratt would play Draco Malfoy, Johnny Flynn would play Lucius Malfoy, Katherine Parkinson would play Molly Weasley, Leo Earley would play Seamus Finnigan, Alessia Leoni would play Parvati Patil, Sienna Moosah would play Lavender Brown, and Bertie Carvel would play Cornelius Fudge.[287]
Full-cast audiobook
In 2024, it was announced that the novels would be adapted into full-cast audio productions with a voice cast of over 100 voice actors to be released in late 2025.[288] In August 2025, it was announced that the audio dramas would be released monthly, starting on 4 November 2025.[289]
Cast[289][290][291][292]
Cush Jumbo as the narrator
Frankie Treadaway (1–3) and Jaxson Knopf (4–7) as Harry Potter
Arabella Stanton (1–3) and Nina Barker-Francis (4–7) as Hermione Granger
Max Lester (1–3) and Rhys Mulligan (4–7) as Ron Weasley
Hugh Laurie as Albus Dumbledore
Riz Ahmed as Severus Snape
Matthew Macfadyen as Lord Voldemort
Michelle Gomez as Minerva McGonagall
Ruth Wilson as Bellatrix Lestrange
Keira Knightley as Dolores Umbridge
Kit Harington as Gilderoy Lockhart
Iwan Rheon as Remus Lupin
Ambika Mod as Nymphadora Tonks
Leo Woodall as Bill Weasley
Simon Pegg as Arthur Weasley
James McAvoy as Mad-Eye Moody
Gemma Whelan as Pomona Sprout
Matt Berry as Sir Cadogan
Mark Addy as Rubeus Hagrid
Daniel Mays as Dobby
Alex Hassell as Lucius Malfoy
Sara Deshmukh as Padma Patil
Avni Deshmukh as Parvati Patil
Bill Nighy as Horace Slughorn
David Holmes as Stan Shunpike
Saoirse-Monica Jackson as Professor Trelawney
Sope Dirisu as Sirius Black
Mackenzie Crook as Kreacher
Anna Maxwell Martin as Rita Skeeter
Stephen Mangan as Nearly Headless Nick
Tracy-Ann Oberman as Madam Hooch
Millie Gubby as Luna Lovegood
Jude Farrant (1–3) and Maximus Evans (4–7) as Draco Malfoy
Jake Sigsworth (1–3) and Archie Mountain (4–7) as Neville Longbottom
Sacha Dhawan as Quirinus Quirrell
Fergus Rattigan as Filius Flitwick
Adeel Akhtar as Argus Filch
Yasmin Mwanza as Irma Pince
Rebecca Root as Madam Pomfrey
Bumble Clarke as Ginny Weasley
Joel Fry as Charlie Weasley
Hamish Lloyd Barnes as Fred and George Weasley
Tom Royal as Percy Weasley
Nina Wadia as Molly Weasley
Jaiden Dosanjh as Dudley Dursley
Jeremy Swift as Vernon Dursley
Indira Varma as Petunia Dursley
Lennon Che Doyle as Seamus Finnigan
Marley Rae Hunt as Angelina Johnson
Joseph Obasohan as Lee Jordan
Dray Oli as Dean Thomas
Mitchell Robertson as Oliver Wood
Dougie Brownwood as Vincent Crabbe
Aaron Garland as Marcus Flint
Heaven Harriott as Pansy Parkinson
Oscar Hubble as Gregory Goyle
Finbar Lynch as The Fat Friar
Nigel Pilkington as Peeves
Lennie James as The Sorting Hat
Hugh Ross as Garrick Ollivander
Attractions
Main articles: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter
Hogwarts Castle as depicted in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, located in Universal Orlando Resort's Island of Adventure
Universal and Warner Bros. created The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a Harry Potter-themed expansion to the Islands of Adventure theme park at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida. It opened to the public on 18 June 2010.[293] It includes a recreation of Hogsmeade and several rides; its flagship attraction is Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which exists within a recreation of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.[294]
In 2014 Universal opened a Harry Potter-themed area at the Universal Studios Florida theme park. It includes a recreation of Diagon Alley.[295] The flagship attraction is the Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts roller coaster ride.[296] A completely functioning full-scale replica of the Hogwarts Express was created for the Diagon Alley expansion, connecting King's Cross Station at Universal Studios to the Hogsmeade station at Islands of Adventure.[297][298] The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park near Los Angeles, California in 2016,[299][300] and in Universal Studios Japan theme park in Osaka, Japan in 2014. The Osaka venue includes the village of Hogsmeade, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride, and Flight of the Hippogriff roller coaster.[301][302] Other Harry Potter roller coasters are the Dragon Challenge which closed to make way for Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, at Universal Islands of Adventure.
Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter is a behind-the-scenes walking tour in London featuring authentic sets, costumes and props from the film series. The attraction is located at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, where all eight of the Harry Potter films were made. Warner Bros. constructed two new sound stages to house and showcase the sets from each of the British-made productions, following a £100 million investment.[303] It opened to the public in March 2012.[304] A Japan based version of the studio tour was announced in August 2020 and opened on 16 June 2023.[305]
Supplementary works
See also: J. K. Rowling § Philanthropy
Rowling expanded the Harry Potter universe with short books produced for charities.[306][307] In 2001, she released Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (a purported Hogwarts textbook) and Quidditch Through the Ages (a book Harry reads for fun). Proceeds from the sale of these two books benefited the charity Comic Relief.[308] In 2007, Rowling composed seven handwritten copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a collection of fairy tales that is featured in the final novel, one of which was auctioned to raise money for the Children's High Level Group, a fund for mentally disabled children in poor countries. The book was published internationally on 4 December 2008.[309][310] Rowling also wrote an 800-word prequel in 2008 as part of a fundraiser organised by the bookseller Waterstones.[311] All three of these books contain extra information about the wizarding world not included in the original novels.
In 2016, she released three new e-books: Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide, Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists and Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies.[312]
Rowling's website Pottermore was launched in 2012.[313] Pottermore allows users to be sorted, be chosen by their wand and play various minigames. The main purpose of the website was to allow the user to journey through the story with access to content not revealed by JK Rowling previously, with over 18,000 words of additional content.[314] The site was redesigned in 2015 as WizardingWorld and it mainly focuses on the information already available, rather than exploration.[315]
See also
The Worst Witch
Mary Poppins
References
Sources that refer to the many genres, cultural meanings and references of the series include:
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Further reading
Allardice, Lisa (18 June 2022). "'There was practically a riot at King's Cross': an oral history of Harry Potter at 25". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
Burkart, Gina (2005). A parent's guide to Harry Potter. InterVarsity Press. ISBN 978-0-8308-3288-0. Harry Potter.
Duriez, Colin (2007). Field Guide to Harry Potter. IVP Books. ISBN 978-0-8308-3430-3.
Mulholland, Neil (2007). The Psychology of Harry Potter: An Unauthorized Examination of the Boy Who Lived. BenBella Books. ISBN 978-1-932100-88-4.
Silvester, William (2010). Harry Potter Collector's Handbook. Krause. ISBN 978-1-4402-0897-3.
External links
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Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling
Wizarding World
Books
Main novels
The Philosopher's StoneThe Chamber of SecretsThe Prisoner of AzkabanThe Goblet of FireThe Order of the PhoenixThe Half-Blood PrinceThe Deathly Hallows
Spin-offs
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Short stories
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The Philosopher's Stone soundtrack, "Hedwig's Theme"The Chamber of Secrets soundtrackThe Prisoner of Azkaban soundtrackThe Goblet of Fire soundtrackThe Order of the Phoenix soundtrackThe Half-Blood Prince soundtrackThe Deathly Hallows – Part 1 productionsoundtrackThe Deathly Hallows – Part 2 productionsoundtrackaccolades
Fantastic Beasts
(cast · characters)
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them soundtrackThe Crimes of Grindelwald soundtrackThe Secrets of Dumbledore
Characters
(cast)
Harry PotterRon WeasleyHermione GrangerLord VoldemortAlbus DumbledoreSeverus SnapeRubeus HagridMinerva McGonagallDraco MalfoyNeville LongbottomFred and George WeasleyGinny WeasleySirius BlackRemus LupinBellatrix LestrangeDolores UmbridgeLuna LovegoodBlaise Zabini
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Other works
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Inspired media
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Lego Creator: Harry PotterThe Philosopher's Stone (2001) PlayStationPCGame Boy AdvanceGame Boy ColorThe Chamber of SecretsCreator: Harry Potter and the Chamber of SecretsQuidditch World CupThe Philosopher's Stone (2003)The Prisoner of AzkabanThe Goblet of FireThe Order of the PhoenixThe Half-Blood PrinceLego Harry Potter: Years 1–4The Deathly Hallows – Part 1The Deathly Hallows – Part 2Lego Harry Potter: Years 5–7Harry Potter for KinectBook of SpellsBook of PotionsLego DimensionsFantastic Beasts: Cases From the Wizarding WorldHogwarts MysteryWizards UniteMagic AwakenedHogwarts LegacyQuidditch Champions
Amusement parks
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Exhibitions
The ExhibitionA History of MagicWarner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry PotterWarner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo – The Making of Harry PotterWarner Bros. Studio Tour Shanghai – The Making of Harry Potter
Other
Lego Harry PotterTrading Card Game
Fandom
A Celebration of Harry PotterDrarryFandom ForwardThe Leaky CauldronMischief ManagementMuggleNetScorbusWizard rockWolfstarWrockstock
Fan fictions
All the Young DudesHarry Potter and the Methods of RationalityHarry Potter in CalcuttaHogwarts School of Prayer and MiraclesMy Immortal
Fan films
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Parodies
A Very Potter Musical
A Very Potter Musical albumA Very Potter Sequel EPA Very Potter Senior Year
Other
Epic MovieMuddle Earth TooSkulduggery Pleasant: ResurrectionPotter Puppet PalsPuffsWizard People, Dear ReaderTreehouse of Horror XII
Related
Influences and analoguesLegal disputesList of organisms named after the Harry Potter seriesPoliticsPortkey GamesReligious debatesTranslationHarry, A HistoryHarry Potter and the Sacred TextThe Harry Potter LexiconThe Magical Worlds of Harry PotterPollomuhku ja PosityyhtynenPotterlessHeyday Films
Category Outline
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J. K. Rowling
Political views • Awards and nominations
Wizarding World
books
Harry Potter
The Philosopher's Stone (1997)The Chamber of Secrets (1998)The Prisoner of Azkaban (1999)The Goblet of Fire (2000)The Order of the Phoenix (2003)The Half-Blood Prince (2005)The Deathly Hallows (2007)
Other
Quidditch Through the Ages (2001)Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2001)Harry Potter prequel (2008)The Tales of Beedle the Bard (2008)Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide (2016)Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists (2016)Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies (2016)
Cormoran Strike books
(as Robert Galbraith)
The Cuckoo's Calling (2013)The Silkworm (2014)Career of Evil (2015)Lethal White (2018)Troubled Blood (2020)The Ink Black Heart (2022)The Running Grave (2023)The Hallmarked Man (2025)
Films and
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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)
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The Casual Vacancy (2015)Strike (2017–present)
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The Casual Vacancy (2012)Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (2016)The Ickabog (2020)The Christmas Pig (2021)
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Harry Potter's first Golden Snitch
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At least some content in this article is derived from information featured in: Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery & Harry Potter: Magic Awakened.
As such, spoilers will be present within the article.
Hermione Granger (HBP promo) 5 "Are you a wizard, or what?"
The title of this article is conjectural. Although it is based on canonical information, the actual name is a conjecture and may be supplanted at any time by additional information released from canonical sources. If this occurs, please move this page to the appropriate title.
Harry Potter's Golden Snitch DHF2
Harry Potter's first Golden Snitch
Object information
Made
1991 or earlier
Usage
To end a Quidditch match and score the Seeker's team 150 points (formerly)[1]
To store and safely deliver Marvolo Gaunt's Ring to Harry Potter[2]
Owners
Albus Dumbledore (formerly)[3]
Harry Potter[1]
[Source]
"To Harry James Potter, I leave the Snitch he caught in his first Quidditch match at Hogwarts, as a reminder of the rewards of perseverance and skill."
— Rufus Scrimgeour quoting from Dumbledore's will on this Snitch[src]
This Golden Snitch was the Snitch used in the first match between Gryffindor and Slytherin during the 1991–1992 season, where it was caught by Harry Potter.[1] It was later used by Albus Dumbledore to posthumously ensure that Marvolo Gaunt's Ring would be safely delivered to Harry, while at the same time ensuring he could not access the Resurrection Stone set into it until he was ready.[2]
Contents
1 History
1.1 Creation
1.2 Quidditch match
1.3 Horcrux hunt
1.4 The Calamity
2 Behind the Scenes
3 Appearances
4 Notes and references
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History
Creation
Like all Golden Snitches, this Snitch was crafted by a metal charmer, who enchanted the ball with several spells, including giving the Snitch a "flesh memory" so it could identify the first human to touch it with their bare skin. It was sent to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to be used for their Quidditch matches, and was designated to be used in the first match of the 1991–1992 season, between Gryffindor and Slytherin.[1]
Quidditch match
"He didn't catch it, he nearly swallowed it."
— Marcus Flint protests Harry's accidental Snitch capture.[src]
Harry Potter attempting to catch this Snitch
Harry Potter attempting to catch this Snitch
During the 1991-1992 match, the Snitch was sighted fairly early on by both Harry Potter and Terence Higgs. Harry was almost able to catch it, however, he was fouled by Marcus Flint before he could get close enough, and the Snitch vanished in the confusion.[1]
Later on in the match, Harry's Nimbus 2000 was put under a jinx by Quirinus Quirrell, who was attempting to murder Harry. Though he managed to stay on his broom through a combination of his own skill, Severus Snape casting a counter-jinx, and a distraction provided by Hermione Granger, Harry was still swung wildly through the air in the ordeal. As a result of this, Harry accidentally "caught" the Golden Snitch in his mouth. Despite the unorthodox method of capture, this was considered a valid catch, and Gryffindor won the match.[1] As a result of this, the Snitch acquired the flesh memory of Harry's lips, ensuring that the Snitch would react to him in the future.[2]
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Horcrux hunt
"A Snitch is not touched by bare skin before it is released, not even by the maker, who wears gloves. It carries an enchantment by which it can identify the first human to lay hands upon it, in the case of disputed capture. This Snitch will remember your touch, Potter. It occurs to me that Dumbledore, who had prodigious magical skill, whatever his other faults, might have enchanted this Snitch so that it will open only for you."
— Rufus Scrimgeour correctly assumes what Dumbledore had done to this Snitch.[src]
Harry with the Snitch after Scrimgeour presents him with it
Harry with the Snitch after Scrimgeour presents him with it
Sometime prior to his death on 30 June 1997, Albus Dumbledore assumed that Harry Potter would need the Resurrection Stone set into Marvolo Gaunt's ring at some point in his quest to destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes. He also assumed that Harry would be tempted by the stone if he was able to access it before he was fully ready to accept that he would have to let Voldemort attempt to kill him. To remedy this, he obtained this Snitch and cast further spells on it, encasing the ring within the Snitch, and causing two effects to trigger when it recognised Harry's lips. The first, which would activate at any point when Harry placed the Snitch to his lips, would make the Snitch display the inscription "I open at the close". The second effect, alluded to by the first, would activate when Harry voiced his willingness to die to the Snitch, and would cause the Snitch to open.[3]
Harry with the Snitch
Harry with the Snitch
To ensure that Harry would get this Snitch, he entrusted it to him in his will. Like the other items in the will, the Snitch was first heavily tested by the British Ministry of Magic on order of Rufus Scrimgeour, who was suspicious of the odd nature of the items that Dumbledore had left. Unable to find anything suspicious with the Snitch in the maximum allotted thirty-one days, Scrimgeour interrogated Harry about it directly, even going so far as to assume that Harry's Snitch-shaped birthday cake was a direct reference to the Snitch he was receiving.[3]
Once the Minister left, Harry made an attempt to divine the reasoning for Dumbledore leaving him the Snitch. Harry was able to work out that it needed to be pressed to his lips, and thus discovered the first of its effects. Unable to work out any meaning to the inscription at the time, he kept it his mokeskin pouch along with other artefacts that he felt had no real worth, but merely kept for intrinsic purposes. Though he would examine the Snitch several times more during his hunt for Voldemort's Horcruxes, he was unable to come to any further conclusion for quite some time.[3]
"I am about to die."
— Harry making his dying declaration to the Snitch so it could open[src]
The Resurrection Stone hidden in the Snitch
The Resurrection Stone hidden in the Snitch
Almost a year later, at the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry witnessed the dying memories of Severus Snape, and thus learned that he was a Horcrux as well, and thus must be killed by Voldemort in order for Voldemort himself to die. Walking into the Forbidden Forest to his death, he realised the meaning of the inscription on the Golden Snitch, and made his intention to die clear to it. At his words, the Snitch opened and presented him with the ring inside it. Harry used the Stone set in the ring to commune with his lost loved ones, and thus give himself the courage needed to accept his death.[2]
Although the Snitch was now broken and of no use to Harry, he continued to hold on to it following the end of the Second Wizarding War, although he wasn't sure why. When Harry was promoted to the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, the Snitch was kept on his desk at the British Ministry of Magic.[4]
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The Calamity
Harry Potter's first Golden Snitch as a Foundable
Harry Potter's first Golden Snitch as a Foundable
During the Calamity in the late 2010s, this Golden Snitch manifested as a Foundable in an event of the calamity called "Potter's Calamity" by the Statute of Secrecy Task Force. Members of the Force returned this Foundable back to its original owner.[4]
Behind the Scenes
In the novel, the Snitch broke open when Harry revealed his intention to die. However, in the film adaption, the face of the Snitch had a small compartment door that slid open to reveal the Stone within.
Appearances
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (First appearance)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (video game)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (video game)
Pottermore
HarryPotter.com
The Making of Harry Potter
LEGO Harry Potter
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
Harry Potter for Kinect
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite
Harry Potter: Magic Awakened (Mentioned only)
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Notes and references
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 11 (Quidditch)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 34 (The Forest Again)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 7 (The Will of Albus Dumbledore)
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite "Brilliant Event: Potter's Calamity"
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Magic in fiction is the endowment of characters or objects in works of fiction or fantasy with powers that do not naturally occur in the real world. Magic often serves as a plot device and has long been a component of fiction.
Historical beliefs
Historically, witches such as the Weird Sisters in William Shakespeare's Macbeth, wizards such as Prospero in The Tempest or characters like Doctor Faustus in Christopher Marlowe's play of the same name were widely considered to be real.[1]: 1027 Contemporary authors tend to treat magic as an imaginary idea, opting to build their worlds with a blank slate where the laws of reality do not carry as much weight.[1]: 1027
Function
Within a work of fantasy, magic can help to advance the plot, often providing power to heroes or to their opponents. The use of magic frequently manifests itself in a transformation of a character, if not the transformation of the fictional world.[2]: 143
For magic to carry out its functions, it often comes at a price equal to its value.[3][need quotation to verify]: 143
Fictional magic may or may not include a detailed magic system, but it is not uncommon for authors to omit details or explanations of certain limitations, ostensibly for pacing or other purposes; in these cases, it is possible that magic serves more as a convenience to the author rather than as a device for the character.[4]
In nearly any given fantasy magical system, magical ability is limited. Limitations can add conflict to the story and prevent characters from becoming all-powerful with magic, although characters with unlimited power (such as deities or transcendental beings) are not unheard of in fiction.[1]: 616 Fantasy writers use a variety of techniques to limit the magic in their stories,[5] such as limiting the number of spells a character has or may cast before needing rest,[5] restricting a character's magic to the use of a specific object,[5] limiting magic to the use of certain rare materials,[6] or restricting the magic a character can use through its negative consequences.[5] Some works feature magic that is performed through the use of certain words or incantations to cast spells.[citation needed] While many works use this method without offering an explanation for it, others do offer an explanation.[2]: 134 [3]: 167–168
Hard magic is a magic system with specific rules and regulations; a soft magic system is usually much more vague and undefined with a mysterious aspect to it.
The Magic Circle, 1886 by John William Waterhouse
Acquisition
Authors introduce magic into their stories, and to their characters, in varying ways. Although there is great variation in how spontaneously magic occurs, how difficult it is to wield, and how the guidelines to the magic are implemented, there are a handful of methods for introducing magic found in many fictional works. In many[quantify] fantasy works, writers depict magic as an innate talent, equivalent for example to perfect pitch.[1]: 616 Magic may also be gained through a pact with a devil or with other spirits, a characteristic common in folklore.[7]
Items
Main article: Magic item
In some works, such as fairy tales, magic items either endow the main characters with magical powers or have magical powers themselves. Writers often use them as plot devices or MacGuffins to drive the plot of a story.[8][page needed]
Wands and staves often feature in fantasy works in the hands of wizards.[9] Italian fairy tales had put wands into the hands of the powerful fairies by the late Middle Ages.[10]
Talismans such as rings or amulets may exert magical influence.[11] Seven-league boots and invisibility cloaks have also proven popular.
See also
Channeling in the works of Robert Jordan[broken anchor]
The Force, a magic-like concept in the Star Wars universe
Hard and soft magic systems
Magic in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series
Magic in the Bartimaeus trilogy (Jonathan Stroud's series)
Magic in the Earthsea series
Magic in the Harry Potter series
Magic in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien
Magic of Dungeons & Dragons
Master of the Five Magics in the works of Lyndon Hardy
References
Clute, John; Grant, John; Ashley, Mike; Hartwell, David G.; Westfahl, Gary (1999). The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1st ed.). New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0312198698.
Martin, Philip (2002). The Writer's Guide to Fantasy Literature: From Dragon's Lair to Hero's Quest: How to Write Fantasy Stories of Lasting Value (1st ed.). Waukesha, Wisconsin: Writer Books. ISBN 0871161958.
Attebery, Brian (1980). The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature: From Irving to Le Guin. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253356652.
OSS Writing (22 January 2025). "The Role of Magic Systems in Fantasy Novels: Rules and Limitations".
"The Limits of Magic". The Victorian Web. Archived from the original on 2004-08-23. Retrieved 2013-10-16.
Card, Orson Scott (1990). How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy (1st ed.). Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer's Digest Books. pp. 47–49. ISBN 0898794161.
Briggs, Katharine (1976). An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures (1st ed.). New York: Pantheon Books. p. 279. ISBN 039473467X.
Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520035379.
Frye, Northrop (1971). Anatomy of Criticism; Four Essays (2nd ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 152. ISBN 0691012989.
theprouditalian (22 January 2025). "Italian Folklore".
Note Tolkien's legendarium, for example, or The Story of the Amulet.
Further reading
Technology or Magic? Expanding Imaginations and Fantasy Genres
Zauberer Berlin (in German)
Judgments of effort for magical violations of intuitive physics
External links
Lawrence Watt-Evans, "Laws of Fantasy", Starlog
Patricia C. Wrede, "Magic and Magicians", Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions
Anders, C.J. (2011) "The Rules of Magic, According to the Greatest Fantasy Sagas of All Time" io9.com (includes 7x51 chart)
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Wizard (fantasy))
For other uses, see Magician (disambiguation) and Magi (disambiguation).
"Wizard (fantasy)" redirects here. For other uses, see Wizard (disambiguation).
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Find sources: "Magician" fantasy – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
The Enchanted Garden of Messer Ansaldo by Marie Spartali Stillman (1889): A magician uses magic to survive.[1]
A magician, also known as an archmage, mage, magus, magic-user, spellcaster, enchanter/enchantress, sorcerer/sorceress, warlock, witch, or wizard, is someone who uses or practices magic derived from supernatural, occult, or arcane sources.[2]: 54 Magicians enjoy a rich history in mythology, legends, fiction, and folklore, and are common figures in works of fantasy, such as fantasy literature and role-playing games.
Character archetypes
The Enchanter Merlin, by Howard Pyle, from The Story of King Arthur and His Knights (1903)
People who work magic are called by several names in fantasy works, and terminology differs widely from one fantasy world to another. While derived from real-world vocabulary, the terms: magician, mage, magus, enchanter/enchantress, sorcerer/sorceress, warlock, witch, and wizard, each have different meanings depending upon context and the story in question.[3]: 619 Archmage is used in fantasy works to indicate a powerful magician or a leader of magicians.[3]: 1027
The Love Potion by Evelyn De Morgan (1903)
Enchanters typically practice a type of imbued magic that produces no permanent effects on objects or people and are temporary, or of an indefinite duration, or which may require some item or act, to nullify or reverse. For example, this could include enchanting a weapon or tool to be more (or less) effective, enchanting a person or object to have a changed shape or appearance, creating illusions intended to deceive the observer, compelling a person to perform an action they might not normally do, or attempting to charm or seduce someone.[3]: 318 For instance, the Lady of the Green Kirtle in C. S. Lewis's The Silver Chair can transform herself into a large green serpent. She also enchants Rilian, compelling him to forget his father and Narnia. And when that enchantment is broken, she attempts further enchantments with a sweet-smelling smoke and a thrumming musical instrument to attempt to baffle him and his rescuers into forgetting them again.[4]
The term sorcerer has moved from meaning a fortune-teller, or "one who alters fate", to meaning a practitioner of magic who can alter reality. They are also sometimes shown as able to conjure supernatural beings or spirits, or to "animate" inanimate objects, such as in The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Due to this perception of their powers, this character may be depicted as feared, or even seen as evil. Villainous sorcerers were so crucial to pulp fantasy that the genre in which they appeared was dubbed "sword and sorcery", where typically the hero (or anti-hero) would be the sword-wielder, thus leaving the sorcery for his opponent.[3]: 885
Witch (an—often female—practitioner of witchcraft) and wicked (an adjective meaning "bad, evil, false") are both derivative terms from the word, wicca (an Old English word with varied meanings, including soothsayer, astrologer, herbalist, poisoner, seductress, or devotee of supernatural beings or spirits). L. Frank Baum combined these terms in naming the Wicked Witch of the West, and other witches in the Land of Oz. Baum named Glinda the "Good Witch of the South" in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In The Marvelous Land of Oz, he dubbed her "Glinda the Good," and from that point forward and in subsequent books, Baum referred to her as a sorceress rather than a witch to avoid the term that was more regarded as evil.[5] In modern fiction, a witch may be depicted more neutrally, such as the female witches (comparable to the male wizards) in the Harry Potter series of books by J. K. Rowling.
In medieval chivalric romance, the wizard often appears as a wise old man and acts as a mentor, with Merlin from the King Arthur stories being a prime example.[6]: 195 Wizards such as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings and Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter are also featured as mentors, and Merlin remains prominent as both an educative force and mentor in the modern works of Arthuriana.[3]: 637 [7]
Wizards can be cast similarly to the absent-minded professor: being foolish and prone to misconjuring. They can also be capable of great magic, both good and evil.[2]: 140–141 Even comical magicians are often capable of great feats, such as those of Miracle Max in The Princess Bride; although he is a washed-up wizard fired by the villain, he saves the dying hero.[8] Other wizards, such as Saruman from The Lord of the Rings or Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter, can appear as hostile villains.[6]: 193
Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea explored the question of how wizards learned their art, introducing to modern fantasy the role of the wizard as the protagonist.[9] This theme has been further developed in modern fantasy, often leading to wizards as heroes on their own quests.[10] Such heroes may have their own mentor, a wizard as well.[3]: 637
In role-playing games
Magicians in role-playing games often use names borrowed from fiction, myth and legend. They are typically delineated and named so that the game's players and game masters can know which rules apply.[3]: 385 Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson introduced the term "magic-user" in the original Dungeons & Dragons as a generic term for a practitioner of magic (in order to avoid the connotations of terms such as wizard or warlock); this lasted until the second edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, where it was replaced with mage (later to become wizard). The exact rules vary from game to game.[11] The wizard or mage, as a character class, is distinguished by the ability to cast certain kinds of magic learned from spellbooks, while being vulnerable in direct combat; sub-classes are distinguished by strengths in some areas of magic and weakness in others.[12] Sorcerers are distinguished from wizards as having an innate gift with magic, as well as having mystical or magical ancestry.[13] Warlocks are distinguished from wizards as creating forbidden "pacts" with powerful creatures to harness their innate magical gifts, similarly to clerics and paladins, who are empowered through divine and deific sources to perform thaumaturgical feats, while druids and rangers draw power from nature and the elements. Bards, on the other hand, are similar to wizards in learning magical abilities as scholarly practices, but differ in their power being tied to artistic expression rather than arcane knowledge.
Appearance
White-haired and white-bearded wizard with robes and hat
Golden Hat of Schifferstadt, circa 1,400-1,300 BC, Historical Museum of the Palatinate in Speyer, Germany.
Due to their traditional image as a wise old man or wise old woman, magicians may be depicted as old, white-haired, and in some instances with their hair (and in the case of male wizards, beards), being long and majestic enough to occasionally host lurking woodland creatures. This depiction predates the modern fantasy genre, being derived from the traditional image of wizards such as Merlin.[7][14]
Several golden hats adorned with astronomical sequences have been found in Europe. It has been speculated by archaeologists and historians that they were worn by ancient wizards.[15] The similarities shared with a fantasy magician's hat shape may mean that it is ultimately derived from them.
In fantasy, a magician may be shown wearing a pointed hat, robes, and/or a cloak. In more modern stories, a magician may be dressed similarly to a stage magician, wearing a top hat and tails, with an optional cape.
Terry Pratchett described robes as a magician's way of establishing to those they meet that they are capable of practicing magic.[16]
In the Dragonlance campaign setting of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, wizards show their moral alignment by the colour of their robes.[17]
Magical implements
The Crystal Ball by John William Waterhouse (1902): showing implements used for magical purposes; the crystal, a book, a skull, and a wand
A magician's crystal ball is a crystal or glass ball commonly associated with clairvoyance, fortune-telling, or scrying.
Wands and staves have long been used as requirements for the magician.[6]: 152 Possibly derived from wand-like implements used in fertility rituals, such as apotropaic wands, the earliest known instance of the modern magical wand was featured in the Odyssey, used by Circe to transform Odysseus's men into animals. Italian fairy tales put wands into the hands of powerful fairies by the Late Middle Ages.[18] Today, magical wands are widespread in literature and are used from Witch World to Harry Potter. In The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf refuses to surrender his own staff, breaking Saruman's, which strips the latter of his power. This dependency on a particular magical item is common, and necessary to limit the magician's power for the story's sake – without it, the magician's powers may be weakened or absent entirely.[19] In the Harry Potter universe, a wizard must expend much greater effort and concentration to use magic without a wand, and only a few can control magic without one; taking away a wizard's wand in battle essentially disarms them.[citation needed]
In the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia Wrede depicts wizards who use magic based on their staves, and magicians who practice several kinds of magic, including wizard magic;[clarification needed] in the Regency fantasies, she and Caroline Stevermer depict magicians as identical to wizards, though inferior in skill and training.
Education
The Alchemist by William Fettes Douglas (1853): studying for arcane knowledge
Magicians normally learn spells by reading ancient tomes called grimoires, which may have magical properties of their own.[3]: 126 Sorcerers in Conan the Barbarian often gained powers from such books, which are demarcated by their strange bindings. In worlds where magic is not an innate trait, the scarcity of these strange books may be a facet of the story; in Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest, Prince Rupert seeks out the books of the magician Prospero to learn magic. The same occurs in the Dungeons and Dragons-based novel series Dragonlance Chronicles, wherein Raistlin Majere seeks out the books of the sorcerer Fistandantilus. In JK Rowling's Harry Potter series, wizards already have skills of magic but they need to practise magic in Wizarding Schools in order to be able to use it properly.
Some magicians, even after training, continue their education by learning more spells, inventing new ones (and new magical objects), or rediscovering ancient spells, beings, or objects. For example, Dr. Strange from the Marvel Universe continues to learn about magic even after being named Sorcerer Supreme. He often encounters creatures that have not been seen for centuries or more. In the same universe, Dr. Doom continues to pursue magical knowledge after mastering it by combining magic with science. Fred and George Weasley from Harry Potter invent new magical items and sell them as legitimate defense items, new spells and potions can be made in the Harry Potter Universe; Severus Snape invented a variety of jinxes and hexes as well as substantial improvements in the process of making potions; Albus Dumbledore, along with Nicolas Flamel, is credited with discovering the twelve uses of dragon's blood.
Limits on magic
To introduce conflict, writers of fantasy fiction often place limits on the magical abilities of magicians to prevent them from solving problems too easily.[3]: 616
A common motif in fiction is that the ability to use magic is innate and often rare, or gained through a large amount of study and practice.[3]: 616 In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, magic is mostly limited to non-humans, such as the Istari (more commonly known as wizards), or elves crafting magical items. In many writers' works, it is reserved for a select group of humans,[citation needed] such as in Katherine Kurtz's Deryni novels, JK Rowling's Harry Potter novels or Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy universe.
A common limit invented by Jack Vance in his The Dying Earth series, and later popularized in role-playing games is that a wizard can only cast a specific number of spells in a day.[3]: 385 In Larry Niven's The Magic Goes Away, once an area's mana is exhausted, no one can use magic.[3]: 942
The extent of a magician's knowledge is limited to which spells a wizard knows and can cast.[19] Magic may also be limited by its danger; if a powerful spell can cause grave harm if miscast, magicians are likely to be wary of using it.[2]: 142 Other forms of magic are limited by consequences that, while not inherently dangerous, are at least undesirable. In A Wizard of Earthsea, every act of magic distorts the equilibrium of the world, which in turn has far-reaching consequences that can affect the entire world and everything in it. As a result, competent wizards do not use their magic frivolously.[19]
In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, the Law of Conservation of Reality is a principle imposed by forces wanting wizards to not destroy the world, and works to limit how much power it is humanly possible to wield.[citation needed] Whatever your means, the effort put into reaching the ends stays the same. For example, when the wizards of Unseen University are chasing the hapless wizard Rincewind in the forest of Skund, the wizards send out search teams to go and find him on foot. The Archchancellor beats them to it by using a powerful spell from his own office, and while he gets there first by clever use of his spell, he has used no less effort than the others.[citation needed]
Magic may require rare and precious materials, such as rare herbs or flowers (often selected by prescribed rituals), minerals or metals such as mercury, parts of creatures such as the eye of a newt, or even fantastic ingredients like the cool of a soft breeze on a summer's day. Even if the magician lacks scruples, obtaining the materials in question may be difficult.[20] This can vary by fantasy work. Many magicians require no materials at all;[3]: 617 or those that do may require only simple and easily obtained materials. Role-playing games are more likely to require such materials for at least some spells for game balance reasons.[21][self-published source?]
Use of magic in society
Nevertheless, many magicians live in pseudo-medieval settings in which their magic is not put to practical use in society; they may serve as mentors, act as quest companions, or even go on a quest themselves,[3]: 1027 but their magic does not build roads or buildings, provide immunizations, construct indoor plumbing, or do any of the other functions served by machinery; their worlds remain at a medieval level of technology.[22]
Sometimes this is justified by having the negative effects of magic outweigh the positive possibilities.[2]: 8 In Barbara Hambley's Windrose Chronicles, wizards are precisely pledged not to interfere because of the terrible damage they can do. In Discworld, the importance of wizards is that they actively do not do magic, because when wizards have access to sufficient "thaumaturgic energy", they develop many psychotic attributes and may eventually destroy the world. This may be a direct effect or the result of a miscast spell wreaking terrible havoc.[2]: 142
In other works, developing magic is difficult.[citation needed] In Rick Cook's Wizardry series, the extreme danger presented by magic and the difficulty of analyzing the magic have stymied magic and left humanity at the mercy of the dangerous elves until a wizard summons a computer programmer from a parallel world — ours — to apply the skills he learned in our world to magic.
At other times, magic and technology do develop in tandem; this is most common in the alternate history genre.[citation needed] Patricia Wrede's Regency fantasies include a Royal Society of Wizards and a technological level equivalent to the actual Regency; Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy series, Robert A. Heinlein's Magic, Incorporated, and Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos all depict modern societies with magic equivalent to twentieth-century technology. In Harry Potter, wizards have magical equivalents to non-magical inventions; sometimes they duplicate them, as with the Hogwarts Express train.
The powers ascribed to magicians often affect their roles in society.[original research?] In practical terms, their powers may give them authority; magicians may advise kings, such as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings and Belgarath and Polgara the Sorceress in David Eddings's The Belgariad. They may be rulers themselves, as in E.R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros, where both the heroes and the villains, although kings and lords, supplement their physical power with magical knowledge, or as in Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy, where magicians are the governing class.[3]: 1027 On the other hand, magicians often live like hermits, isolated in their towers and often in the wilderness, bringing no change to society. In some works, such as many of Barbara Hambly's, they are despised and outcast specifically because of their knowledge and powers.[3]: 745
In the magic-noir world of the Dresden Files, wizards generally keep a low profile, though there is no explicit prohibition against interacting openly with non-magical humanity. The protagonist of the series, Harry Dresden, openly advertises in the Yellow Pages under the heading "Wizard" and maintains a business office, though other wizards tend to resent him for practicing his craft openly. Dresden primarily uses his magic to make a living finding lost items and people, performing exorcisms, and providing protection against the supernatural.[23]
In the series Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, human forms of life should have only been capable of acquiring divine magic powers through individual spiritual development, whereas the race of human magicians with inborn magical ability ended in conflict with pureblood human society, because this race appeared as a result of an experiment of mixing humans with non-human sentient Heavenly Beings that acquired magic powers not through spiritual development, but through deep studying of laws of nature and by falsely causing the world's laws to react to actions of the Heavenly Beings as to actions of Divinities.[24] In the Harry Potter series, the Wizarding World hides themselves from the rest of the non-magic world, because, as described by Hagrid simply, "Why? Blimey, Harry, everyone’d be wantin’ magic solutions to their problems. Nah, we’re best left alone.”
References
"The Enchanted Garden of Messer Ansaldo by Marie Spartali Stillman". ArtMagick. Archived from the original on 2016-03-08. Retrieved 2013-10-16.
Martin, Philip (2002). The Writer's Guide to Fantasy Literature: From Dragon's Lair to Hero's Quest: How to Write Fantasy Stories of Lasting Value (1st ed.). Waukesha, Wisconsin: Writer Books. ISBN 0871161958.
Clute, John; Westfahl (1999). The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1st ed.). New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0312198698.
Bassham, Gregory (2005). The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy: the Lion, the Witch, and the Worldview (1st ed.). Chicago: Open Court. p. 171. ISBN 0812695887.
Riley, Michael O. (1997). Oz and Beyond: The Fantasy World of L. Frank Baum. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. p. 104. ISBN 070060832X.
Frye, Northrop (1971). Anatomy of Criticism; Four Essays (2nd ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691012989.
Driver, Martha W. (2004). The Medieval Hero on Screen: Representations from Beowulf to Buffy. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. pp. 167–191. ISBN 0786419261.
Card, Orson Scott (1999). Characters and Viewpoint (1st ed.). Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer's Digest Books. p. 100. ISBN 0898799279.
Wood, Susan (1982). The Language of the Night: Essays On Fantasy and Science Fiction (Reprinted ed.). New York: Berkley Books. p. 41. ISBN 0425052052.
Fike, Justin. "The Role of Wizards in Fantasy Literature". The Victorian Web. Archived from the original on 2013-10-16. Retrieved 2013-10-16.
"Dungeons & Dragons", Wikipedia, 2024-08-03, retrieved 2024-08-07
Cook, David "Zed" (1989). Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook (2nd ed.). Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR. pp. 30–31. ISBN 0880387165.
Williams, Skip (2003). Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook (Special ed.). Renton, Washington: Wizards of the Coast. p. 51. ISBN 0786928867.
Colbert, David (2001). The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter: A Treasury of Myths, Legends, and Fascinating Facts (1st ed.). Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina: Lumina Press. p. 70. ISBN 0970844204.
Paterson, Tony (17 March 2002). "Mysterious gold cones 'hats of ancient wizards'". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
Marcio, Kneidinger (1948-04-28). "Analysis". Terry Pratchett's Discworld. L-Space Web. Archived from the original on 2013-06-07. Retrieved 2013-10-16.
Hickman, Tracy; Weis, Margaret (1987). DragonLance Adventures. Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR. pp. 34-35. ISBN 0880384522.
Benvenuto, Raffaella (2006). "Italian Fairies: Fate, Folletti, and Other Creatures of Legend". Journal of Mythic Arts. Endicott Studio. Archived from the original on 2013-10-16. Retrieved 2013-10-16.
Kern, Michael. "The Limits of Magic". The Victorian Web. Archived from the original on 2013-10-16. Retrieved 2013-10-13.
Card, Orson Scott (1990). How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy (1st ed.). Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer's Digest Books. pp. 47–49. ISBN 0898794161.
Woolsey, Doug; Olson, Donald (2004). Battleaxe Rpg: Reforged Edition. Lulu.com. pp. 167–173. ISBN 9781442105935. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
Brin, David (1994). Otherness. New York: Bantam Books. p. 261. ISBN 0553295284.
Krug, Kurt Anthony (2018-07-27). "There's Something About Harry: A Look Into Jim Butcher's Character Harry Dresden". The Strand Magazine. Retrieved 2019-01-18.
Mizuno, Ryou (2019). Sorcerous Stabber Orphen Anthology. Commentary (in Japanese). TO Books. p. 235. ISBN 9784864728799.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fictional magicians.
Patricia Wrede, "Magic and Magicians", Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions
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