FIC: Chapter One: In the Beginning (Gods and Founders)
TITLE: Chapter One: In The Beginning (Gods and Founders)
AUTHOR:: eudaimon
RATING: N/A
LENGTH:: 1305 words with a small graphic
SUMMARY: A chapter from "A History of Magic", Marlene McKinnon, Three Broomsticks Press, 1974.
It is therefore not unreasonable to assume that, whoever the ‘real’ figure of Merlin was, he was almost certainly not deserving of the near-Godlike status he enjoys in the modern day. We have, in all likelihood, been taken in by a opportunistic fraud who knew a good story when he saw one.
A/N: Written for the omniocular Non Fiction Challenge. My prompt was "123. History of the Ancient Wizarding World (with emphasis on the four founders and Merlin)". I tried, but once Marlene came over, I couldn't make her stop (for reference, I play Marlene on communiquills, which is where the idea of her being a Historian came from. This was her first book. (for cmwinters, whose prompt this originally was. I hope this isn't dissapointing...) I don't honestly expect anyone to read this.
In the beginning, there was Merlin.
Little is known about the true origins of “Merlin”. Wizards will not necessarily be aware of the complicated story-system which surrounds the Merlin figure, despite the somewhat curious deification which has occurred during the latter half of the millennium. Merlin, like any deity, like any God figure, has many faces. He was a Wizard, naturally, but he was also an advisor, a prophet, a bard, a warrior. Traditionally, he appears as an old man, his long white beard. Beard or not, he is, most likely, an amalgamation of fiction and grand con. This Merlin with whom we are all familiar, the god-like figure often referred is most likely a composite created by the Muggle author Geoffrey of Monmouth in 1135. Geoffrey’s Merlin was a mixture of the legends of a “Wildman of the woods” known as Lailoken or Myrddin (with a ‘dd’ making a ‘th’) and that of a fatherless Muggle child who prophesied the death of a Welsh king. It is therefore not unreasonable to assume that, whoever the ‘real’ figure of Merlin was, he was almost certainly not deserving of the near-Godlike status he enjoys in the modern day. We have, in all likelihood, been taken in by a opportunistic fraud who knew a good story when he saw one.
Let that sink in. A fraud. A Wizard who stepped into the story that that Muggle created. This, though, affords an interesting opportunity to investigate the man who stepped into the void. What do we really know about Merlin? Welsh poetry speaks of a man ‘wandering with madness and madmen’. Is this the origin of Wizarding faith (what faith there is, where Wizards are concerned)? He is said to have developed the gift of foresight. Do we as Wizards and Witches have any real need of a Prophet? I argues that, in a time which Muggles refer to as ‘the Dark Ages’, the man who was Merlin must have seemed a point of very bright light. There was a void which he stepped into. It is possible that we know so little about it him deliberately; the lie has been lost in the fog of myth. Cults have been founded on less.
If Merlin is somewhat lacking then, at least, the illustrious ranks of his followers do not also disappoint. It is out of this number, the initial wave of believers, so to speak, that four of the most instantly recognisable figures in Wizarding history take to the stage. From a range of backgrounds come four individuals, two male, two female, who the reader surely knows by reputation if nothing else. Who else by the Founders themselves? Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw - the names are familiar, but how many people take the time to learn the stories? Are there even stories to be learnt? These are the people who built the foremost Wizarding school in the world from the ground up. These are the people who first forged Wizarding/Muggle relations. These are the people who shaped the world as we have come to know it. Surely, we owe them a little of our time? Surely, the least that we can do is know them better.
Records being as they are, little is concretely known of the lives of the Founders outside of their most widely known achievement. Rowena Ravenclaw is renowned for beauty and intelligence, Helga Hufflepuff for strength of character; theirs are minor achievements, in the grand scheme - Hogwart’s unusual floorplan, for example, and the fact that she opened her doors not only to the children of Wizarding families but all children of magical potential. The women picked their battles, certainly but what is actually known of the female Founders is depressingly slight, contained in four lines of a song. “Fair” and “Glen”, “sweet” and “broad valleys”; this is all that we have to go on. We can, then, imagine two pretty, clever girls, one probably kinder than the other. We know roughly where they came from then; easy to imagine Helga on the hillside, and Rowena among the dappled shadows. Fair and sweet they may have been (what else do we expect of women of their period? The vocabulary is limited) but it should not be forgotten that these women were there, that they too did remarkable things. These ladies, brave as they were, disappeared from history, more or less as soon as they came. Revolutionaries they may have been but it is also fair to assume that in their time they also dwindled into wives.
Or perhaps there were no husbands, no dwindling at all. It is, after all, the writers who control history, the monks in their towers, the men who are holding the pens. These are the gatekkepers. The toll is high. It is not beyond the realms of belief to question whether the women dwindled or whether they were forcibly pressed into happily ever after. We know that, for a few years at least, it was Helga (not Godric) at the helm of the school. After that, nothing. Rowena disappears even sooner from the public eye. In an age where it was difficult, nigh on impossible to function openly in a magical capacity, how easy would it have been for a famous Witch to disappear? Comforting, to imagine Helga where she was happiest (a number of her writings still survive, in fragmented form). Easier to conceive of Rowena on a distant shore; the dark continent is only dark because we allow it to remain so. Yes. Perhaps these wonderful women allowed happily ever after to happen behind them, their faces already turned into a new world of their own design?
It seems almost futile to discuss the remaining Founders when so much is known of noble Godric and dear Salazar. Men, of course, are interesting (though women live other lives). Still, the facts bear repeating, if only for the sake of completeness. Godric (a native of the ancient city of York, which is, apparently close enough to the Moors for the Sorting Hat) succeeded Helga into the Headmaster’s chair some five years after the foundation of the school. It is Godric who we can blame for the dubious songs of the Sorting Hat. Salazar, having been put firmly in his place by Helga’s come-one-come-all policy, slunk off into the wider world (a blessing, surely, after a childhood spent sinking into the sea in the fen country of East Anglia) and is responsible for some of the more complicated (and, occasionally, vicious) of the arcane curses studied in more detail later in the book. I find the stories of the the male Founders somewhat lacking; again, one can see the historian’s touch. Witness, the statues of the Founders which most people will surely be familiar with. Godric the hero, Salazar wizened and almost monkey like in appearance? Few Wizards can claim knowledge of the works of the Muggle Playwright William Shakespeare…Indeed, if Slytherin had had his way, then no Wizard at all would have even passing awarness of Muggle literature and this book would not have been written. It is commonplace in Muggle history for a playwright (or academic) to vilify one character to the benefit of the other; a king’s character may be assassinated for the glory of his successor, a kind of literary violence to follow the physical, if you will. In Shakespeare’s case, it was Richard III, with his humped back, his comic gait. One has to wonder - what kingdom for Salazar’s horse?
These, then, are The Founders, their origins almost as vague as Merlin’s himself. Before these individuals, Wizarding Society lacked form. If any Wizard (and I doubt it) deserves Deification, it is, perhaps, these four, who were most certainly responsible for miraculous things. The greatest of these was, of course, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
AUTHOR:: eudaimon
RATING: N/A
LENGTH:: 1305 words with a small graphic
SUMMARY: A chapter from "A History of Magic", Marlene McKinnon, Three Broomsticks Press, 1974.
It is therefore not unreasonable to assume that, whoever the ‘real’ figure of Merlin was, he was almost certainly not deserving of the near-Godlike status he enjoys in the modern day. We have, in all likelihood, been taken in by a opportunistic fraud who knew a good story when he saw one.
A/N: Written for the omniocular Non Fiction Challenge. My prompt was "123. History of the Ancient Wizarding World (with emphasis on the four founders and Merlin)". I tried, but once Marlene came over, I couldn't make her stop (for reference, I play Marlene on communiquills, which is where the idea of her being a Historian came from. This was her first book. (for cmwinters, whose prompt this originally was. I hope this isn't dissapointing...) I don't honestly expect anyone to read this.
In the beginning, there was Merlin.
Little is known about the true origins of “Merlin”. Wizards will not necessarily be aware of the complicated story-system which surrounds the Merlin figure, despite the somewhat curious deification which has occurred during the latter half of the millennium. Merlin, like any deity, like any God figure, has many faces. He was a Wizard, naturally, but he was also an advisor, a prophet, a bard, a warrior. Traditionally, he appears as an old man, his long white beard. Beard or not, he is, most likely, an amalgamation of fiction and grand con. This Merlin with whom we are all familiar, the god-like figure often referred is most likely a composite created by the Muggle author Geoffrey of Monmouth in 1135. Geoffrey’s Merlin was a mixture of the legends of a “Wildman of the woods” known as Lailoken or Myrddin (with a ‘dd’ making a ‘th’) and that of a fatherless Muggle child who prophesied the death of a Welsh king. It is therefore not unreasonable to assume that, whoever the ‘real’ figure of Merlin was, he was almost certainly not deserving of the near-Godlike status he enjoys in the modern day. We have, in all likelihood, been taken in by a opportunistic fraud who knew a good story when he saw one.
Let that sink in. A fraud. A Wizard who stepped into the story that that Muggle created. This, though, affords an interesting opportunity to investigate the man who stepped into the void. What do we really know about Merlin? Welsh poetry speaks of a man ‘wandering with madness and madmen’. Is this the origin of Wizarding faith (what faith there is, where Wizards are concerned)? He is said to have developed the gift of foresight. Do we as Wizards and Witches have any real need of a Prophet? I argues that, in a time which Muggles refer to as ‘the Dark Ages’, the man who was Merlin must have seemed a point of very bright light. There was a void which he stepped into. It is possible that we know so little about it him deliberately; the lie has been lost in the fog of myth. Cults have been founded on less.
If Merlin is somewhat lacking then, at least, the illustrious ranks of his followers do not also disappoint. It is out of this number, the initial wave of believers, so to speak, that four of the most instantly recognisable figures in Wizarding history take to the stage. From a range of backgrounds come four individuals, two male, two female, who the reader surely knows by reputation if nothing else. Who else by the Founders themselves? Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw - the names are familiar, but how many people take the time to learn the stories? Are there even stories to be learnt? These are the people who built the foremost Wizarding school in the world from the ground up. These are the people who first forged Wizarding/Muggle relations. These are the people who shaped the world as we have come to know it. Surely, we owe them a little of our time? Surely, the least that we can do is know them better.
Records being as they are, little is concretely known of the lives of the Founders outside of their most widely known achievement. Rowena Ravenclaw is renowned for beauty and intelligence, Helga Hufflepuff for strength of character; theirs are minor achievements, in the grand scheme - Hogwart’s unusual floorplan, for example, and the fact that she opened her doors not only to the children of Wizarding families but all children of magical potential. The women picked their battles, certainly but what is actually known of the female Founders is depressingly slight, contained in four lines of a song. “Fair” and “Glen”, “sweet” and “broad valleys”; this is all that we have to go on. We can, then, imagine two pretty, clever girls, one probably kinder than the other. We know roughly where they came from then; easy to imagine Helga on the hillside, and Rowena among the dappled shadows. Fair and sweet they may have been (what else do we expect of women of their period? The vocabulary is limited) but it should not be forgotten that these women were there, that they too did remarkable things. These ladies, brave as they were, disappeared from history, more or less as soon as they came. Revolutionaries they may have been but it is also fair to assume that in their time they also dwindled into wives.
Or perhaps there were no husbands, no dwindling at all. It is, after all, the writers who control history, the monks in their towers, the men who are holding the pens. These are the gatekkepers. The toll is high. It is not beyond the realms of belief to question whether the women dwindled or whether they were forcibly pressed into happily ever after. We know that, for a few years at least, it was Helga (not Godric) at the helm of the school. After that, nothing. Rowena disappears even sooner from the public eye. In an age where it was difficult, nigh on impossible to function openly in a magical capacity, how easy would it have been for a famous Witch to disappear? Comforting, to imagine Helga where she was happiest (a number of her writings still survive, in fragmented form). Easier to conceive of Rowena on a distant shore; the dark continent is only dark because we allow it to remain so. Yes. Perhaps these wonderful women allowed happily ever after to happen behind them, their faces already turned into a new world of their own design?
It seems almost futile to discuss the remaining Founders when so much is known of noble Godric and dear Salazar. Men, of course, are interesting (though women live other lives). Still, the facts bear repeating, if only for the sake of completeness. Godric (a native of the ancient city of York, which is, apparently close enough to the Moors for the Sorting Hat) succeeded Helga into the Headmaster’s chair some five years after the foundation of the school. It is Godric who we can blame for the dubious songs of the Sorting Hat. Salazar, having been put firmly in his place by Helga’s come-one-come-all policy, slunk off into the wider world (a blessing, surely, after a childhood spent sinking into the sea in the fen country of East Anglia) and is responsible for some of the more complicated (and, occasionally, vicious) of the arcane curses studied in more detail later in the book. I find the stories of the the male Founders somewhat lacking; again, one can see the historian’s touch. Witness, the statues of the Founders which most people will surely be familiar with. Godric the hero, Salazar wizened and almost monkey like in appearance? Few Wizards can claim knowledge of the works of the Muggle Playwright William Shakespeare…Indeed, if Slytherin had had his way, then no Wizard at all would have even passing awarness of Muggle literature and this book would not have been written. It is commonplace in Muggle history for a playwright (or academic) to vilify one character to the benefit of the other; a king’s character may be assassinated for the glory of his successor, a kind of literary violence to follow the physical, if you will. In Shakespeare’s case, it was Richard III, with his humped back, his comic gait. One has to wonder - what kingdom for Salazar’s horse?
These, then, are The Founders, their origins almost as vague as Merlin’s himself. Before these individuals, Wizarding Society lacked form. If any Wizard (and I doubt it) deserves Deification, it is, perhaps, these four, who were most certainly responsible for miraculous things. The greatest of these was, of course, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.