Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In this video, we’re going to be
discussing the OLDEST wizard in history- and it might not be who you think it is.
Though it isn’t touched on much in the series, we know for a fact that that witches and wizards
live longer than us muggles. Rowling even revealed in an interview that Dumbledore was
115 at the time of his death:
“Dumbledore is a hundred and fifteen, and Professor McGonagall is a sprightly seventy.
Wizards have a much longer life expectancy than Muggles.”
But, just because we’re told what age Dumbledore lived to, it still doesn’t really give us
a proper point of reference. Dumbledore didn’t really die under natural circumstances, and
while he looked old, I think that he probably had many more years left in the tank. With
a bit of digging, I was able to find a resource that gives us a little bit more insight in
to the ages of witches and wizards. According to the Ministry of Divine Health, the average
wizarding life expectancy was reported at an average of 137 ¾ years old in the mid-1990s.
This means that they live an average of 57% longer than humans, who cap out at 79 - not
bad. But, what’s the limit? How long can they actually live if things go well for them?
The longest living human or muggle on record is reported to have been Jeanne Calment, a
supercentenarian from the south of France. She was born in 1875 and actually died in
the same year as Dumbledore, 1997. This made her 122 years and 164 days old - beating out
our favourite Hogwarts professor by 7 years.
So, if wizards live an average of 57% longer than humans, then I think that it would be
reasonable to assume that the oldest living wizard was probably around 191, or 122x1.57,
right? Here’s where it gets tricky- there are many
witches and wizards on record that easily outlived this number, and by a substantial
margin.
The man that usually comes to the forefront of people’s minds when they think of a long
life is Nicholas Flamel, AKA the Philosopher behind the Philosopher’s Stone. Flamel was
a French scribe born in the year 1330 in the city of Pontoise- he lived in Paris for the
majority of his life, and spent much time there over the course of the 14th and 15th
century. Flamel is cited as having discovered how to make a Philosopher's Stone- a magical
artefact with the capability to grant the possessor eternal life. Flamel, along with
his wife Perenelle, were able to produce an elixir of life from the stone, allowing them
to live ludicrously long lives. In fact, they would probably would have been able to live
forever- but Flamel, aware of the dangers of what could happen if the stone fell in
to the wrong hands, destroyed it. As they were no longer using the elixir of life, Flamel
died when he was just shy of 700 years old- not a bad run.
Interesting that Jeanne Calment’s father was also called Nicolas, and also hailed from
France..Hmmm..
But even though Flamel lived to nearly 700, and used an elixir of life, he still wasn’t
the longest living wizard. So, who was? According to a snippet from the daily prophet, the longest
living wizard was Barry Winkle.
"Barry Wee Willie Winkle celebrates his 755th birthday in style tonight by throwing a huge
party for all the wizards and witches he has ever known. 30 million are expected to attend
tonight."
That was the description under the headline ‘Oldest Wizard is 755’ which appeared
in the August 14th, 1991 issue of the Daily Prophet.
There’s a lot of speculation floating around regarding how exactly Barry achieved that
age. The most popular theory is that Barry possessed some sort of Philosopher’s Stone
or elixir of life of his own. The second theory is that Barry was just of unusually good health,
and reached his absurd age naturally. Pushing the limits of what witches and wizards can
achieve. In a magical world where seemingly anything is possible, I don’t want to discount
anything, HOWEVER, I really don’t think that Barry could have outlived someone like
Flamel without some sort of assistance, and I am of the impression that he too possessed
some kind of elixir of life. What do you guys think? How did Barry reach the RIPE age of
755? Let me know down in the comment section below.
Until next time
It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness- nothing more.