Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video, we’re
going to be discussing Salazar Slytherin- proud Slytherin, Hogwarts founder, and dark wizard.
The lives and legacies of Hogwarts founders are more than enough to fill a volume or two
in Madame Pince’s library… at least, that’s true of most.
But if we look past the achievements of Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, and
Rowena Ravenclaw, then you’ll be surprised to find that very little remains of Salazar Slytherin.
And it’s important to ask… why?
After all, the lasting impact that Salazar made
on the wizarding world at the turn of the first millennium,
was far greater than most… save only his co-founders and, perhaps, the Peverell Siblings.
Why… then… does it seem that history has chosen to neglect him?
Well.. I think we should start at the beginning- all the way
back to the tenth century when he was born.
What do we know of Salazar Slytherin’s early life?
Like his childhood best friend, Godric Gryffindor, who he would later join in the
establishment of the world’s finest wizarding school, Salazar Slytherin was born in Britain.
We can’t be exactly sure on the details… but it seems like Salazar’s homeland was
England or Scotland. As most historical texts were recorded on paper parchment,
a small detail like Slytherin’s birthplace was rarely marked down,
and if it was, the document on which it was written didn’t survive to the present day.
Some historians suppose that Slytherin actually hailed from Ireland,
which means he would have been a fellow countryman of the mighty Fingal the Fearless.
Although Salazar likely moved from place to place,
as his parents advanced his education or fled persecution, the theory that he was born in
Ireland is a bit more doubtful once you consider who Slytherin’s greatest childhood friend was:
Godric Gryffindor. This other founder of Hogwarts was famously born in the West Country of England,
and even lent his name to a village, as Godric’s hollow was named after him…
the very same town that the Dumbledore family resided in nearly a thousand years later.
While the controversy surrounding Salazar Slytherin’s hometown remains,
the manner in which he was raised is far clearer. As you might suspect, Slytherin was likely raised
in a family that despised muggles. It was during his childhood that his hatred for
non-pure-bloods was forged. Although it might be simple enough to consider Salazar’s hatred
as a simple inheritance bestowed upon him by his parents, there could be other reasons.
England at this time, in the 10th century, was filled with the fervor of the Anglo-Saxon
Christian church. As they sought to purge the landscape of pagan idols, and their worshipers,
magical families were undoubtedly targeted in the attacks.
Surely part of Salazar’s prejudice was from a sense of elitism, but in the end, he might have
simply used his hatred of purebloods as a way to cope with the butchering of the wizarding world.
Before joining his peers in the founding of Hogwarts, Salazar earned renown as an accomplished
wizard. Like other Dark Wizards throughout history, Salazar Slytherin was capable of
communicating with serpents. As a parseltongue, he shared this unique trait with the creator
of the very first Basilisk, Herpo the Foul, and Salazar’s own distant descendant, Tom Riddle.
Salazar would need this ability when he created the Chamber of Secrets,
sometime before he was forced to leave Hogwarts…. But I’ll get to that story in a bit.
During his youth, Salazar also famously created his very own wand, a magical relic that would
have a legacy over one thousand years old. Salazar originally created the weapon out of snakewood,
and even embedded a tiny piece of a Basilisk within it. When we think of the greatest duelists
of the time, we often turn our attention first to Godric Gryffindor, who wielded both a sword
and wand in combat. But Slytherin was no slouch, either. Although, his ability to craft
wands outshined any of his duels. The weapon eventually became an heirloom of his family.
At one point, it made the journey across the Atlantic, and wound up in the New World,
where it was eventually transformed into a magical snakewood tree.
Besides his wand, Salazar had trained himself in a number of magical disciplines.
As a Legilimens, the dark wizard was able to read others' thoughts, and even project visions into
their minds. While there aren’t many records about Salazar’s particular feats with this discipline,
we can safely assume that he rivaled the likes of later wizards, Severus Snape and Lord Voldemort.
Voldermort’s own feats with Legilimency, while seemingly effortless, were great enough to make
many consider him the greatest Legilimens of the era. He regularly invaded the minds
of his enemies, and was particularly cruel when he used the skill against Harry Potter.
Like the earlier dark wizard, Herpo the Foul, Salazar Slytherin had also mastered the ability
of creating a basilisk… a giant, venomous serpent that was one of the deadliest creatures in
the wizarding world. By Harry Potter’s time, breeding and holding Basilisk’s in captivity
was a crime that could very well earn you several years in prison. Salazar’s ability
to speak parseltongue served him well in this field. Basilisk’s were a XXXXX class beast,
and were deemed impossible to tame. That’s why Dark Wizards, especially those who had a
penchant for parseltongue, were among the only beings to control the serpents. Their ability
to communicate with the giant snakes meant they could at least steer them in the right direction.
As you might suspect, Salazar Slytherin would use this skill to place a basilisk
in the chamber of secrets, but again… I’m getting a bit ahead of myself.
I suppose you might be wondering when,
exactly, did Salazar Slytherin get the idea to create Hogwarts?
Well, the exact dates of Hogwart’s founding aren’t quite clear. Some suggest the year 993,
while others claim 990. While nailing down the school’s founding date is tricky,
figuring out how old Salazar was at the time of its creation is even harder.
It doesn’t seem that historians can concur on any one, particular age, but it wouldn’t make
sense for Salazar to be much younger than his early thirties in order to help found Hogwarts.
While joining his friends, Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Raveclaw, and Helga Hufflepuff…
it didn’t seem like Slytherin’s questionable past raised any questions.
You have to remember, in later years the divide between dark wizards and their peers
was quite stark. But at this point, especially with the persecution that
all the wizarding community faced at the hands of muggles, Slytherin’s
propensity for dark magic was demonstrably far less evil than witch hunts and burnings.
Located in the Scottish highlands, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry allowed Salazar
a great deal of freedom with his unique vision for the future generations of wizards. As each founder
had their own house, Slytherin decided that he would dedicate his to a particular type of wizard.
Slytherin didn’t target the recklessly courageous, as Gryffindor’s did, or the senselessly loyal,
as Hufflepuff was known to do. And unlike Rowena Ravenclaw’s house,
which recruited the smartest of every incoming class, Slytherin preferred the most cunning.
He hated muggles, that much we already knew. So Slytherin’s house actively discriminated
against muggle-born students during the Sorting Hat ceremony. In fact, it was,
in part, thanks to Salazar’s skills with charms that brought the Sorting Hat to life.
He, along with the other founders, enchanted one of Godric’s old,
tattered hats, and used it to choose new members of their respective houses.
It’s hard to know exactly what Hogwarts looked like during Slytherin’s time at the school. As a
10th century wizarding academy, it must have been far different than Hogwarts during Harry or even
James Potter’s time. With muggle attacks on the wizarding community burning through the country,
Salazar must have been a strong proponent of teaching techniques that made his students
more than capable of defeating throngs of villagers, armed with simple steel weapons.
But as we mentioned at the very beginning, there isn’t much known of the life and times
of Salazar Slytherin. And, it’s in large part due to how he ended his time at Hogwarts.
During the early years of the school, Slytherin eventually butted heads with his fellow founders.
While his Dark Wizarding ways didn’t initially bother Godric, Helga, or Rowena… his anti-muggle
rhetoric, however right it might have been at the time, didn’t sit well with the others.
At one point, Slytherin laid down an ultimatum. He couldn’t imagine a future for the school if
it continued accepting muggle-born wizards into the program. Even though Slytherin
was given a great deal of freedom with his own house, and the Sorting Hat itself aided
Salazar in rejecting non-purebloods from his program, the dark wizard wanted more.
He wanted every house within Hogwarts to enroll only the finest purebloods.
And when this issue eventually came to a boiling point,
Slytherin found that his co-founders wouldn’t budge. They thought Muggle-borns were just as
important as pure bloods, and they couldn’t tolerate Slytherin’s prejudice any longer.
Even Salazar’s oldest friend, dear Godric, rebuked Slytherin for his intolerance.
In the end, Salazar felt that he was forced to abandon Hogwarts, the very school that he had
spent so many years helping to form. But he didn’t leave the school unblemished. In the
years to come, the Sorting Hat would continue to select students based on Salazar’s preferences.
And there was one more stain Slytherin left behind. In the depths of Hogwarts,
only accessible by hidden pathways, the dark wizard had created the Chamber of Secrets-
a secret chamber complete with a statue of his likeness:
"Then, as Harry drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue high as the Chamber itself
loomed into view, standing against the back wall... It was ancient and monkeyish,
with a long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes,
where two enormous grey feet stood on the smooth Chamber floor."
But that wasn’t the only thing in the chamber, Slytherin also placed a giant, venomous Baslisk…
one that rivaled the murderous beasts that Herp perfected in a prior age… deep within the dungeon.
Salazar hoped that one of his heirs would take up his charge, to rid the world of muggle-born
wizards, with the aid of his serpent. His dreams would be realized, one thousand years later,
when Tom Riddle accessed the Chamber, and attacked his non pure-blood classmates.
Unfortunately, not much is known about the period after Salazar left Hogwarts,
but many believe that he died just a short period after creating the Chamber of Secrets.
And that’s it for this video! Did you learn much about Salazar Slytherin?
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Until next time
Remember
My philosophy is that worrying means you suffer twice