Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In this video, we’re going to be
digging deep into Harry Potter lore and taking a look at an evil wizard that you’ve probably
never heard of- his name was Merwyn the Malicious. Not to be confused with the GOOD wizard Merlin,
Merwyn the Malicious was an evil, and I mean EVIL, pure-blood wizard that existed sometime
between the 5th and 15th centuries, aka the medieval period. This is the same period of
history that produced many notable witches and wizards- like the founders of Hogwarts-
Salazar Slytherin, Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, and others like
Merlin and Morgana Le Fay. I find it particularly interesting that this time period was responsible
for so many powerful witches and wizards- the Hogwarts founders after all, were thought
to possess powers that are ‘uncomparable to most modern day witches and wizards’,
and people like Merlin/Morgana were more powerful than them. This means that, given that Merwyn
made it in to the history books as an evil wizard during this time period, he must have
truly been a force to be reckoned with.
In Harry Potter when we think of evil witches/wizards we usually think of Voldemort, Grindelwald,
Bellatrix etc. But, in reality, the wizarding world has been around for a very very long
time, and over the course of history there have been an uncountable number of powerful
dark forces. Some of them rose to prominence and had big plans to take over the wizarding
world, and others quietly experimented with the dark arts in isolation. These wizards
include people like Ekrizdis, who may have been responsible for CREATING the dementors,
Raczidian, who was destroyed by his own magic when he attempted to produce a patronus charm,
and Morgana le Fay, perhaps the most powerful dark witch in history who opposed MERLIN,
the most powerful wizard of history. These are all such enigmatic figures in wizarding
lore and history, and I love to dig deep and research these figures because they are an
integral part of the formation of the present day wizarding world.
Which is why today we’re going to be looking at another POWERFUL, EVIL dark wizard that
existed during the same time period as a lot of these other guys - Merwyn The Malicious.
Now, I’ll be frank, there’s not a whole lot of information on Merwyn out there, but
I included every little tidpit that I could find.
First things first, we know of Merwyn the Malicious because he was, like other wizards
have been, immortalized in the wizarding world after his death. How was he immortalized?
You might ask. Well, he was immortalized in a couple of ways - the first and most notable
being his chocolate frog card. That’s right, Merwyn was featured on his very own chocolate
frog card, much like Dumbledore, Morgana Le Fay, and many others.
Chocolate Frog Cards are of course trading cards that display pictures of famous witches
and wizards and provide small amounts of information about them. To be featured on a chocolate
frog card, you really need to be a notable figure- they don’t just feature anyone,
which is sort of what sparked my curiosity about Merwyn. The second way that Merwyn was
immortalized was through a portrait in Hogwarts. His portrait can be found guarding a secret
shortcut between the Third Floor landing of the Grand Staircase and the Entrance Hall
side room. The password for for this entrance is ‘Malovelance’, which is fitting given
Merwyn’s character.
During his lifetime, Merwyn was a dedicated practitioner of the dark arts, and would conduct
all sorts of twisted magical experiments using his uniquely hooked wand. He had dark grey
scabby looking-skin which sort of resembled lifeless human skin, and would often sport
a long dark-green cloak. He was a scary looking guy, and I have no doubt that the experiments
he would conduct had a lasting effect on his physical appearance, as we know how dark magic
can effect you in that way.
From all of his experiments, Merwyn obtained notoriety by his creation of dark spells,
jinxes and hexes. He is largely responsible for many of the dark curses and spells that
came to prevalence during the medieval period, and I suspect that a lot of the dark spells
that we see today were his doing. After all, spell creation is how he made it on to a chocolate
frog card.
Merwyn is commonly associated with Hogwarts founder Salazar Slytherin, who was likely
born sometime around 950 AD. Though Slytherin contributed some good to the world in the
form of his involvement with Hogwarts school, he was also quite an evil man, and a notable
dark figure during the time period that he existed. Salazar Slytherin was extremely powerful
in casting dark charms and spells and he was notably skilled at legilimency, wandmaking,
basilisk breeding and charms, having helped to create the sorting hat. There’s no doubt
in my mind that Merwyn and Salazar met at one point or another, but one intriguing theory
that I’ve seen suggests that there is a familial connection between them. Could Merwyn
the Malicious be from the Slytherin family as well? Could he be a distant relative of
VOLDEMORT?
Unfortunately, when Merwyn died there still wasn’t much information known about him,
and his body was never found. This makes connecting him to Slytherin difficult, but it’s a fun
theory and I think that it’s totally a possibility.
And that’s all I’ve got on Merwyn the Malicious- did you guys know about him? Do
you think he’s related to Slytherin? Let me know down in the comment section below
UNTIL NEXT TIME
YER A WIZARD ARRY