Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video, we’re going
to be discussing Salazar Slytherin, Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff,
and Hogwarts. More specifically- we’re going to be discussing the FOUNDING of Hogwarts,
as well as what led to Salazar Slytherin, the founder of Slytherin house, vacating the
school.
Hogwarts was founded when four 10th century witches and wizards got together, and decided
that they had, in the sorting hat’s own words: ‘the selfsame yearning, to make the
world’s best magic school’. Thus, Hogwarts was born. The school itself was built hidden
off somewhere in the Scottish highlands (the exact location is never actually revealed)-
and this was because the tenth century was a time of hardship for witches and wizards.
During this time, every day, witches and wizards were being persecuted by muggles-who were
intensely hostile when it came to witnessing sources of magic. In order to further protect
the staff, students, and school itself- additional precautions were made in the form of charms
- helping to further conceal the school from muggle trespassers.
After the founders (who were close friends I should add) founded the school, they decided
that they would each create and head their own ‘house’ which would represent a personality
trait and skill that they wanted to nurture. And it just so happened that despite being
close friends, each founder happened to value very different things-which created quite
an interesting and diverse array of students at the school.
“Gryffindor students embodied bravery and chivalry; Ravenclaw, intelligence and wit;
Hufflepuff, loyalty and fair play; and Slytherin, the values of being sly and cunning.”
For years, the Hogwarts founders served as head of their respective houses, and sorted
students in to their houses manually. However, it eventually occurred to them that they wouldn’t
be around forever- and so the sorting hat was born. The creation of the sorting hat
certainly made the lives of the founders much easier, but it also couldn’t have come at
a better time. For you see- Gryffindor And Salazar began to have a falling out. We know
that after their falling out, Salazar ends up leaving the school- but, what happened
exactly?
In Chapter 11 of the Order of the Phoenix the Sorting Hat gives us a few more details:
“And never did they dream that they Might some day be divided,
For were there such friends anywhere As Slytherin and Gryffindor?
Unless it was the second pair Of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw?
So how could it have gone so wrong? How could such friendships fail?
Why, I was there and so can tell The whole sad, sorry tale.”
All that the sorting hat seems to introduce in this first segment is that a. Slytherin
and Gryffindor were previously the closest of friends - ‘were there such friends anywhere?’
and b. That SOMETHING caused the friendship to go wrong- to fail. Let’s continue..
“So Hogwarts worked in harmony For several happy years,
But then discord crept among us Feeding on our faults and fears.
The houses that, like pillars four, Had once held up our school,
Now turned upon each other and, Divided, sought to rule.
And for a while it seemed the school Must meet an early end,
What with duelling and with fighting And the clash of friend on friend
And at last there came a morning When old Slytherin departed
And though the fighting then died out He left us quite downhearted.”
This second segment speaks of a short-lived but harmonious time, when friendships were
intact and things flowed seamlessly. However, the hat then goes on to divulge information
about growing tensions regarding the four houses- and the walls that went up between
these houses. It seems to suggest that, when the relationships of the founders became more
tumultuous, a bigger and bigger divide was placed between the four houses- which resulted
in a battle for control. The hat then alludes to fighting and duelling between friends and-
eventually, the departure of Slytherin. From the context that the hat has given us, it
seems as though the departure of Slytherin stopped the fighting, but certainly didn’t
raise spirits.
I think that what it ultimately comes down to is their perspective on muggles. Like I
mentioned in the beginning, during this time period the tension between muggles and wizardkind
was immense. Dumbledore comments on this in his copy of ‘The Wizard and the Hopping
Pot’ , a short story written by Beedle the Bard that focuses on wizarding/muggle relations.
"As the witch-hunts grew ever fiercer, wizarding families began to live double lives, using
charms of concealment to protect themselves and their families. By the seventeenth century,
any witch or wizard who chose to fraternise with Muggles became suspect, even an outcast
in his or her own community."
What this tells us is that, preceding the seventeenth century, the world was very much
wide open. The presence of witches and wizards was well known to muggles, and did muggles
welcome them in to their society? No- they hunted them down, and this is what effectively
coined the term ‘witch hunt’. They didn’t praise them for their magical ability, and
welcome them with open arms, they HUNTED them down because they were ‘different’, because
they were ‘freaks’. It wasn’t until 1707 when the ministry of magic was first
founded that the two worlds were finally separated.
It’s no secret that Slytherin didn’t like muggles or muggle-borns- after all, it was
him that created the basilisk and the chamber of secrets. I think that this is where he
strongly disagreed with his co-founders. Godric, Helga and Rowena were all more progressive
in their thinking- being more welcoming of muggles in order to expedite the assimilation
of the two worlds. However, Salazar, who saw what muggles did to his people- took the opposite
approach, and instead vowed to eliminate them. Witches and wizards were hunted down and burned
by muggles for being ‘freaks’- and, though Salazar’s course of action wasn’t appropriate,
you can probably at least sort of see where he was coming from.
Salazar Slytherin, born right into this era of oppression (sometime before 976 AD), was
birthed in to a world of full of hate and conflict. Right from childhood he would have
been thrown right in to the mix- into witch hunts and hiding- fearing for his life. And
so, for this reason, it’s not surprising that Slytherin went down in the history books
as a strong proponent for having only pure-blood students at the school. His legacy was ultimately
passed on to the other Slytherins of the school- who adopted this same attitude (which isn’t
surprising given how the sorting hat works). Where Slytherin chose vengeance, the other
founders chose a moral high ground- they were the bigger people.
Likely because of how muggles had treated wizardkind, he fundamentally felt that muggle-borns
were unworthy of studying magic- something which Gryffindor founder Godric Gryffindor
strongly opposed.
A differing stance on how to deal with the oppression of your people is certainly a divisive
topic, and I believe that it’s ultimately what led to Salazar leaving the school for
good. I think that, deep down, Salazar and Godric were still good friends- they just
couldn’t find mutual ground on this extremely important topic.
I think that one thing that was perpetuated, however, was the emphasis placed on respecting
that each world was very different. For as long as we’ve known, Hogwarts, which is
the primary introduction to the wizarding world for muggle-borns, seems to place a huge
emphasis on the importance of the divide between the two worlds, and I think that this is for
good reason. They’re taught very early on that they are two completely different places,
and need to be treated as such. You can’t bring muggle values in to the wizarding world,
in the same way that you can’t bring wizarding values in to the muggle world.
What do you guys think? Did you know about all of this? Let me know in the comment section
below
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Until next time
It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live