Realm Collections Blog

Who hasn’t heard about Harry Potter? With the “Harry Potter” phenomenon sweeping worldwide, this collection of seven fantasy-filled adventure books encouraged young boys and girls (not to mention a lot of adults) to read books again. During a time that most young people were engrossed in video games and techie stuff, it was such a surprise to see them holding a book and actually reading them.

The Harry Potter book series is a collection of adventures about a boy who lives in a magical world. Unknown to most, this world was spun from other myths based on Greek, Roman, Chinese, and other cultures’ folklore and beliefs. Some situations and characters are even spin-offs from other fictional books and stories.

Here are some magical focal points from the Harry Potter series that were lifted from other myths, beliefs and folklore:

• Divination is the magic of foreseeing the future, fortune-telling and making prophecies. It also involves using crystal balls (in history, Celtic druids were the first to use these in 2000 BC), reading tea leaves (tasseography), and the positions of the stars (astrology). All of these were present in many cultures and are still being practiced by several individuals nowadays. For example, in Greek and Roman mythology, these were called oracles.

• Transfiguration – The magic ability to change or transform items into other objects. This is similar to the magic displayed by Cinderella’s fairy godmother when she changed the pumpkin into a carriage.

• Animagus transfiguration – The magic ability of a human being to transform into an animal. This can also be found in Greek and Roman mythologies where Zeus or Jupiter and the other gods and goddesses could transform themselves and human beings into animals and even plants or objects. This was also be related to stories about werewolves and vampires.

• Magical beings – This group includes centaurs, mermaids/mermen, unicorns, hippogriff (griffin – part eagle and part horse), phoenix, hellhound (similar to the three headed dog of Hades), obelisk, dragons, goblins, giants, and many more. All of these creatures are also present in many myths around the world.

• Magical spells & Magic wands – These include charms, potions, curses, hexes, jinxes, movement magic, and vanishing magic, among many others. All of these can be found in history and in different myths such as the Celtic druids, the Greek & Roman oracles, Ancient Egypt’s hermeticism, and neo-platonic magic. These are just a few of the known people and practices that used magical spells and objects.