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I need this for a Snape fanfic (SSHG).
What do you think where Durmstrang is? Any ideas? I think it's in North-Eastern Siberia, in the Northern Verkhoyansk Mountains, where the river Lena goes towards the arctic sea. There would be mountains, little daylight in winter, and a continuous connection of water if we assume that Hogwarts is close to a Loch that has some connection to the Atlantic. That way that ship could have traveled. I was wondering if it could be in Norway, but why would they have a Headmaster with a slavic name then? Here's a link: http://www.yakutiatravel.com/eng/travdi
Input would be greatly appreciated. :)
What do you think where Durmstrang is? Any ideas? I think it's in North-Eastern Siberia, in the Northern Verkhoyansk Mountains, where the river Lena goes towards the arctic sea. There would be mountains, little daylight in winter, and a continuous connection of water if we assume that Hogwarts is close to a Loch that has some connection to the Atlantic. That way that ship could have traveled. I was wondering if it could be in Norway, but why would they have a Headmaster with a slavic name then? Here's a link: http://www.yakutiatravel.com/eng/travdi
Input would be greatly appreciated. :)
http://www.mugglenet.com/editorials/edi
“Durmstrang’s another wizarding school?” said Harry.
“Yes,” said Hermione sniffily, “and it’s got a horrible reputation. According to An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe, it puts a lot of emphasis on the Dark Arts.”
So my Durmstrang will be in Norway, after all. Which is good, I need decent mountains with nice glaciers.
I will think and ponder and rack my brain to try to recall where I read the discussion... and I'll also go through my LJ comms to see if I can backtrack it some-way.
But I can't imagine I was the only one who read the discussion - do you think one of the HP newsletters might post your question?
I think snapenews probably will, they watch us. Others may pick it up or not. I'm not going to announce it.
I've gone back through the discussions on some LJ comms, but haven't found it as yet...
Many things were taken into account - the necessity for ocean or lake access for the ship, the fur cloaks, the Slavic-sounding names, Krum's description of flying over the school and the long winter nights.
And, as I'm sure you realize, the name "Durmstrang" wasn't really considered a geographical pointer, because it's a play on Sturm und Drang.
For some reason I was thinking that it was somewhere in northern Poland.
Apart from that, yeah, he could just happen to have slavic ancestors. Just like Gregorovich (sp) who really doesn't have a german name and lived there anyway.
"But ve have grounds larger even than these – though in vinter, ve have very little daylight, so ve are not enjoying them. But in summer ve are flying every day, over the lakes and the mountains –’"
“Ah, think of the possibilities,” said Ron dreamily. “It would’ve been so easy to push Malfoy off a glacier and make it look like an accident … shame his mother likes him …”
That's all I found. I must have confused the description with the movie. I could have sworn that there was mention of a castle and mountains, and the short days. I looked, because near the port there are no mountains... but if that is movie only, then it can very well be there. Sigh.
'Vell, ve have a castle also, not as big as this, nor as comfortable, I am thinking,' [...] 'Ve have just four floors, and the fires are lit only for magical purposes. But ve have grounds even larger than these - though in vinter, ve have very little daylight, so ve are not enjoying them. But in summer ve are flying every day over the lakes and the mountains - ' GoF. p.363.
Wasn't Siberia mostly settled by nomads until rather recently? So that there wouldn't be a lot of castles? And weren't most of them wooden?
Norway's got lots of castles and mountains and cold. That might be a better place for it.
Is it mentioned in the Lexicon?
I was thinking that based on the accent of a few of the characters it was in Eastern Europe somewhere, like Romania or up in Siberia.
I do think Siberia a likely place, too.
Fortunately, it sounds like we have some people on this group who are wiser in the ways of geography than I am. I'll settle for reading the fanfic when it's done!
Never mind, I'm very lousy in North American geography. Alabama? Yeah... well... uhm. North Carolina? Uh... yeah.... well...
I do get increasingly fascinated with Google maps. I could spend hours virtually flying over these satellite images, zooming in and out. I just love to check out my fic locations that way.
And for what it's worth, I'm a Minnesotan, so Alabama and North Carolina are as foreign to me as they are to you. ;-) I live in Minneapolis, if you want to view it on Google someday!
Now it seems I have a bit of catching up to do on other reading... Remind me to never again post anything of interest to the Underground. :-D
This is one very confusing and complicated school, but some people had great ideas.
1) A far nothern Island, which is off the maps (after all it's location is a huge secret) and therefore doesn't belong to any country obs.
2) Karelia: which is partly in Finland, partly in Russia. There are lakes and mountains.
Durmstrang
https://www.google.com/search?q=durmstra