Bowtruckle

Bowtruckle
Species information
Eye colour	Brown
Skin colour	Wood
Native to	England, Germany and Scandinavia
Height of average adult	8 inches (maximum)
Affiliation	Its Home Tree
Ministry of Magic Classification	XX
Status	Beast

The Bowtruckle is immensely difficult to spot, being a hand-sized, insect eating, tree dweller with long sharp fingers (two on each hand), brown eyes, and a general appearance of a flat-faced little stickman made of bark and twigs, which serves well as camouflage in its natural habitat.

The Bowtruckle can be found in western England, southern Germany, and certain Scandinavian forests. A Bowtruckle serves as a tree guardian for its home tree, which is usually a tree whose wood makes wands (such as Wiggentree). The twig-like fingers are well adapted for digging out wood lice in trees, and can also be used as a weapon against a foe when aimed at the eyes. It is generally a peaceful creature, but will become violent if anything threatens its tree, or even to itself. To take leaves or wood from a Bowtruckle's tree, one would have to offer it wood lice or fairy eggs as a distraction.

Etymology

The word "bow" was an old Scottish dialect means "dwelling," and "limb of tree" or "truckle" in old English dialect. This means "to take a subordinate position."

Behind the scenes

• In LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, bowtruckles help build wooden ladders in the Forbidden Forest.
• The only film that they are mentioned in is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. (Hagrid: " I brought you here sixteen years ago when you were no bigger than a bowtruckle")
• In the GBA version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, they appear as enemies. When you go near a tree they live in, they can throw pieces of wood at you. To defeat them the player has to cast the Confundus Charm at them.
• In the PC version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Bowtruckles appear as enemies, whose offensive consists of throwing pieces of wood. Harry can cast Diffindo at them to defeat them, which earns him a piece of Wiggentree bark, one of the two ingredients in the Wiggenweld Potion. Unfortunately, due to the absence of enemies dropping Flobberworm Mucus upon defeat, this does tend to offset the player's balance of ingredients rather heavily.
  • The pieces of wood thrown by them to hurt the player is actually Wiggentree bark.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game) (GBC and PC versions only)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game) (Appears on a Famous Wizard Card)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (video game) (GBA version only)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game) (Mentioned) (Exploding Snap Famous Wizards Card)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (Mentioned only)
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard (Mentioned only)
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4