Changes: Morag MacDougal

Revision as of 18:41, 19 December 2009

Morag MacDougal is a student who began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1991. She was Sorted into Ravenclaw.^[1]

JKR changed her mind twice about this girl's name. Her first thought was 'Katrina', a diminutive of 'Katharine', but this was struck out and replaced with 'Isobel', a diminutive of 'Elizabeth'. Later still, she became 'Morag'. What these three names have in common is that they are all Scottish - and Morag MacDougal is the quintessential Scot. The original MacDougals were Vikings who in the twelfth century barged their way into Argyllshire and the Hebrides under the motto 'To conquer or die,' then intermarried with the red-haired, Gaelic-speaking natives. If Morag has remained close to her ancestral home, she lives in the remote Highlands, perhaps in the country of the Loch Ness kelpie, and supports the Pride of Portree Quidditch team. We can picture her as a tall, blue-eyed, freckled girl with red lights in her dark hair. The literal meaning of 'Morag' is 'the sun', while 'MacDougal' means 'son of the dark stranger'. This is a hint that this character is caught between shades of darkness and light. A pure-blood, she wasn't Sorted into Slytherin, but she is absent from Dumbledore's Army: she hasn't yet decided on which side of the fence she wants to stand.

↑ Her House is seen in JK Rowling's notebook in Harry Potter and Me. Since it didn't make it into the books, however, it may not canonical.
↑ Despite this character not actually being identified in the film, they were sorted in 1991 and therefore were present in the films adaption of the sorting amongst the crowd of first years, as they had to be sorted and even though they weren't mentioned they'd still be one of the students in that crowd.

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 ==Behind the scenes==
+*JKR changed her mind twice about this girl's name. Her first thought was 'Katrina', a diminutive of 'Katharine', but this was struck out and replaced with 'Isobel', a diminutive of 'Elizabeth'. Later still, she became 'Morag'. What these three names have in common is that they are all Scottish - and Morag MacDougal is the quintessential Scot. The original MacDougals were Vikings who in the twelfth century barged their way into Argyllshire and the Hebrides under the motto 'To conquer or die,' then intermarried with the red-haired, Gaelic-speaking natives. If Morag has remained close to her ancestral home, she lives in the remote Highlands, perhaps in the country of the Loch Ness kelpie, and supports the Pride of Portree Quidditch team. We can picture her as a tall, blue-eyed, freckled girl with red lights in her dark hair. The literal meaning of 'Morag' is 'the sun', while 'MacDougal' means 'son of the dark stranger'. This is a hint that this character is caught between shades of darkness and light. A pure-blood, she wasn't Sorted into Slytherin, but she is absent from Dumbledore's Army: she hasn't yet decided on which side of the fence she wants to stand.
-*In earlier drafts of the series, she was called [[Isabel MacDougal]].
-*In early drafts, Isabel, who is later Morag, also shares her surname with a student called [[Katherine MacDougal]]. It is possible the two are related.
 ==Appearances==