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"Wizarding arrogance again! That sword was Ragnuk the First's, taken from him by Godric Gryffindor! It is a lost treasure, a masterpiece of goblinwork! It belongs with the goblins."
Griphook[src]

King Ragnuk the First (fl. 11th century) was the king of the goblins during the lifetime of Godric Gryffindor. He was the maker of the famous Sword of Gryffindor.[4]

Biography[]

As the king of the goblins was also their finest silversmith, Ragnuk was commissioned by Gryffindor to forge a sword of pure goblin's silver, with rubies set into the hilt. By the time Ragnuk had finished the sword, however, he liked it so much that he sought to steal it back from Gryffindor. He sent a group of his subjects to retrieve the sword, but they were all fought off by Gryffindor, who was a skilled duellist. Gryffindor bewitched the goblins to return to Ragnuk and inform him that, if he tried such a thing again, Gryffindor would use the sword to kill him and all his subjects.[4]

Ragnuk made no further attempt to take the sword, however, a legend persisted in the goblin community that Gryffindor had stolen the sword, a myth perpetrated by the fact that goblins consider passing goblin-made possessions onto others without further payment to the maker, as Gryffindor would go on to do, as theft.[4] In fact, this myth was so prevalent in the goblin community, that it was the cause for one of the bloody Goblin Rebellions in the 17th and 18th centuries, around six-hundred years after the sword was fashioned.[5]

During the Middle Ages, Ragnuk was paid a large sum to craft a cursed bee pendant for an unidentified medieval witch's parents, believing it to be a wedding gift for their daughter and her lover, however he was horrified to learn that they had actually cursed the pendant in an attempt to break off the marriage. After the failed marriage, he believed the pendant to be lost, unaware it was still known to wizarding society and would go on to curse several others.[1]

Post-mortem[]

After his death, Ragnuk was buried in a crypt in the graveyard behind St Jerome's Church, in Godric's Hollow. As he died holding a grudge against Godric Gryffindor, Ragnuk's embittered ghost remained haunting the crypt and expecting the sword to be returned to him. The crypt could only be opened with the passphrase "pede poena claudo" (literally translated from Latin, "punishment comes limping", meaning retribution comes slowly but surely); driven by revenge, Ragnuk's spirit would emerge from the crypt to curse those who were searching for the sword — and, as a lure, the crypt displayed Gryffindor's coat of arms in pride of place.[3] As a king, Ragnuk could also be peacefully summoned from the crypt with a royal greeting, as Jacob's sibling and Bill Weasley did when they were searching for the creator of the cursed bee pendant.[1]

Sometime during the 1980s, he was approached by Bill Weasley and Jacob's sibling, whose Valentine's Day date had been cursed by the bee pendant. When he realised the pendant wasn't lost, he told the pair about its construction and later renounced any claim to the pendant, even after the curse on it had been broken by Jacob's sibling.[1]

Merula Synde: "It's so bright... I can't see. I can't... I can't see anything!"
Ismelda Murk: "What have you done to her?"
Ragnuk: "I've made an example of her. She came looking for the Sword of Gryffindor... Instead, she found Ragnuk!"
— Ragnuk after having cursed Merula Snyde[src]
Ragnuk curse HM

Ragnuk's spirit cursing Merula Snyde

Just before Hallowe'en in 1986, Merula Snyde — following the footsteps of many of her ancestors over the centuries — attempted to determine the location of the Sword of Gryffindor and claim it as her own, using an old family clue to go "back to the source".[3]

Merula thought that the sword might have been buried with Godric Gryffindor and assumed his remains rested at Godric's Hollow. She tried to open the crypt marked with the crest of Gryffindor, thereby provoking Ragnuk's wrath. Ragnuk cursed her, depriving her of her sight. Jacob's sibling quickly took her to Bathilda Bagshot's house nearby to see if she could help. They learned that goblins used a special kind of wandless magic, and the only one who could break the curse was Ragnuk himself. Back at the crypt, Jacob's sibling was able to convince Ragnuk that by letting others seek his sword, his legacy would live on. Ragnuk agreed to lift the curse from Merula and everyone who had came before her, before returning to his crypt.[3]

Magical abilities and skills[]

  • Goblin magic: Being a goblin, Ragnuk was capable of performing magic which was both wandless and powerful. He could still perform it after his death as a ghost, and used it to curse Merula Snyde, blinding her.[3]
  • Dark Arts: Ragnuk was capable of cursing Merula Snyde with a powerful unidentified curse which completely blinded her, that only he could lift.[3]
  • Smithing: Ragnuk was one of the greatest goblin smiths of his time, with only the wealthiest of people able to commission him to craft items for them. The objects he crafted were of such high quality that nearly one thousand years after they were made, the objects were still highly prized, and some occupied important places in wizarding history. Additionally, as a goblin, Ragnuk knew the secret to making goblin-wrought silver and included it in all of his known works.[3][1]

Behind the scenes[]

  • It is unknown if Ragnuk inherited his kingship or became king through some other means.

Appearances[]

Wiki
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Notes and references[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, Year 5, "THE CURSE OF LOVE" Achievement
  2. Ragnuk says he crafted the cursed bee pendant during his reign and several other characters say the pendant is nearly 1000 years old, meaning Ragnuk's reign was some time during the Middle Ages.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, Year 3, Side Quest "Secrets of Godric's Hollow"
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Writing by J. K. Rowling: "The Sword of Gryffindor" at Wizarding World
  5. This piece of information comes from the third W.O.M.B.A.T. featured in J. K. Rowling's official site. Question 2 (Part One - Magical History) is "Which of the following did NOT provoke one of the bloody goblin rebellions of the 17th and 18th centuries? Choose ONE", and one of the possible answers is "The allegation by goblin king Ragnuk the First that Godric Gryffindor had stolen his sword". As one of the other answers is known for certain to be false ("The imprisonment of the notoriously violent Hodrod the Horny-Handed, who had attempted to kill three wizards " — the Daily Prophet Newsletters reveal that Hodrod the Horny-Handed was indeed imprisoned for attempting to kill three wizards, but this happened in 1999, during the Chipping Clodbury riot), then all of the other answers must be true, including the one about Ragnuk's theft accusation.
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