Talk:Durmstrang Institute

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Why would the triwizard tournament be in 1994?

Somebody please fix this

That information is correct. The Triwizard Tournament took place during the 1994-1995 school year. Oread 15:16, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Pure-bloods Only?

I think we need to clarify something - does Durmstrang only admit pure-bloods, or does it simply not admit Muggle-borns? In other words, does it admit half-blood students? I don't have the Goblet of Fire text with me, but the Lexicon only says "it does not admit Muggle-born students" and references Chapter 11. Oread ^(talk) 03:46, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

I quickly skimmed through GoF11 and the bit about Durmstrang's admission policy seems to be drawn from this quote by Draco:

"Father actually considered sending me to Durmstrang rather than Hogwarts, you know. He knows the Headmaster, you see. Well, you know his opinion of Dumbledore — the man's such a Mudblood-lover — and Durmstrang doesn't admit that sort of riff-raff. But Mother didn't like the idea of me going to school so far away, Father says Durmstrang takes a far more sensible line than Hogwarts about the Dark Arts. Durmstrang students actually learn them, not just the defence rubbish we do..."

What Draco means by "riff-raff" is unclear. It could apply to Muggle-borns, blood traitors, or both. But Draco calls Dumbledore a "Mudblood-lover," and we do know that, under Dumbledore, Hogwarts had an open-door admission policy when it came to Muggle-borns. This leads me to conclude that Draco meant that Durmstrang does not admit Muggle-borns. ★ Starstuff ^{(Owl me!)} 05:31, 1 April 2009 (UTC)´

If we said that Durmstrang only admit pure-bloods. It means that Half-breeds including Half-giants like Hagrid or Half-veelas and also Squibs are not allowed to that school. --ÈnŔîčö^{(Send me an Owl)} 07:25, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Exactly. According to the rules of Wikipedia, concluding that Durmstrang only admits pure-bloods based on Draco's quote where he merely states

I think it is possiblw that it admits half-bloods too. We should change the Durmstrang, Viktor Krum, Grindelwald and Krum family articles to say that.--Rodolphus 09:44, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

I agree; it's only clear that Durmstrang does not admit Muggle-borns, which means the students could be pure-bloods or half-bloods. Oread ^(talk) 01:32, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

We really should. I'm familiar with this Wiki's guidelines, but to conclude that Durmstrang only admits pure-bloods based purely on Draco's quote where he states that Durmstrang does not admit "mudbloods" would constitute "original research". All articles on the subject should only state that Durmstrang does not admit muggle-borns. I very much doubt that Durmstrang only admits pure-bloods seeing as how Hogwarts would be overrun with plenty of Scandinavian, Slavic and Northern and Eastern-European students (rejected by Durmstrang, which is believed to be located in a Slavic country) if that were the case. 217.210.59.110 03:15, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

The above entry was written by me, BTW. I forgot to login. Just for future reference should this debate drag on. FallenAngelII 03:16, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Etymology

The suggestion for the etymology of the Durmstrang institute is good, but i also wish to offer this (and perhaps include it, if it is deemed relevant).

Durchmusterung when pronounced correctly sounds very close to Durmstrang. Durch - Dur. Musterung - Mstrang. With the appropriate german accent i'm sure you can see what i mean.

Durchmusterung is the name of a star catalogue, which Rowling is no doubt familiar with given the amount of characters named after stars, constellations etc.

Thoughts?

Wil 7 02:48, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Location

We should not specify where Durmstrang is located in the main article. It was previously stated to have been located in Northern Scandinavia. The only source for this is that one interview where Jo says she "would think" (or whatever) its location to be in Scandinavia... which is ludicrous. Because if so, Jo truly got it wrong this time. While both Norwegian and Swedish are Germanic languages and "Durmstrang" is likely a play of words on the German term "Durm ung Strang", Norwegian and Swedish have moved so far away from their Germanic roots that "Durmstrang" means absolutely nothing in either language. Not only that, you would not pronounce "Durmstrang" the way it is pronounced in either language. Furthermore, the coat of arms of Durmstrang features Cyrillic characters. Norwegian and Swedish utilize Roman alphabets. So Durmstrang is either Russian, in a former Soviet state or German (or possible Austrian or Beneluxian). Unless you're suggesting that the school be located in a Scandinavian country, yet its name and coat of arms are in languages not spoken in any Scandinavian country (as an official language). I have therefore edited the page to read that Durmstrang is located in Northern Europe and I suggest we leave it that way. FallenAngelII 16:21, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

I agree with you that JKR hasn't really thought out Durmstrang's location very well. However, she did state at a book reading that she imagined Durmstrang being in northern Sweden or Norway, and, for the purposes of this wiki, "Rowling's Word is Law."

This, I will concdede, is a good reason for listing the school as located in either Sweden or Norway.FallenAngelII 08:56, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

As for the Durmstrang's coat of arms, this was designed by the filmmakers for GoF, so the Cyrillic characters on it might not be in line with JKR's vision. However, if one wants to try to rationalize the cultural disparity, Norway does share a small portion of the northeast corner of its border with Russia, so it's possible that the wizarding community there, being isolated like wizarding communities generally are, has become something of a cultural enclave.

The name is harder to explain away. However, the school has existed since at least 1294, so it's possible it was founded at a point in time when people in Sweden and Norway were still speaking an older, more Germanic language (Old Norse? I'm sorry, but my philological knowledge is patchy, at best.). It's also possible that Durmstrang was named after a German witch or wizard who moved to the region to set up a school. Maybe this person figured they'd face less trouble in placing Dark Arts on the curriculum if the school was located in a remote region of the northernmost part of the continent.

In 1294, Swedish was very much the same as it is today (it was, of course, different, but largely the same). I imagine it was the same for Norwegian. And though languages are Germanic in nature, as far as I know, no words even remotely resembling "Durmstrang" either in spelling or in pronunciation have ever existed in either.FallenAngelII 08:56, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

My point is that, yes, it's illogical for Bulgarians to attend a school in Norway with a German name that's apparently written in a Russian script, but that doesn't mean it's not canon, just like Slytherin's first name is still Salazar, even though it makes little historical sense for a British man who's supposed to have lived circa 1000AD to have a Spanish surname for a given name. ★ Starstuff ^{(Owl me!)} 06:27, 17 August 2009 (UTC)