Harry Potter fans rejoice! Maybe.
The four houses under Ilvermorny’s roof (the American version of Hogwarts) may have been revealed thanks to some smart sleuthing by reddit user Federico Ian Cervantez!
Before I get to the names, how did this guy do it? Well, he was checking out an old Harry Potter quiz on the official website and when he looked in the javascript… possible secrets were revealed.
So here they are!
- Horned Serpent
- Wampus
- Thunderbird
- Pukwudgie
But the quiz didn’t just reveal the names. It also revealed what they stand for!
HORNED SERPENT
The quiz describes the creature as such…
dragon-like serpents with horns and long teeth. They are often associated with or said to control the weather, particularly rain, lightning, and thunder. Magical abilities ascribed to them include shape-shifting, invisibility, and hypnotic powers.
Also, as the picture above suggests, the horned serpent has strong ties with Native American folklore.
WAMPUS
A wampus cat, as described in the quiz, is apparently “some kind of fearsome variation of a cougar”… and has some more Native American folklore behind its origins.
…Cherokee mythology, in that it was a woman who disguised herself in the skin of a cougar to spy on the men of the tribe, as they sat around the campfire with their wolf brothers, and told sacred stories on a hunting trip. When the woman was discovered, the tribe’s medicine man punished her by transforming her into a half-woman, half-cat, who supposedly still haunts the forests of East Tennessee.
Maybe this could mean the Wampus house has a strong feminine presence? Hmmm…
THUNDERBIRD
Guess what? More Native American folklore! Are you sensing a trend?
This time, however, the Thunderbird has a tie back to the Horned Serpent!
In Algonquian mythology, the thunderbird controls the upper world while the underworld is controlled by the underwater panther or Great Horned Serpent. The thunderbird throws lightning at the underwater creatures and creates thunder by flapping its wings.
So it seems like the Thunderbird and Horned Serpent houses could be at odds. Kind of like Gryffindor and Slytherin?
And note the mention of an underwater panther. Thunderbird and Wampus might not have the best relationship either.
We shall see…
PUKWUDGIE
Cross a house elf with a porcupine and you get a pukwudgie.
And yes, this little, troll-like creature has Native America origins too.
…two-to-three feet tall and human-shaped, but with a larger nose, ears, and fingers and smooth, grey sking that sometimes glows. Its magical abilities include disappearing and reappearing, partial or complete transformation into a porcupine or cougar, and creating fire.
This house seems pretty mischievous to me. My gut tells me that they’re going to be trouble makers who help out when it benefits them. Tenuous alliances at best.
We’ll hopefully find out more when Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them hits a screen near you on November 18, 2016!
SOURCE: Daily Mail
UPDATE: It looks like my speculation about the houses’ Native American origins were already confirmed by J.K. Rowling in a tweet last year…
.@loonyloolaluna However, indigenous magic was important in the founding of the school. If I say which tribes, location is revealed.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 7, 2015
…and via J.K. Rowling’s history of North American magic on Pottermore…
The Native American magical community and those of Europe and Africa had known about each other long before the immigration of European No-Majs in the seventeenth century. They were already aware of the many similarities between their communities. […] In the Native American community, some witches and wizards were accepted and even lauded within their tribes, gaining reputations for healing as medicine men, or outstanding hunters. However, others were stigmatised for their beliefs, often on the basis that they were possessed by malevolent spirits.
The legend of the Native American ‘skin walker’ – an evil witch or wizard that can transform into an animal at will – has its basis in fact. A legend grew up around the Native American Animagi, that they had sacrificed close family members to gain their powers of transformation. In fact, the majority of Animagi assumed animal forms to escape persecution or to hunt for the tribe. […]
The Native American wizarding community was particularly gifted in animal and plant magic, its potions in particular being of a sophistication beyond much that was known in Europe. […]
While this doesn’t prove that the 4 houses are the ones Cervantez discovered, it seems to be heavily suggesting it.
More as it develops…
