An A–Z of Harry Potter. Aubrey Malone
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Название: An A–Z of Harry Potter
Автор: Aubrey Malone
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Детская проза
isbn: 9780007328567
isbn:
Avada Kedavra
This is the curse that Voldemort used to kill Harry’s parents (and almost Harry). It’s Aramaic for ‘abracadabra’, which literally means ‘Let the thing be destroyed’. (In its original usage it was a plea for a cure rather than a curse, the ‘thing’ being an illness.) Harry is the only person ever to have survived it, both at his birth and during a duelling bout with Voldemort wherein they both have similar wands, which detracts from their potential.
Azkaban
The prison from which Sirius Black escapes after turning himself into a dog. It sounds somewhat similar to Alcatraz, which was also high security and located on an island.
Babbling Beverage
Potion that causes the victim to talk nonsense. Snape threatens Harry with it in The Order of the Phoenix.
Bagshot, Bathilda
Author of A History of Magic, she was a family friend of the Dumbledores. She’s killed by Voldemort in The Deathly Hallows.
Baked beans
Rowling was so poor in her early writing career that one day when she tried to buy a tin of baked beans she found she was two pence short. To hide her embarrassment she pretended she’d left a ten pound note in her other coat. The beans, meanwhile, remained at the counter. Many nights she went to bed hungry before fame struck.
Balderdash
Password used to gain entry to the Gryffindor common room. Another one is Flibbertigibbet.
Balmoral Hotel
The venue at which Rowling completed The Deathly Hallows on 11 January 2007.
Banishing Charm
The opposite of the Summoning Charm.
Bans
In some countries Harry Potter books have been banned, thereby giving them even more publicity. Joking apart, the people who accuse them of encouraging children to practise witchcraft, or appearing to condone such an activity, are dramatically over-reacting to their subject matter. As Lisa Cherrett remarks in her book The Triumph of Goodness (published by the Bible Reading Fellowship), ‘This immediately puts a barrier between Christian youngsters and their peers, and begins to breed in them the ghetto mentality of fear and suspicion.’
Banshee
A female spirit, derived from the Gaelic ‘bean’ (woman) and ‘sí’ (fairy), that wails and shrieks when death is imminent. No wonder Rowling’s Irish character Seamus Finnigan (is there a nod to James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake here?) is terrified by the prospect of them.
Interestingly enough, during Rowling’s bohemian years, when she was drifting aimlessly between jobs and immersing herself in the dubious delights of punk rock, she formed an attachment to the music of a group called Síouxie and the Banshees, now long forgotten. This phase of her life was necessary for her to rid herself of her rebellious streak, paving the way for a time she would be entertained by the Queen—and end up out-earning her!
Bashu
Chinese publishing house that brought out three apocryphal Harry Potter novels, making quite a profit out of all of them before Christopher Little, Rowling’s agent, put it out of business. The books were called Harry Potter and the Leopard Walk up to Dragon, Harry Potter and the Golden Turtle and Harry Potter and the Crystal Vase.
Basilisk
The terrifying serpent in Chamber of Secrets that can turn people to stone. The only thing that can control a Basilisk is a Parselmouth. One of them killed Moaning Myrtle.
Bell, Katie
One of the three Chasers on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
Bibliomania
Rowling is so fond of reading she says that if she finds herself in a bathroom with no books, she reads the labels on the toiletries.
Bildungsroman
A novel dealing with the spiritual, moral, psychological and social development of its main character, from the above German term that translates directly as ‘novel of education’. The Harry Potter saga certainly fits this particular bill.
Binns, Professor
This is Harry’s History of Magic professor. We can see what Harry and/or Rowling think of his ability by dint of his surname, though when Hermione asks him about the Chamber of Secrets in the book of that name, all the class are agog. Unfortunately, in the American version of the book, ‘dustbin’ is changed to ‘trash can’ so this pun is lost. Binns, it should be added, is a ghost, having forgotten to bring his body to class with him one day. (As you would.) He enters the classroom through the blackboard.
Birthdays
Harry was born on the same date as Rowling: 31 July. Daniel Radcliffe, who plays him in the films, was also born in July though not 31 July as Connie Ann Kirk mistakenly states in her biography of Rowling.
Black, Regulus
Younger brother of Sirius.
Black, Sirius
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