CAULDRONS ARE IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO be required for all first-year students at Hogwarts, and, as we learn in Phoenix, valuable enough for Mundungus Fletcher to trade in stolen ones. It’s the same in our world. Cauldrons are one of the oldest and most widely known symbols of magic. They are more rooted in history and myth than flying broomsticks, and are thought to have even greater powers.

Hogwarts wizards use cauldrons to mix potions, the use we now think of most often. Yet in early myth and legend they have other powers. In Scandinavian mythology, a magical cauldron called Hvergelmer lies deep in the Scandinavian version of the underworld, a frozen land of everlasting night known as Niflheim. Dangerous rivers flow from the cauldron, making wind, rain, snow, and ice. Poison that flowed from it formed a giant, and from him the Earth was then formed.

He became smarter in an instant. But being smarter, he knew Cerridwen would be furious. Fortunately, he had also gained so much knowledge he turned himself into a hare to run away; unfortunately, Cerridwen turned herself into a greyhound. He became a fish; she became an otter. He became a rabbit; she became a hawk. Finally he changed himself into a grain of wheat to hide in a field. But she found him, and, changing herself into a hen, ate him. Nine months later she gave birth to a new boy, brilliant and beautiful, who went on to become a great poet named Taliesen. His special gifts came directly from the muses that helped to heat Cerridwen’s cauldron.