Why Would Durmstrang Students Travel by Ship?
DURMSTRANG IS ONE OF TWO WIZARDING schools in
continental Europe. Its exact location is a well-kept secret, but
it is probably somewhere in northeastern Europe, judging from what
J. K. Rowling tells us in Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire : on top of robes of “deep blood-red,” the
students wear coats of “shaggy, matted fur”; and the Headmaster is
named Igor Karkaroff.
“STORM AND STRESS”
The school’s name is a play on the German phrase
Sturm und Drang (“storm and stress”). That
term describes a type of literature devoted to grandeur, spectacle,
and rebellion. It was an important trend in German literature in
the nineteenth century. The foremost writer of that movement was
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whose most famous work, Faust,
details a man’s pact with the Devil—like the pact Karkaroff, a
former Death Eater, made with Voldemort.
Durmstrang is probably located close to the
Brocken, a mountain in the Harz range in
Germany where witches were said to run wild. (See Death Eaters)
Another artist of the movement, composer Richard
Wagner, wrote many dark operas, one of them based on the famous
story of a ghost ship, The Flying Dutchman.
That ship was doomed to roam the oceans endlessly because its
captain had angrily denounced God during a storm. Rowling turned
that ghost ship into a school bus.
Sturm und Drang composer
Richard Wagner also wrote a series of operas about a wizard named
Alberic, who, like Harry, had an invisibility cloak. (See Wizards—Alberic Grunnion)
PUREBRED EVIL
Durmstrang’s name is more than a pun. It is a
clue to the essential differences between it and Hogwarts. While
Hogwarts students are taught only Defense Against the Dark Arts,
students at Durmstrang are taught the Dark Arts themselves. (This
is the influence of headmaster Karkaroff, a former Death Eater.) As
well, Durmstrang “does not admit Mudbloods,” according to Draco
Malfoy, whose father admires the Durmstrang doctrines and
considered sending Draco there. This devotion to a nasty and highly
questionable notion of purity befits the school’s name. The artists
of the Sturm und Drang movement, and Wagner
in particular, were favorites of the Nazi government in Germany
just before and during the Second World War. The Nazis were
obsessed with killing anyone who did not fit their definition of a
pure-blooded German.
EAST VERSUS WEST?
The differences between Hogwarts and Durmstrang
also reflect long-standing animosity between countries of Western
and Eastern Europe. Hogwarts, under Dumbledore’s leadership, is a
good example of the democratic traditions of the West. Durmstrang
is a more severe place, breeding wizards who can’t be trusted—just
as Eastern Europe has long been viewed by outsiders. Significantly,
by the end of Goblet, both sides recognize
that their enmity must be put aside to fight their common
foe.
See also: Death
Eaters