![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sunnyskywalkerI started a little piece forcing several fictional universes together and satirizing the less rigorously researched kind of pop history to amuse myself, and it grew into a seven-part "article." If you spot holes in the "historian's" reasoning... they're intentional.
Title: Jedi, Istari, and Wizards: A Secret History (1/7)
Fandom: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Star Trek, X-Men (Disclaimer)
Categories: Gen, PG, Crossover, Metafiction
Summary: An over-eager pop historian draws some interesting conclusions. The first part of the "history," in which the author makes a bold claim concerning the Forbidden Forest and the forests of Middle-earth.
Part I: Of Ancient Forests
Scholars have long noted the resemblance between the Forbidden Forest near Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the Old Forest, Mirkwood, and Fangorn of Middle Earth (which, along with Lothlórien, were once parts of the same forest). This begs the question: what, precisely, is the relationship between these forests?
Finally, historians may have an answer. It is well known that Professor Tolkien, whose invaluable research and years of painstaking translation on the Red Book of Westmarch and the Quenta Silmarillion brought much of the forgotten history of Middle-earth to light, was able to piece together a picture, however incomplete and contradictory at times, of the geography of those Ages. In particular, he was able to determine that the region known as the Shire has become the island which we today know as Great Britain. The Old Forest bordered the area of the Shire known as Buckland, now known (inconceivable as it may seem) to be what is today Scotland. The Old Forest, in fact, is the Forbidden Forest.
Mirkwood, it is thought, is now in the vicinity of Durmstrang Institute, which is suspected to be somewhere in Scandinavia; its location was referenced obliquely by Viktor Krum in a conversation with British witch Hermione Granger which historian J.K. Rowling discovered via interviews and recorded for posterity. (Further investigation stalled due to the complete refusal of Durmstrang to allow its exact location to be disclosed.) Parts of the forest may also have spread into Germany. Lothlórien may have found its way to France to enchant the students of Beaubatons, though the notoriously secretive magical academy is not forthcoming with a confirmation at this time. Fangorn, though once separated by some distance from Morder, may have made its way toward the once-black land which Professor Tolkien was able to identify as being roughly situated in the Balkans, possibly extending into the Middle East or Turkey. (Whether the Ents have survived is unknown at this time.) It does not take much imagination to conceive that the remnants of Sauron's evil in the region were what persuaded He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to make the Albanian forest his refuge after his defeat in Godric's Hollow, and what makes the region such a troubled one even to this day.
Incidentally, the acromantulas currently residing in the Forbidden Forest did not make their way there from Mirkwood, as might be expected, but were introduced by the Hogwarts gamekeeper Rubeus Hagrid. As were the spiders of Mirkwood, Aragog was a direct descendent--through a long line of acromantulas from Borneo--of Shelob of the pass of Cirith Ungol, last descendent of Ungoliant, poisoner of the Two Trees.
With regard to another possible point of connection, Dr. Epimelides Longbottom is currently researching the evolutionary history of Whomping Willows, and has tentatively suggested that they may be wizard-bred descendants of the Old Man Willow described by Professor Tolkien.
It must be admitted that these identifications are still rather tenuous. However, it light of further discoveries, they seem likely to be correct. These discoveries mainly concern the relationship between modern wizards and the five beings known as the Istari.
Forward to Part II: Exiles of Legend
* * * * *
Title: Jedi, Istari, and Wizards: A Secret History (1/7)
Fandom: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Star Trek, X-Men (Disclaimer)
Categories: Gen, PG, Crossover, Metafiction
Summary: An over-eager pop historian draws some interesting conclusions. The first part of the "history," in which the author makes a bold claim concerning the Forbidden Forest and the forests of Middle-earth.
Scholars have long noted the resemblance between the Forbidden Forest near Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the Old Forest, Mirkwood, and Fangorn of Middle Earth (which, along with Lothlórien, were once parts of the same forest). This begs the question: what, precisely, is the relationship between these forests?
Finally, historians may have an answer. It is well known that Professor Tolkien, whose invaluable research and years of painstaking translation on the Red Book of Westmarch and the Quenta Silmarillion brought much of the forgotten history of Middle-earth to light, was able to piece together a picture, however incomplete and contradictory at times, of the geography of those Ages. In particular, he was able to determine that the region known as the Shire has become the island which we today know as Great Britain. The Old Forest bordered the area of the Shire known as Buckland, now known (inconceivable as it may seem) to be what is today Scotland. The Old Forest, in fact, is the Forbidden Forest.
Mirkwood, it is thought, is now in the vicinity of Durmstrang Institute, which is suspected to be somewhere in Scandinavia; its location was referenced obliquely by Viktor Krum in a conversation with British witch Hermione Granger which historian J.K. Rowling discovered via interviews and recorded for posterity. (Further investigation stalled due to the complete refusal of Durmstrang to allow its exact location to be disclosed.) Parts of the forest may also have spread into Germany. Lothlórien may have found its way to France to enchant the students of Beaubatons, though the notoriously secretive magical academy is not forthcoming with a confirmation at this time. Fangorn, though once separated by some distance from Morder, may have made its way toward the once-black land which Professor Tolkien was able to identify as being roughly situated in the Balkans, possibly extending into the Middle East or Turkey. (Whether the Ents have survived is unknown at this time.) It does not take much imagination to conceive that the remnants of Sauron's evil in the region were what persuaded He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to make the Albanian forest his refuge after his defeat in Godric's Hollow, and what makes the region such a troubled one even to this day.
Incidentally, the acromantulas currently residing in the Forbidden Forest did not make their way there from Mirkwood, as might be expected, but were introduced by the Hogwarts gamekeeper Rubeus Hagrid. As were the spiders of Mirkwood, Aragog was a direct descendent--through a long line of acromantulas from Borneo--of Shelob of the pass of Cirith Ungol, last descendent of Ungoliant, poisoner of the Two Trees.
With regard to another possible point of connection, Dr. Epimelides Longbottom is currently researching the evolutionary history of Whomping Willows, and has tentatively suggested that they may be wizard-bred descendants of the Old Man Willow described by Professor Tolkien.
It must be admitted that these identifications are still rather tenuous. However, it light of further discoveries, they seem likely to be correct. These discoveries mainly concern the relationship between modern wizards and the five beings known as the Istari.
Forward to Part II: Exiles of Legend
