1997: The Graveyard That Inspired Harry Potter - Edinburgh's Secret

Описание: Historical documentary about where JK Rowling really found the names for Harry Potter's most famous characters - and may be a graveyard in Edinburgh!

The famous Greyfriars Kirkyard. Smack in the middle of the city. Thomas Riddell. William McGonagall. Elizabeth Moodie. The House of Black. Margaret Louisa Scrymgeour Wedderburn. Walk through this cemetery and you'll find gravestone after gravestone with names that ended up in the wizarding world.

One is interesting. Two, a coincidence? Three? Pushing it. More than six? Come on...

Rowling herself admitted she collected names from "maps, street names, old books, old saints... war memorials, gravestones." But she's never confirmed which specific graves inspired her characters. Which makes the whole thing even more magical.

We're now on X (Twitter): https://x.com/APiecePast

In this episode:
Thomas Riddell's grave (yes, that Riddle - the villain from Chamber of Secrets)
William McGonagall, "the worst poet in the English language" (Professor McGonagall)
Elizabeth Moodie (Mad-Eye Moody)
Margaret Louisa Scrymgeour Wedderburn (Rufus Scrimgeour, Minister for Magic)
The House of Black (Sirius Black's family)
Even Crookshanks, the cat!
McGonagall's famous fake poem about a cow

Further Reading:
Barnes and Noble interview, March 19, 1999: https://www.accio-quote.org/articles/...

PICTURE CREDITS:
John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA - J K Rowling Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Daniel Ogren - Flickr: 100405_EasterEggRoll_683 Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

Enjoyed this? Like and subscribe. And please share with anyone who thinks history can't be fun.

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↓ TIMESTAMPS ↓

00:00 Intro – JK Rowling
00:29 TITLES
00:36 Greyfriars Kirkyard
00:49 Thomas Riddell/ Riddle
01:17 William McGonagall - The Worst English Language Poet
02:34 Harry Potter

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Secret Bonus Facts For APotP Fans Who Got Lost In The Description:

*Greyfriars Bobby*

Before Harry Potter fans made pilgrimages here, Greyfriars Kirkyard was famous for a different story: Greyfriars Bobby, a Skye Terrier.

Bobby was a stray looked after by local policeman John Gray. When Gray died in 1858, Bobby guarded his grave for fourteen years. The dog became a local celebrity - people brought food and water, and the Lord Provost had the City Council pay his dog license. He now belonged to the city.

Disney made a film about it in 1961. It's documented history, not urban legend.

So when Harry Potter fans leave notes on Thomas Riddell's grave, they're doing it in a cemetery already famous for loyalty to the dead. Bobby would approve.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

William McGonagall's most (in)famous work is "The Tay Bridge Disaster" - about 75 people dying when a railway bridge collapsed in 1879.

Sample: "Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay! / Alas! I am very sorry to say / That ninety lives have been taken away / On the last Sabbath day of 1879 / Which will be remember'd for a very long time."

Audiences paid to watch him perform just to heckle and throw things. He knew this. He kept doing it anyway.

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"The candle flickers but the darkness cannot put it out."

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A Piece of the Past
Presenter: Philip Hampsheir
Enquiries: [email protected]

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Title music courtesy of Alex Cornish

https://alexcornishmusic.com/
   / @bellevuerecords  

Additional Music:
Cinematic Magic And Mystery - MEDIA MUSIC GROUP (Stock music ID: SBA-300554796 via Storyblocks)
Cerulean Heart - Humans Win
String Arpeggios - Boris Skalsky
O Lux Aeterna - Kaazoom via Pixabay

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#History #Documentary #PhilipHampsheir #APotP #APieceofthePast

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Well... Aren't You a Long Way From Home? Since you're clearly still hankering for more... *make sure you've clicked like, subscribed & left a nice comment*.

But... also... and just because we love you:

The Elephant House on George IV Bridge styles itself as "the birthplace of Harry Potter."
It's not.
Rowling had the idea for Harry Potter on a train from Manchester to London in 1990. And she wrote much of the first book at a completely different cafe - one owned by her brother-in-law, where she had a flat upstairs. She was in financial hardship and needed somewhere warm and dry to write.
That cafe was on Nicolson Street. Today, it’s called Spoons. Then, it wasn’t. It was the Nicolson Street Cafe. Between then and now, it was also a Chinese restaurant.
You can visit Spoons today and have a drink. But it's not exactly the same place, which ruins the magic a bit.
The Elephant House? Rowling wrote "a lot of several of the others" there. So fans wanting to sit where Rowling sat have to choose: the transformed cafe where the first book happened, or the cafe that admits she wrote the later ones.
Neither is quite right. Both claim the magic. Welcome to Harry Potter tourism in Edinburgh.