My Harry Potter Fix

So, all this Harry Potter talk has left me needing a little fix. This little challenge we have going prompted Sue and Cam to watch all the LOTR's movies one weekend, and it took me a little longer, but I needed something myself. I cruised Netflix to see if they by chance had any of the movies on instant queue, they did not as I suspected, but they did have a little documentary.
It is called Discovering the Real World Of Harry Potter and it isn't as nerdy as it sounds. Ok, maybe it is, but I liked it! After Sue did her review of the first book, we had a lengthy discussion of the real references behind the book. Well, this was a documentary that talks about that very subject. We talked about the mythology we recognized from the book and mostly about the philosopher's stone. So I put it on the lap top after Scout fell asleep this afternoon, set it on a chair next to the tub and took a hot bath and watched it on this frickin' freezing day. Here are some things that the show touched on:

-King's Cross station and a real legend surrounding it

-Hagrid is a real Greek myth! I had no idea, he was cast out of heaven but was allowed to remain on as Zeus's gamekeeper, (which sounds quite familiar).

- There is a school in Scotland (which is where Hogwarts is supposedly located, even though the exact location is kept a secret in the book), anyway this school was founded by a supposed sorcerer, who built hidden passages and dabbled in the dark arts and supposedly sold his soul to the devil. I guess he was a sytherin (haha, nerd joke). Prince Charles went to school there, and it even divides the school into houses which is common in British boarding schools, which I did not know.

- The legend of Nicholas Flamel and the philosopher's stone. (His tomb was opened and was found empty, I didn't know that, that is pretty cool).

-The Arthurian legends that tie with Harry Potter. The only thing I had picked up on before on this subject, is that Albus Dumbledore is "of the order of Merlin". There was quite a bit more, I didn't know.

-There is a guy they consult with that calls himself a "white witch" and is fairly incensed that the Rowling witches and wizards ride their brooms the wrong way! He is wearing a red robe and a pentagram looking thing around his neck and he entertained me a little.

Anyway, obviously, this doc is not for everyone, but I think anyone that has read any of the books would find it interesting. I am thinking particularly of B (who has been lamenting that she isn't a Harry Pot Pot) and I also think Kyle would really like it. It is available through Netflix, either online, or through mail and is narrated by Hugh Laurie. Also, there is a program after, which I think I will watch tonight that is about ghosts, and seems to be loosely based on the Harry Potter ghosts (the gray lady is a real ghost that supposedly haunts a castle in Britain). Anyway, ghost shows are always kind of fun, especially this time of year.

**Update**

Ok, I just watched the 2nd documentary and what the bip?? It was not all about ghosts, just the first little part. It was actually kind of the same thing, just reversed (they went through most of the same points, but in a different order) and this one was narrated by an American. Most of the info on this one was different, but about the same stuff. Really weird. It also was distictively cheeser, then it's counterpart. I kept watching it because there was new, interesting info, but I don't get what was going on. It was almost like they made that one and had someone review it and go, "dude, that was cheesy, maybe you should rework it". So they made it better, added some different info, got a famous British actor to narrate it, and then someone still thought the first one had merrit, so they tacked it on to the end of the better one to make everyone happy. It did remind me of an interesting thing, JK Rowling grew up on a street like Privet Drive and played witches and wizards with a little neighbor boy named "Potter".