Friday 2 May 2014

Happy Harry Potter Day - 16 years since the Battle of Hogwarts

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts when Voldemort was finally and ultimately defeated. 2nd May 1998. And I promised myself that I'd do a remembrance post.

My very own Harry Potter journey started the next year. November 1999, when I on my 9th birthday, got the first Harry Potter book in Swedish from my parents. I still remember thinking that the book was huge and that I would never be able to read all that. But 9 year-old me devoured it and from that point on I recieved Harry Potter 2, 3 and 4 continuously every year. Either on birthdays or Christmas. I remember that every time I got a new book I had to re-read the ones before it. So when I ultimately got Goblet of Fire I had to re-read Philosopher's Stone, Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban before finally being able to read Goblet of Fire. This has resulted in my first four Harry Potter books in Swedish being very, very tattered.

I remember the excitement when the first movie was announced and how I and my friends finally learned how to pronounce the British names when we saw that movie. I remember the long, long wait for the fifth book and how I scoured the Internet for rumours. I remember the Harry Potter merch you could buy in ordinary supermarkets before the release of the first movie (licquorice wands, Bertie Bott's beans, chocolate frogs, cauldron cakes) and I'm disappointed that I threw those old chocolate frog cards away when I, in my late teens, had a bout of "I have to grow up now". I remember that the second movie premiered close to my 12th birthday and my parents took me and a few of my friends to see it for my birthday. I remember that I watched the second movie so many times that the video tape became jumpy. I spent all my days pretending that I was at Hogwarts. I re-made my school timetables so they had Hogwarts subjects instead, cause it made school funnier. I continued doing that 'til I was 16. I remember how much I loved the first Harry Potter computer game and how I and a friend played the Quidditch World Cup game on her computer. And the Trading Cards! And the card games!

I remember all those countless hours I used to spend at hogwarts.nu. A Swedish Harry Potter community where I had all my friends. I remember sneaking online on our old modem Internet, before broadband when the phones didn't work while online, so that I could talk with my friends. I remember that I cried when the announcement came that the site would close down in December 2006. I remember going to my first Internet meet-up in Lund in 2006. A goodbye meet-up.

I remember the Barry Trotter parodies and the very first toy wands and the earliest Harry Potter trivia books. I remember the agonising wait for the fifth book to be released in Swedish. The Swedish version had just over 1000 pages and I read it in two days. Couldn't put it down. The sixth book was the first I read in English and I bought it during my first trip to England. I read it by myself long into the night and cried my eyes out when my hero, Dumbledore, died. I had to re-read the paragraph where he died 3-4 times before I realised that Rowling wasn't joking and that it had actually happened. I was sad for days because of that. Then I spent 2 years wondering how in the world she'd manage a book without Dumbledore in it.

I was queueing in Malmö for the midnight release of the seventh and final book. I wanted to read it slowly to savour the last book and not quite letting it end, but I couldn't and had finished it the next day. So many tears because of that book. All the deaths and the realisation that it's over. I also felt relieved because I had worried about Dumbledore not being in it, but instead the entire book was about Dumbledore and no matter what was revealed about him in Deathly Hallows, it couldn't make me love him less. About the same time I discovered Wizard Rock in Harry and the Potters.

But it wasn't over. In early 2011 I discovered Mugglarportalen, which became a substitution for hogwarts.nu. Summer 2011 was the premiere of the final movie and I was there for the midnight premiere and also the premiere for Pottermore where I signed up for the beta. In 2012 I went to another Internet meet-up along with a Potter party, in 2013 I went to London and The Making of Harry Potter, 2 ½ months ago I was at Amortentia, and this summer I have planned on going to Harry Potter: The Exhibition on it's European premiere in Norrköping. It will never end. Harry Potter is like The Wizard of Oz (published in 1900) or Alice in Wonderland (published in 1865): 100 years from now people will still read Harry Potter and love it, and I'm grateful that I was there from the very beginning and watched it unfold.

4 comments:

  1. Åh det låter som en underbar nördresa eller vad man ska kalla det :')
    Det är faktiskt min stora nördskam att jag aldrig läst Harry Potter. Jag ångrar ganska djupt att jag inte började läsa första boken när jag också fick den av mina föräldrar när den kom ut. Tror dock att min dyslexi ligger bakom en del.. I den åldern var en tjock bok ett ganska jobbigt hinder. Har i alla fall njutit av filmerna (även om jag förstår att det inte är äkta vara) Tänker läsa böckerna någon dag men har ju missat all.. "hysteri" kring det, vilket är synd. Men antar att en del riktig bra läsning ligger framför mig.
    Vill bara säga att jag älskar Quidditch World Cup game dock! xD

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    1. Det mest underbara med den är att den inte är slut ännu :')
      Dyslexi + tjockleken på Harry Potter-böckerna låter som en väldigt dålig kombination för ett litet barn faktiskt. Och jag kan ju anta att filmerna är bättre om man inte kan böckerna utantill och kan anmärka på allting de gjort fel och allting som borde varit med men som inte är det. Sen är ju också grejen den att även om du missat den största hysterin så kommer det hela tiden nya grejer och det finns ställen där hysterin aldrig försvinner. T ex The Making of Harry Potter i London och Wizarding World i Florida :) Och det ska ju komma tre nya filmer nu som är baserade på Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them och de utspelar sig i samma universum men sådär 50 år tidigare :)

      Det är aldrig försent att bli ett Potterhead :)

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  2. Åh, Hogwarts.nu. Så roligt med videon, hade helt glömt drakrace. Det var verkligen min första kärlek bland forum och websidor, jag var så upprörd när den lades ned.

    Angående Dave McKean - det är klart, nu ser jag ju hans stil på Coraline-omslaget. Däremot trodde jag att det enbart var Chris Riddell som illustrerat The Graveyard Book (hans illustrationer är också helt fantastiska), men så har jag bara boken på svenska.

    Ja, men precis, de går hand i hand och fungerar så bra ihop. Samma gäller illustrationerna till Stephen Kings Dark Tower, det finns också den där absurda skräckundertonen som kommer fram väldigt snyggt i McKeans illustrationer. Ska definitivt hålla utkik efter honom i framtiden.

    Sandman alltså, jag har så lite till övers för graphic novels men jag kanske ska försöka ge den en chans ändå. Har förstått att den finns i flera delar - vet du om den är komplett ännu?

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    1. Hade också helt glömt drakrace. När jag såg det i videon... och dementor-klippdockan <3 :D Alltså minnena från den tiden <3

      Det finns flera olika versioner av The Graveyard Book bara på engelska. Samma med Coraline och Fortunately the Milk och Odd and the Frost Giants.

      Jag var inte så mycket för graphic novels och comics förut heller, men jag köpte första volymen av Sandman för att det var Gaiman så jag var tvungen att ge den en chans. Och den är helt fantastisk. Där är så mycket story och man faller direkt för karaktärerna. Det finns så mycket djup i Sandman som inte brukar finnas i graphic novels och comics. Sandman är från 90-talet så den är färdig ;) Den finns i 10 volymer. Sen i fjol så började en ny graphic novel som heter Sandman Overture, men den utspelar sig innan det som händer i första volymen av Sandman...

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What's the first thought in your head after reading this? Let me know!