It looks as though some leftover code on the Pottermore site may have allowed a fan and software engineer to accidentally reveal the four Houses of Ilvermorny, the North American wizarding school that will be revealed to fans in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. If this code proves accurate, then we know where you can be Sorted!
The whole shebang was discovered by Federico Ian Cervantez, a Senior Software Programmer at CAKE Corporation. After taking Pottermore’s Sorting quiz, he went looking around the site’s code, and found code for another quiz that had yet to be published. It turned out to pertain to Fantastic Beasts, and appears to be a different Sorting quiz for the North American school Ilvermorny. Based on that code, the Houses were revealed as follows: Horned Serpent, Wampus, Thunderbird, and Pukwudgie.
Keep in mind, this is no guarantee. Until this quiz goes live on the Pottermore site, anything could be altered. But Cervantez’ blog post, where he explains how he went through the code and discovered these houses, appears legitimate. As he points out, this wasn’t a hack to their site—it was code that he was able to read by having done the Pottermore Sorting quiz. He merely took the time to read said code and tell other fans what he had found on Reddit.
All four creatures are present in the folklore of Native American tribes. Here is some extra information on each, as they pertain to American mythology:
- Horned Serpent: A creature from folklore that is present in Native American, as well as European and Mesopotamian mythology. According to Sioux legend, the Horned Serpents were destroyed by Thunderbirds, leaving only small snakes and lizards behind. Horned Serpents have been associated with rain, lightning, and thunder.
- Wampus: A cougar-type creature that might have its roots in the Cherokee myth of the “Ewah.” The Wampus Cat is known in Tennessee folklore as a spirit of death and earth. The cry of the Wampus Cat means that someone is shortly to die. (It is stated on Pottermore that Wampus hair is used for wand cores in North America.)
- Thunderbird: A well known creature of Native American mythology, present among many tribes. Consistent in every depiction are its intelligence, power, and wrath.
- Pukwudgie: A mythic creature from folklore of the Wampanoag tribe. They appear as small gray humans with large noses, fingers, and ears. Among their attributes are the ability to transform into a walking porcupine and create fire, use of poison arrows and magic, and the propensity for luring others to their deaths.
If this is the case, then each House of Ilvermorny would appear to have its roots in Native American legends. There is no way to be certain of all this information until we get some manner of confirmation via Pottermore, Rowling, or the upcoming Fantastic Beasts film, but it is intriguing to speculate in the meantime.
After we saw this last night my wife and I were speculating as to which houses we’d be in. She is thinking Wampus all the way and I was leaning toward Thunderbird. I can’t wait to take the quiz and see where I get sorted!
If the four houses, like the four in Hogwarts, correspond with the four elements*, then it looks like:
Horned Serpent: Water
Wampus: Earth
Thunderbird: Air
Pukwudgie: Fire
*I have no idea if Native Americans used the four elements or if there were different systems among different cultural groups. It’s also possible this represents a synthesis of Old World and New World magic. But, they do seem to equate the way the Hogwarts houses do.
Glad I wasn’t the only one to spot the Classical Elements connection immediately. I wonder if it’s just going to be the equivalent of the Hogwarts houses or something different.
Mercedes Lackey has used the Thunderbird as a major Air Elemental when she introduced a Native American character into one of her Elemental Masters books.
Oh man, this just….doesn’t sit right with me at all. Did JK consult with any tribe members before she set this up? I get that First Nations mythologies are a seeming equivalent to a Brit based mythology but our history of oppression and appropriation means one should not tread on mythos and faith that is not our own.
We have to realize that this is not respectful. That this is seen as more white people theft, after a vast, horrible history of white people theft–both tangible and of cultural. That once this is woven into the HP mega commercial machine, we’ll be seeing these First Nations concepts become merchandise with major returns. Money made off of Native culture that doesn’t benefit them in any way. There’s a REASON we have laws defending First Nation’s rights to call their works “Native American” in merchandise and art. It is so often that non-native people make money that should have gone to those who the culture belongs to in the first place.
It also reinforces the bizarro idea that First Nations people are extinct. That they are magical myths themselves. Something like leprechauns and wizards, and any other fantasy thing in HP. I mean, we dress up as them for Halloween. Use them as mascots. These are actual PEOPLE.
I love the hell out of HP, and nobody is perfect, but damn JKR we need to dial this stuff back. We need to listen. This is an easy mistake for a foreign writer to make about a difficult racial and cultural issue, but there should damn sure be some Americans and First Nations people working with her to prevent this stuff!
I am skeptical about this finding.
I don’t trust anything found in the background code of Rowling’s website. And we don’t even know if Ilvermornay is houses at this point.
@@.-@ – mirana: While there are some valid points in what you say, people would be criticizing Rowling if she didn’t use any Native American things.
Am I the only disappointed that there isn’t a jackalope?
Or a Jersey Devil.
Keeping in mind that these may not even be real, is it strange to anyone else that they aren’t named after people like the originals were? That would provide a bit more personality than just falling back on mythical creatures.
@@.-@ mirana
I don’t see a problem with using Native American lore as an inspiration for a fantasy tale based in an alternate version of the continent. Like lordmagnus said above, people would get upset if she didn’t use Native American myths as a source.
There’s no lock on who can be inspired by or use imagery from any one culture. People have been swapping and remixing elements of culture in art as long as it has existed.
This is another case where Americans seem to expect that the whole world knows and cares about specifically American issues. In Europe old mythologies have always been reused in new stories. Before all these attacks on Rowling it never occured to me that anyone could have a problem with that. There is no way for her to do it right anyway: if she uses American myth, she is stealing their culture, if she doesn’t, she ignores their existence.
Calling a book “American Gods” that has characters like Odin or Thoth is stealing other mythologies, but nobody seems to have a problem with that.
Well, the difference between using Odin and Thor and Native American myths is that the worshippers of the former are not seen as having been oppressed and exterminated by the people now inhabiting their lands, while we can still see today how Native American people live, as a direct consequence of the conquest of their lands.