JKR, maths, and interview statements (see also: small crystal of NaCl, to be taken with)

[snorkackcatcher]

Remember when JKR talked in interviews way back about typical wizard ages and said Dumbledore was about 150? And then gave an age for Great-Aunt Muriel in DH that implied he couldn't reasonably be much more than about 120? (She's 107, and remembers eavesdropping as a kid on Bathilda telling her mother about Ariana's funeral, when Dumbledore was 18. This would have been about 100 years previously.)

Well, Dumbledore is the new Wizard of the Month on JKR's site, and his dates are indeed given as 1881-1996 -- age 115 at death, which fits nicely. (The funeral would have been c.1899, when Muriel would have been about 9.) Bang goes a whole load of stories which have him at school in the 1860s, or otherwise used that interview age as background. Indeed, he could well have been at Hogwarts when Phineas Nigellus was headmaster, certainly when he was a teacher.

Another strike against the idea of treating interview statements as near-canon, then, or even as probably correct, especially if they involve numbers. Sigh.

ETA: And now I have a chance to look at the flist I see masterofmystery quite reasonably points out that he actually died in 1997 according to the standard timeline ... I hope JKR's got a good accountant. :)

Comments

[msmoocow.livejournal.com]

On the bright side, this does prove that you don't need to be good with numbers to be famous. There's hope for me yet! :)

Also, that is the best entry subject ever.

[snorkackcatcher]

I wanted to write 'sodium chloride' in full, but it was too long for the limit. :)

[annuscka.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, one wonders what this could possibly do the the Black family tree.

Phineas teaching Dumbledore (and Slughorn, who is only a bit younger) - really appeals to me, though, have to say... Phineas taught all his own children and almost all his grandchildren too, IIRC - another interesting thought.

[snorkackcatcher]

I do wish we knew if those dates on the Tree were correct -- they were obtained by someone making notes at the viewing, and so we're not sure if it was them who hastily scribbled down ones that didn't match without realising, or JKR. :)

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Clever reasoning, as ever.

Particularly useful for me because several people wondered when Dumbledore was going to appear in Sherlock Holmes and the Raveclaw Codex - I never had any intention of putting him in, but it's nice to have some canon on which to base that choice!

And JKR doesn't need a good accountant - she's so rich she'd never miss a grand or two...

[snorkackcatcher]

Just out of interest, in what Holmes-canon period is SHRC set? (And I must review ch11 -- open in a tab, but I'm very tardy at these things.) Dumbledore must have been at Hogwarts roughly 1892-9, which was when Holmes was in top form, although as this is the school holidays he would anyway have been up in his room in Godric's Hollow corresponding with eminent wiards and witches. I imagine he might well have been surprised by Holmes at that age!

I meant to ask this before, btw -- can we assume the Codex going to be destroyed or proven to be a fake before Tom Riddle arrives at Hogwarts? He wouldn't have needed to go charming the Grey Lady if a Ravenclaw artifact was on open display, just sneak in one night by answering the door's question and really nick it.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Just out of interest, in what Holmes-canon period is SHRC set? (And I must review ch11 -- open in a tab, but I'm very tardy at these things.) Dumbledore must have been at Hogwarts roughly 1892-9, which was when Holmes was in top form, although as this is the school holidays he would anyway have been up in his room in Godric's Hollow corresponding with eminent wiards and witches. I imagine he might well have been surprised by Holmes at that age!

A couple of people have asked about Dumbledore, and you're right - it would have been the right time, but I never intended to write him into this story. I think you are right, and he would have been in Godric's Hollow, though I suppose it's just possible that there would have been an auburn-haired, bespectacled Gryffindor Hogwarts Irregular...

I meant to ask this before, btw -- can we assume the Codex going to be destroyed or proven to be a fake before Tom Riddle arrives at Hogwarts? He wouldn't have needed to go charming the Grey Lady if a Ravenclaw artifact was on open display, just sneak in one night by answering the door's question and really nick it.

Thank you for alerting me to this question - I hadn't thought of that! My original plan actually involved the Codex ending up somewhere else - I suspect I may have to revert to that, or at least hint that such a possibility exists...

[shiiki.livejournal.com]

Ah, JKR and maths. The new age for Dumbledore seems a lot more plausible. I never did like the whole 'oh, wizards can live lots longer' thing. A bit longer is nice, but double the age of normal Muggles and it really feels as though they should mature slower as well.

And anyway, if Dumbledore were 150, old Griselda Marchbanks would truly be ancient!

[snorkackcatcher]

She must be 130 or so. Come to think of it, Bagshot must have been at least that, maybe actually 150, as she was apparently an adult and well-respected academic at the time Grindelwald arrived.

[themolesmother.livejournal.com]

I see masterofmystery quite reasonably points out that he actually died in 1997 according to the standard timeline ... I hope JKR's got a good accountant. :)

She probably supports a whole battalion of 'em :-)!!

MM

[snorkackcatcher]

It would be a good job to have. :)

[house-illrepute.livejournal.com]

Another strike against the idea of treating interview statements as near-canon, then, or even as probably correct, especially if they involve numbers. Sigh.

Yeah... I don't handle Rowling!Math well... but, I do give a little weight to what she says about a character's past, if not their future.

I really wish she'd have taken 2 years off before writing and then another 2 years TO write it.

[snorkackcatcher]

But think of all that fan frustration if she had. :)

[dreamer-marie.livejournal.com]

Well, this makes much more sense.
Also, OMG! Dumbledore is Wizard of the Month!
*squees*

[snorkackcatcher]

Interesting choice, isn't it? :)

[masterofmystery.livejournal.com]

I have no idea how she failed to remember something like the fact that he died at the END of HBP and not the beginning!

[snorkackcatcher]

To be fair, I sometimes make off-by-one errors like that as well. It's a common mistake. :)