Quidditch

Quidditch /ˈkwɪdɪtʃ/ is a fictional sport played at Hogwarts, other schools of magic, and professionally by adult magicians, devised by author J. K. Rowling for her fantasy fiction series Harry Potter. The story of Harry Potter centres around wizards and witches studying their magical craft at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Born out of the lore of witches using flying broomsticks for transportation, Quidditch was developed by the author as the most popular sport in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter; a complex game played completely in the air by wizards and witches on flying broomsticks.

The objective of Quidditch, as with most sports, is to be the team that has gained the most points by the end of the match. Matches are played between two opposing teams of seven players riding flying broomsticks; using four balls: a Quaffle, two Bludgers, and a Golden Snitch. Centred around the use of each ball, there are four positions: the Chasers and Keeper (who play with the Quaffle), the Beaters (who play with the Bludgers), and the Seekers (who play with the Golden Snitch). Each team has three Chasers, one Keeper, two Beaters, and one Seeker. Matches are played on a large oval pitch with three ring-shaped goals of different heights on each side. It is an extremely rough but very popular semi-contact sport, and has a fervent fan following in the Wizarding World.

Harry Potter plays a very vital position for his house team at Hogwarts: he is the Seeker. Regional and international Quidditch competitions are mentioned throughout the series. Throughout the fantasy fiction, Harry uses his Quidditch skills for gaining respect from his peers, connecting to his ancestry, and even uses them in his hero's quest to defeat the main antagonist of the series, Lord Voldemort. Aspects of the sport's history are revealed in Quidditch Through the Ages, a book published by J.K. Rowling in 2001 to benefit Comic Relief.

A modified version of the game (without magic) has been adapted and is played in the real world in a number of countries. In this game the players still play with brooms, but run instead of flying. Nevertheless, the basic rules are mostly the same.

Development

Rowling came up with the sport in a Manchester hotel room after a row with her then-boyfriend. She explained: "I had been pondering the things that hold a society together, cause it to congregate and signify its particular character and knew I needed a sport."[1] Rowling claims that the word "Quidditch" is not derived from any particular etymological root, but was the result of filling five pages of a notebook with different words beginning with "Q".[2]

Despite the sport's popularity with fans, Rowling grew to dislike describing the matches. She commented in an interview:

To be honest with you, Quidditch matches have been the bane of my life in the Harry Potter books. They are necessary in that people expect Harry to play Quidditch, but there is a limit to how many ways you can have them play Quidditch together and for something new to happen.[3]

The final Quidditch scene in the books appears in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Rowling experienced "fiendish glee" writing this scene, which features memorable commentary by Luna Lovegood.[3]

In 2014 Rowling started publishing a series of match reports from the Quidditch World Cup on Pottermore, culminating in a short story about the final featuring the return of Harry, Ron, Hermione and their friends as adults. This generated interest from several media outlets, as it was the first new writing about the Harry Potter characters since the end of the series in 2007.[4][5][6]

Quidditch in the Harry Potter series

Quidditch is introduced in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and is a regularly recurring feature throughout the first six books. It is depicted as being played by both professionals (as in tournaments like the Quidditch World Cup) and amateurs. A major motif of five of the Harry Potter books is the competition among the four Hogwarts houses for the Quidditch Cup each school year; in particular, the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

Game progression

Quidditch matches are played over an oval-shaped pitch, with a scoring area at each end consisting of three hooped goal posts, each at a different height. Each team is made up of seven players, consisting of three Chasers, two Beaters, one Keeper and one Seeker. The job of the Chasers is to keep possession of the scarlet Quaffle, a leather ball passed between players. They must attempt to score goals (worth 10 points) by throwing it through one of the opponents' three hoops. These hoops are defended by the opposing team's Keeper, who ideally tries to block their goals. Meanwhile, players of both teams are attacked indiscriminately by the two Bludgers. These are round, jet-black balls made of iron that fly around violently trying to knock players off their brooms. It is the Beaters' job to defend their teammates from the Bludgers; they carry short wooden clubs, which they use to knock the Bludgers away from their teammates and/or toward the opposing team. Finally, the role of the Seeker is to catch the Golden Snitch. This is a small golden ball the approximate size of a walnut. The winged Snitch is enchanted to hover, dart, and fly around the pitch, avoiding capture while remaining within the boundaries of the playing area. Catching the Snitch ends the game and scores the successful Seeker's team 150 points. As the team with the most points wins, this often guarantees victory for the successful Seeker's team. A notable exception is when Bulgaria Seeker Viktor Krum catches the Snitch for Bulgaria during the World Cup Final in Goblet of Fire, while his team are still 160 points behind Ireland (their opponents), thus making his own team lose by only 10 points.

Oliver Wood showing Harry the Quaffle, Bludgers, and Snitch for the first time in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The Golden Snitch is held behind the Hogwarts coat of arms in the centre of the lid.
The Golden Snitch.

Broomsticks

Magical flying broomsticks are one of the forms of transportation for wizards and witches, as well as being used for playing Quidditch. The two most prominent broomsticks in the books are the Nimbus 2000 and the Firebolt, both of which have been produced as merchandise by Warner Bros.[7]

The Nimbus is introduced as one of the best broomsticks in the wizarding world. Harry receives a Nimbus 2000 in Philosopher's Stone so that he can play for Gryffindor house. Lucius Malfoy buys a full set of the more advanced Nimbus 2001s for the Slytherin team as a bribe, so they would choose his son Draco as Seeker the following year.

The Firebolt later supersedes the Nimbus as the fastest and one of the most expensive racing brooms in existence. Harry receives a Firebolt model from his godfather, Sirius Black, after his Nimbus 2000 is destroyed during a Quidditch match in Prisoner of Azkaban. In Goblet of Fire, Harry uses his Firebolt to escape the Hungarian Horntail (which is a dragon) during the Triwizard Tournament.

Quidditch in the films and video games

Quidditch appears in five of the eight Harry Potter films. Some Quidditch subplots, such as Ron's Keeper storyline in Order of the Phoenix, were cut to save time in the films.[8] Video games that feature Quidditch include:

In the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey attraction in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at the Islands of Adventure theme park, Quidditch is featured near the end where riders are flown through the Quidditch pitch. A storefront near Ollivanders Wand Shop is themed as a Quidditch supply with a Golden Snitch on the sign and a case containing animated Quaffle and Bludgers surrounded by Beaters' bats.[9]

Reception

According to David K. Steege, the books "follow very closely the school story tradition of making games and sports central to the boarding school experience; some of the most vivid and popular scenes in the series take place on the playing field."[10] However, some critics have claimed that Rowling's presentation of Quidditch reinforces gender inequality. For example, Heilman and Donaldson argue that the female players ultimately have little impact on the outcome of the game,[11] and it has also been noted that the female players on the Gryffindor Quidditch team have very few lines.[12] This view has been disputed by Mimi R. Gladstein, who points to the presence of female players on the victorious Irish team at the Quidditch World Cup. She argues: "The inclusion of female Quidditch players at the highest level of the sport is done without a trace of self-consciousness and their inclusion isn't an issue within the minds of the characters."[13]

In some ways, Quidditch has been criticised for the emphasis it places on the catching of the Snitch.[14] Rowling claims that Quidditch is a sport that "infuriates" men in particular, who are bothered by the unrealistic scoring system.[1]

Non-fictional Quidditch

Quidditch Lane in Lower Cambourne

Recently, there have been small-scale attempts to adapt Quidditch to readily available technology, using bicycles, and unicycles.[15]

Dedication plaque outside the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children

In the real world, the word "Quidditch" occurs in some English placenames (long before the Harry Potter stories were written), and seems to come from Anglo-Saxon cwǣð-dīc = "mud-ditch".

A street in Lower Cambourne, Cambridgeshire, England is named Quidditch Lane, supposedly after a type of nearby dry ditch called a Quidditch. Fans have been known to visit the area.[16]

In November 2014, a plaque appeared outside the entrance of Bristol Children's Hospital attesting that the famous hooped sculptures which stand in front of the paediatric institution are, in fact, not a 50 ft-tall interactive installation inaugurated in 2001, but instead the goalposts used in the 1998 Quidditch World Cup.[17]

In 2017, Quidditch was defined by Oxford Dictionaries, following the inclusion of Muggle in the Third (2003) Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford Dictionaries associate editor Charlotte Buxton explained that Quidditch had gained recognition beyond the books, pointing to its existence as a real-life sport.[18]

Quidditch as a real-life sport

In 2007 the United States Quidditch Association, back then named the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association or (I.Q.A), was founded to regulate quidditch in the United States and abroad, a very popular sport amongst college students. According to the International Quidditch Association, the current international governing body of the sport, the original rules and regulation of the popular collegiate sport known as quidditch were formed "....on a sunny Sunday afternoon in 2005 by Xander Manshel and Alex Benepe, students at Middlebury College in Vermont, US". In contrast to the fictional sport, the game is played on foot while using one hand to hold a broom between the legs, and can get quite competitive.

Since 2005, many American schools, such as UC Berkeley, have added Quidditch to their list of team sports.[19] The sport has since then spread across more than 25 countries and includes multiple international tournaments, including a World Cup.[20][21] In 2012, the International Quidditch Association held the IQA World Cup, then named the IQA Summer Games, as the torch was passing through Oxford, UK for the Summer Olympics.[22]

Gameplay is based on the description in the books, films, and game adaptations, though the sport has obviously been adapted to suit real-world constraints. Quidditch is still evolving to suit safe play for the members of the teams, male and female. Apart from joining teams registered with their national governing body, individuals are also able to become an official certified referee to officiate tournaments and games throughout the year as teams compete to take part in various national and international tournaments. As the oldest national governing body, USQ has hosted a grand total of ten US Quidditch Cups as of 2017.

In the United Kingdom, the Quidditch Premier League is played between 10 teams, split between the North and South divisions. In 2017, West Midlands Revolution won the QPL.

See also

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 Furness, Hannah. "JK Rowling invented Quidditch after a row with her boyfriend". The Telegraph. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  2. ↑ "J.K. Rowling on The Diane Rehm Show". WAMU. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
  3. 1 2 "The Leaky Cauldron and MN Interview J.K. Rowling". The Leaky Cauldron. 16 July 2005. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
  4. ↑ Tobar, Hector. "J.K. Rowling covers the '2014 Quidditch World Cup'". LA Times. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  5. ↑ Flood, Alison. "Harry Potter makes first appearance for seven years as he turns 34". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  6. ↑ Gibson, Megan. "J.K. Rowling Just Published a New Harry Potter Story". Time. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  7. ↑ MacDonald, Brady (24 March 2016). "Let's go on a virtual shopping spree at Universal's new Wizarding World". LA Times. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
  8. ↑ Vineyard, Jennifer (10 July 2007). "Harry Potter's First Date Flops, Quidditch Ditched: What 'Phoenix' Flick Leaves Out". MTV. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
  9. ↑ "Harry Potter's magic conjures success for theme park". CNN International. 6 April 2011.
  10. ↑ Steege, David K. (2004). "Harry Potter, Tom Brown, and the British School Story". In Whited, Lana A. The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon. University of Missouri Press. p. 148.
  11. ↑ Heilman, Elizabeth E.; Donaldson, Trevor (2009). "From Sexist to (sort-of) Feminist: Representations of Gender in the Harry Potter Series". In Heilman, Elizabeth E. Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge. p. 142.
  12. ↑ Doughty, Terri (2004). "Locating Harry Potter in the "Boys' Book" Market". In Whited, Lana A. The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon. University of Missouri Press. p. 243.
  13. ↑ Gladstein, Mimi R. (2004). "Feminism and Equal Opportunity: Hermione and the Women of Hogwarts". In Baggett, David; Klein, Shawn. Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts. Open Court Publishing.
  14. ↑ Manfred, Tony. "Sorry Harry Potter Fans, Quidditch Is The Dumbest Sport Ever". Business Insider. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  15. ↑ "Unicycle Quidditch Rules". Retrieved 10 October 2011.
  16. ↑ Village sign attracts Potter fans, BBC News
  17. ↑ Sad truth behind Harry Potter fan's adorable prank at Bristol Children's Hospital is revealed, Bristol Post
  18. ↑ Thelwell, Emma. "The next Harry Potter words to join the dictionary?". BBC News. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
  19. ↑ "The basics of Quidditch at Cal". The Daily Californian. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
  20. ↑ Carey, Alexis (15 April 2014). "From Harry Potter to Sydney schools, Quidditch has become a real competitive sport". Daily Telegraph (Sydney). Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  21. ↑ Flood, Alison (22 June 2016). "Quidditch leaves Harry Potter behind as (real) World Cup fever grows". The Guardian.
  22. ↑ Black, Alan (6 July 2012). "London 2012: Olympic Quidditch Explo Tournament Preview". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 18 February 2016.

Bibliography

  • Rowling, J. K. (1997). Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. London: Bloomsbury/New York City: Scholastic, et al. UK ISBN 0-7475-3269-9/U.S. ISBN 0-590-35340-3.
  • Rowling, J. K. (1998). Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. London: Bloomsbury/New York City: Scholastic, et al. UK ISBN 0-7475-3849-2/U.S. ISBN 0-439-06486-4.
  • Rowling, J. K. (Kennilworthy Whisp; 2001). Quidditch Through the Ages (in English). London: Bloomsbury/New York City: Scholastic, et al. ISBN 0613329740.

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