Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
J. K. Rowling.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR.
was born in 1897. His interest in fabulous beasts was encouraged by his mother, who was an enthusiastic breeder of fancy Hippogriffs. Upon graduation from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Mr. Scamander joined the Ministry of Magic in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. After two years at the Office for House-Elf Relocation, years he describes as tedious in the extreme, he was transferred to the Beast Division, where his prodigious knowledge of bizarre magical animals ensured his rapid promotion.
Although almost solely responsible for the creation of the Werewolf Register in 1947, he says he is proudest of the Ban on Experimental Breeding, pa.s.sed in 1965, which effectively prevented the creation of new and untameable monsters within Britain. Mr. Scamanders work with the Dragon Research and Restraint Bureau led to many research trips abroad, during which he collected information for his worldwide best-seller Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, now in its fifty-second edition.
Newt Scamander was awarded the Order of Merlin, Second Cla.s.s, in 1979 in recognition of his services to the study of magical beasts, Magizoology. Now retired, he lives in Dorset with his wife Porpentina and their pet Kneazles: Hoppy, Milly, and Mauler.
FOREWORD.
IWAS DEEPLY HONOURED when Newt Scamander asked me to write the foreword for this very special edition of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Newts masterpiece has been an approved textbook at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry ever since its publication and must take a substantial amount of credit for our students consistently high results in Care of Magical Creatures examinations " yet it is not a book to be confined to the cla.s.sroom. No wizarding household is complete without a copy of Fantastic Beasts, well thumbed by the generations who have riffled its pages in search of the best way to rid the lawn of Horklumps, interpret the mournful cries of the Augurey or cure their pet Puffskein of drinking out of the toilet.
This edition, however, has a loftier purpose than the instruction of the wizarding community. For the first time in the history of the n.o.ble publishing house of Obscurus, one of its t.i.tles is to be made available to Muggles.
The work of Comic Relief U. K. in fighting some of the worst forms of human suffering is well known in the Muggle world, so it is to my fellow wizards that I now address myself. Know, then, that we are not alone in recognising the curative power of laughter, that Muggles are familiar with it too, and that they have harnessed this gift in a most imaginative way, using it to raise funds with which to help save and better lives " a brand of magic to which we all aspire. Comic Relief has raised over one billion dollars since 1985 (thats also 800 million pounds or 158 million 1,035 Galleons, 8 Sickles and 2 Knuts).
It is now the wizarding worlds privilege to help Comic Relief U. K. in their endeavour. You hold in your hands a duplicate of Harry Potters own copy of Fantastic Beasts, complete with his and his friends informative notes in the margins. Although Harry seemed a trifle reluctant to allow this book to be reprinted in its present form, our friends at Comic Relief U. K. feel that his small additions will add to the entertaining tone of the book. Mr Newt Scamander, long since resigned to the relentless graffitiing of his masterpiece, has agreed.
This edition of Fantastic Beasts will be sold at Flourish and Blotts as well as in Muggle bookshops. Wizards wishing to make additional donations should do so through Gringotts Wizarding Bank (ask for Griphook).
All that remains is for me to warn anyone who has read this far without purchasing this book that it carries a Thiefs Curse. I would like to take this opportunity to rea.s.sure Muggle purchasers that the amusing creatures described hereafter are fictional and cannot hurt you. To wizards, I say merely: Draco dormiens nunquam t.i.tillandus.
INTRODUCTION.
ABOUT THIS BOOK.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them represents the fruit of many years travel and research. I look back across the years to the seven-year-old wizard who spent hours in his bedroom dismembering Horklumps and I envy him the journeys to come: from darkest jungle to brightest desert, from mountain peak to marshy bog, that grubby Horklump-encrusted boy would track, as he grew up, the beasts described in the following pages. I have visited lairs, burrows, and nests across five continents, observed the curious habits of magical beasts in a hundred countries, witnessed their powers, gained their trust and, on occasion, beaten them off with my travelling kettle.
The first edition of Fantastic Beasts was commissioned back in 1918 by Mr. Augustus Worme of Obscurus Books, who was kind enough to ask me whether I would consider writing an authoritative compendium of magical creatures for his publishing house. I was then but a lowly Ministry of Magic employee and leapt at the chance both to augment my pitiful salary of two Sickles a week and to spend my holidays travelling the globe in search of new magical species. The rest is publishing history: Fantastic Beasts is now in its fifty-second edition.
This introduction is intended to answer a few of the most frequently asked questions that have been arriving in my weekly postbag ever since this book was first published in 1927. The first of these is that most fundamental question of all " what is a beast?
WHAT IS A BEAST?.
The definition of a beast has caused controversy for centuries. Though this might surprise some first-time students of Magizoology, the problem might come into clearer focus if we take a moment to consider three types of magical creature.
Werewolves spend most of their time as humans (whether wizard or Muggle). Once a month, however, they transform into savage, four-legged beasts of murderous intent and no human conscience.
The centaurs habits are not humanlike; they live in the wild, refuse clothing, prefer to live apart from wizards and Muggles alike, and yet have intelligence equal to theirs.
Trolls bear a humanoid appearance, walk upright, may be taught a few simple words, and yet are less intelligent than the dullest unicorn, and possess no magical powers in their own right except for their prodigious and unnatural strength.
We now ask ourselves: which of these creatures is a being " that is to say, a creature worthy of legal rights and a voice in the governance of the magical world " and which is a beast?
Early attempts at deciding which magical creatures should be designated beasts were extremely crude.
Burdock Muldoon, Chief of the Wizards Council1 in the fourteenth century, decreed that any member of the magical community that walked on two legs would henceforth be granted the status of being, all others to remain beasts. In a spirit of friendship he summoned all beings to meet with the wizards at a summit to discuss new magical laws and found to his intense dismay that he had miscalculated. The meeting hall was crammed with goblins who had brought with them as many two-legged creatures as they could find. As Bathilda Bagshot tells us in A History of Magic: Little could be heard over the squawking of the Diricawls, the moaning of the Augureys, and the relentless, piercing song of the Fwoopers. As wizards and witches attempted to consult the papers before them, sundry pixies and fairies whirled around their heads, giggling and jabbering. A dozen or so trolls began to smash apart the chamber with their clubs, while hags glided about the place in search of children to eat. The Council Chief stood up to open the meeting, slipped on a pile of Porlock dung and ran cursing from the hall.
As we see, the mere possession of two legs was no guarantee that a magical creature could or would take an interest in the affairs of wizard government. Embittered, Burdock Muldoon forswore any further attempts to integrate non-wizard members of the magical community into the Wizards Council.
Muldoons successor, Madame Elfrida Clagg, attempted to redefine beings in the hope of creating closer ties with other magical creatures. Beings, she declared, were those who could speak the human tongue. All those who could make themselves understood to Council members were therefore invited to join the next meeting. Once again, however, there were problems. Trolls who had been taught a few simple sentences by the goblins proceeded to destroy the hall as before. Jarveys raced around the Councils chair legs, tearing at as many ankles as they could reach. Meanwhile a large delegation of ghosts (who had been barred under Muldoons leadership on the grounds that they did not walk on two legs, but glided) attended but left in disgust at what they later termed the Councils unashamed emphasis on the needs of the living as opposed to the wishes of the dead. The centaurs, who under Muldoon had been cla.s.sified as beasts and were now under Madame Clagg defined as beings, refused to attend the Council in protest at the exclusion of the merpeople, who were unable to converse in anything except Mermish while above water.
Not until 1811 were definitions found that most of the magical community found acceptable. Grogan Stump, the newly appointed Minister for Magic, decreed that a being was any creature that has sufficient intelligence to understand the laws of the magical community and to bear part of the responsibility in shaping those laws.2 Troll representatives were questioned in the absence of goblins and judged not to understand anything that was being said to them; they were therefore cla.s.sified as beasts despite their two-legged gait; merpeople were invited through translators to become beings for the first time; fairies, pixies, and gnomes, despite their humanoid appearance, were placed firmly in the beast category.
Naturally, the matter has not rested there. We are all familiar with the extremists who campaign for the cla.s.sification of Muggles as beasts; we are all aware that the centaurs have refused being status and requested to remain beasts;3 werewolves, meanwhile, have been shunted between the Beast and Being divisions for many years; at the time of writing there is an office for Werewolf Support Services at the Being Division whereas the Werewolf Registry and Werewolf Capture Unit fall under the Beast Division. Several highly intelligent creatures are cla.s.sified as beasts because they are incapable of overcoming their own brutal natures. Acromantulas and Manticores are capable of intelligent speech but will attempt to devour any human that goes near them. The sphinx talks only in puzzles and riddles, and is violent when given the wrong answer.
Wherever there is continued uncertainty about the cla.s.sification of a beast in the following pages, I have noted it in the entry for that creature.
Let us now turn to the one question that witches and wizards ask more than any other when the conversation turns to Magizoology: Why dont Muggles notice these creatures?
1 The Wizards Council preceded the Ministry of Magic.
2 An exception was made for the ghosts, who a.s.serted that it was insensitive to cla.s.s them as beings when they were so clearly has-beens. Stump therefore created the three divisions of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures that exist today: the Beast Division, the Being Division, and the Spirit Division.
3 The centaurs objected to some of the creatures with whom they were asked to share being status, such as hags and vampires, and declared that they would manage their own affairs separately from wizards. A year later the merpeople made the same request. The Ministry of Magic accepted their demands reluctantly. Although a Centaur Liaison Office exists in the Beast Division of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, no centaur has ever used it. Indeed, being sent to the Centaur Office has become an in-joke at the Department and means that the person in question is shortly to be fired.
Astonishing though it may seem to many wizards, Muggles have not always been ignorant of the magical and monstrous creatures that we have worked so long and hard to hide. A glance through Muggle art and literature of the Middle Ages reveals that many of the creatures they now believe to be imaginary were then known to be real. The dragon, the griffin, the unicorn, the phoenix, the centaur " these and more are represented in Muggle works of that period, though usually with almost comical inexact.i.tude.
However, a closer examination of Muggle bestiaries of that period demonstrates that most magical beasts either escaped Muggle notice completely or were mistaken for something else. Examine this surviving fragment of ma.n.u.script, written by one Brother Benedict, a Franciscan monk from Worcestershire: Todaye while travailing in the Herbe Garden, I did push aside the basil to discover a Ferret of monstrous size. It did not run nor hide as Ferrets are wont to do, but leapt upon me, throwing me backwards upon the grounde and crying with most unnatural fury, Get out of it, baldy! It did then bite my nose so viciously that I did bleed for several Hours. The Friar was unwillinge to believe that I had met a talking Ferret and did ask me whether I had been supping of Brother Bonifaces Turnip Wine. As my nose was still swollen and b.l.o.o.d.y I was excused Vespers.
Evidently our Muggle friend had unearthed not a ferret, as he supposed, but a Jarvey, most likely in pursuit of its favourite prey, gnomes.
Imperfect understanding is often more dangerous than ignorance, and the Muggles fear of magic was undoubtedly increased by their dread of what might be lurking in their herb gardens. Muggle persecution of wizards at this time was reaching a pitch hitherto unknown and sightings of such beasts as dragons and Hippogriffs were contributing to Muggle hysteria.
It is not the aim of this work to discuss the dark days that preceded the wizards retreat into hiding.4 All that concerns us here is the fate of those fabulous beasts that, like ourselves, would have to be concealed if Muggles were ever to be convinced there was no such thing as magic.
The International Confederation of Wizards argued the matter out at their famous summit meeting of 1692. No fewer than seven weeks of sometimes acrimonious discussion between wizards of all nationalities were devoted to the troublesome question of magical creatures. How many species would we be able to conceal from Muggle notice and which should they be? Where and how should we hide them? The debate raged on, some creatures oblivious to the fact that their destiny was being decided, others contributing to the debate.5 At last agreement was reached.6 Twenty-seven species, ranging in size from dragons to Bundimuns, were to be hidden from Muggles so as to create the illusion that they had never existed outside the imagination. This number was increased over the following century, as wizards became more confident in their methods of concealment. In 1750, Clause 73 was inserted in the International Code of Wizarding Secrecy, to which wizard ministries worldwide conform today: Each wizarding governing body will be responsible for the concealment, care, and control of all magical beasts, beings, and spirits dwelling within its territorys borders. Should any such creature cause harm to, or draw the notice of, the Muggle community, that nations wizarding governing body will be subject to discipline by the International Confederation of Wizards.
4 Anyone interested in a full account of this particularly b.l.o.o.d.y period of wizarding history should consult A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot (Little Red Books, 1947).
5 Delegations of centaurs, merpeople, and goblins were persuaded to attend the summit.
6 Except by the goblins.
MAGICAL BEASTS IN HIDING.
It would be idle to deny that there have been occasional breaches of Clause 73 since it was first put in place. Older British readers will remember the Ilfracombe Incident of 1932, when a rogue Welsh Green dragon swooped down upon a crowded beach full of sunbathing Muggles. Fatalities were mercifully prevented by the brave actions of a holidaying wizarding family (subsequently awarded Orders of Merlin, First Cla.s.s), when they immediately performed the largest batch of Memory Charms this century on the inhabitants of Ilfracombe, thus narrowly averting catastrophe.7 The International Confederation of Wizards has had to fine certain nations repeatedly for contravening Clause 73. Tibet and Scotland are two of the most persistent offenders. Muggle sightings of the yeti have been so numerous that the International Confederation of Wizards felt it necessary to station an International Task Force in the mountains on a permanent basis. Meanwhile the worlds largest kelpie continues to evade capture in Loch Ness and appears to have developed a positive thirst for publicity.
These unfortunate mishaps notwithstanding, we wizards may congratulate ourselves on a job well done. There can be no doubt that the overwhelming majority of present-day Muggles refuse to believe in the magical beasts their ancestors so feared. Even those Muggles who do notice Porlock droppings or Streeler trails " it would be foolish to suppose that all traces of these creatures can be hidden " appear satisfied with the flimsiest non-magical explanation.8 If any Muggle is unwise enough to confide in another that he has spotted a Hippogriff winging its way north, he is generally believed to be drunk or a loony. Unfair though this may seem on the Muggle in question, it is nevertheless preferable to being burnt at the stake or drowned in the village duckpond.
So how does the wizarding community hide fantastic beasts?
Luckily, some species do not require much wizarding a.s.sistance in avoiding the notice of Muggles. Creatures such as the Tebo, the Demiguise, and the Bowtruckle have their own highly effective means of camouflage and no intervention by the Ministry of Magic has ever been necessary on their behalf. Then there are those beasts that, due to cleverness or innate shyness, avoid contact with Muggles at all costs " for instance, the unicorn, the Mooncalf, and the centaur. Other magical creatures inhabit places inaccessible to Muggles " one thinks of the Acromantula, deep in the uncharted jungle of Borneo, and the phoenix, nesting high on mountain peaks unreachable without the use of magic. Finally, and most commonly, we have beasts that are too small, too speedy, or too adept at pa.s.sing for mundane animals to attract a Muggles attention " Chizpurfles, Billywigs, and Crups fall into this category.
Nevertheless there are still plenty of beasts that, whether willfully or inadvertently, remain conspicuous even to the Muggle eye, and it is these that create a significant amount of work for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. This department, the second largest at the Ministry of Magic,9 deals with the varying needs of the many species under its care in a variety of different ways.
Safe Habitats Perhaps the most important step in the concealment of magical creatures is the creation of safe habitats. Muggle-Repelling Charms prevent trespa.s.sers into the forests where centaurs and unicorns live, and on the lakes and rivers set aside for the use of merpeople. In extreme cases, such as that of the Quintaped, whole areas have been made unplottable.10 Some of these safe areas must be kept under constant wizarding supervision; for example, dragon reservations. While unicorns and merpeople are only too happy to stay within the territories designated for their use, dragons will seek any opportunity to set forth in search of prey beyond the reservation borders. In some cases Muggle-Repelling Charms will not work, as the beasts own powers will cancel them. Cases in point are the kelpie, whose sole aim in life is to attract humans towards it, and the Pogrebin, which seeks out humans for itself.
Controls on Selling and Breeding The possibility of a Muggle being alarmed by any of the larger or more dangerous magical beasts has been greatly reduced by the severe penalties now attached to their breeding and the sale of their young and eggs. The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures keeps a strict watch on the trade in fantastic beasts. The 1965 Ban on Experimental Breeding has made the creation of new species illegal.
Disillusionment Charms The wizard on the street also plays a part in the concealment of magical beasts. Those who own a Hippogriff, for example, are bound by law to enchant the beast with a Disillusionment Charm to distort the vision of any Muggle who may see it. Disillusionment Charms should be performed daily, as their effects are apt to wear off.
Memory Charms When the worst happens and a Muggle sees what he or she is not supposed to see, the Memory Charm is perhaps the most useful repair tool. The Memory Charm may be performed by the owner of the beast in question, but in severe cases of Muggle notice, a team of trained Obliviators may be sent in by the Ministry of Magic.
The Office of Misinformation The Office of Misinformation will become involved in only the very worst magical-Muggle collisions. Some magical catastrophes or accidents are simply too glaringly obvious to be explained away by Muggles without the help of an outside authority. The Office of Misinformation will in such a case liaise directly with the Muggle prime minister to seek a plausible non-magical explanation for the event. The unstinting efforts of this office in persuading Muggles that all photographic evidence of the Loch Ness kelpie is fake have gone some way to salvaging a situation that at one time looked exceedingly dangerous.
7 In his 1972 book Muggles Who Notice, Blenheim Stalk a.s.serts that some residents of Ilfracombe escaped the Ma.s.s Memory Charm. To this day, a Muggle bearing the nickname Dodgy Dirk holds forth in bars along the south coast on the subject of a dirty great flying lizard that punctured his lilo.
8 For a fascinating examination of this fortunate tendency of Muggles, the reader might like to consult The Philosophy of the Mundane: Why the Muggles Prefer Not to Know, Professor Mordicus Egg (Dust & Mildewe, 1963).
9 The largest department at the Ministry of Magic is the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, to which the remaining six departments are all, in some respect, answerable " with the possible exception of the Department of Mysteries.
10 When an area of land is made unplottable, it is impossible to chart on maps.
WHY MAGIZOOLOGY MATTERS.
The measures described above merely hint at the full scope and extent of the work done by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. It remains only to answer that question to which we all, in our hearts, know the answer: Why do we continue, as a community and as individuals, to attempt to protect and conceal magical beasts, even those that are savage and untameable? The answer is, of course: to ensure that future generations of witches and wizards enjoy their strange beauty and powers as we have been privileged to do.
I offer this work as a mere introduction to the wealth of fantastic beasts that inhabit our world. Seventy-five species are described in the following pages, but I do not doubt that some time this year yet another will be discovered, necessitating a fifty-third revised edition of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. In the meantime I will merely add that it affords me great pleasure to think that generations of young witches and wizards have grown to a fuller knowledge and understanding of the fantastic beasts I love through the pages of this book.
MINISTRY OF MAGIC CLa.s.sIFICATIONS.
The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures gives cla.s.sifications to all known beasts, beings, and spirits. These offer an at-a-glance guide to the perceived dangerousness of a creature. The five categories are as follows: Ministry of Magic (M.O.M.) Cla.s.sification x.x.xXX.
Known wizard killer / impossible/ to train or domesticate x.x.xX.
Dangerous / requires specialist knowledge / skilled wizard may handle x.x.x.
Competent wizard should cope XX.
Harmless / may be domesticated X.
Boring In some cases I have felt an explanation for the cla.s.sification of a particular beast is necessary and have added footnotes accordingly.
AN A"Z OF FANTASTIC BEASTS ACROMANTULA.
M.O.M. Cla.s.sification: x.x.xXX The Acromantula is a monstrous eight-eyed spider capable of human speech. It originated in Borneo, where it inhabits dense jungle. Its distinctive features include the thick black hair that covers its body; its legspan, which may reach up to fifteen feet; its pincers, which produce a distinctive clicking sound when the Acromantula is excited or angry; and a poisonous secretion. The Acromantula is carnivorous and prefers large prey. It spins dome-shaped webs upon the ground. The female is bigger than the male and may lay up to one hundred eggs at a time. Soft and white, these are as large as beach b.a.l.l.s. The young hatch in six to eight weeks. Acromantula eggs are defined as Cla.s.s A Non-Tradeable Goods by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, meaning that severe penalties are attached to their importation or sale.
This beast is believed to be wizard-bred, possibly intended to guard wizard dwellings or treasure, as is often the case with magically created monsters.1 Despite its near-human intelligence, the Acromantula is untrainable and highly dangerous to wizard and Muggle alike.