{"id":148861,"date":"2015-06-22T01:50:32","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T01:50:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/06\/22\/psychopompious-datvikingtho-datvikingtho\/"},"modified":"2018-09-07T18:00:25","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T18:00:25","slug":"psychopompious-datvikingtho-datvikingtho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/06\/22\/psychopompious-datvikingtho-datvikingtho\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-148861 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/06\/22\/psychopompious-datvikingtho-datvikingtho\/attachment\/148862\/'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/tumblr_np0sjpLGgt1sat552o1_1280-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/tumblr_np0sjpLGgt1sat552o1_1280-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/tumblr_np0sjpLGgt1sat552o1_1280-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/psychopompious.tumblr.com\/post\/121345592689\/datvikingtho-datvikingtho-magelet-301\" class=\"tumblr_blog\" target=\"_blank\">psychopompious<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/datvikingtho.tumblr.com\/post\/120458201506\/datvikingtho-magelet-301-here-it-is-canon\" class=\"tumblr_blog\" target=\"_blank\">datvikingtho<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/datvikingtho.tumblr.com\/post\/120039681356\/magelet-301-here-it-is-canon-evidence-that\" class=\"tumblr_blog\" target=\"_blank\">datvikingtho<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/magelet-301.tumblr.com\/post\/120036670647\/here-it-is-canon-evidence-that-salazar-slytherin\" class=\"tumblr_blog\" target=\"_blank\">magelet-301<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Here it is, canon evidence that Salazar Slytherin was NOT a racist bigot. He was concerned for the well-being and safety of the magical community, which could have been compromised by letting the \u201ccommon people\u201d know that wizards and witches existed.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/tmblr.co\/m064xB6KJXZWXZJCI2_6Gcw\" target=\"_blank\">datvikingtho<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Shoutout to this fine lady for bringing this to my attention. Let\u2019s further the argument:<\/p>\n<p>Hogwarts was canonically founded around 990 A.D. &#8211; The Christians were finally taking hold of Scandinavia, meaning that all of Europe was now Christian. It was towards the end of the Dark Ages, or else the Early Medieval Period, which (In Europe) was famous for its intolerance of non-Christiandom, which included the teachings of Ancient Rome, Greece, and of course any Eastern countries. People were publicly defamed and in many cases killed for as much as considering these old ideas and teachings. These teachings really didn\u2019t come back to light until the Italian Renaissance in the 14th century.<\/p>\n<p>So when people did things the Christians couldn\u2019t explain, they blamed it on Witches; people they believed to be inhabited by the devil, sent to earth to wreak havoc on every God-fearing man, woman, and child. So what did they do? Imprison or kill those people.<\/p>\n<p>Now, here comes Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin, who all agree to take pureblooded witches and wizards and teach them. But then they have to discuss magical folk who aren\u2019t born from magic folk.<\/p>\n<p>Gryffindor is brave and brash, and imagines the glory of having an entire society of witches and wizards with great command of their powers.<\/p>\n<p>Hufflepuff is kind and loving, and wants to provide a sanctuary for all those who are under duress from the population at large.<\/p>\n<p>Ravenclaw sees the merit in bringing all these different people together &#8211; the amount of information regarding magic that can be shared is the stuff of her dreams.<\/p>\n<p>Slytherin is cautious. He recognizes that there is a great possibility for individuals to play spy for the Muggle community, in hopes to gain favor by outing them all the while hiding their own powers from muggles. He sees them as a potential threat, and <b><i>instead of risking the safety of not only their own lives,<\/i><\/b> <b><i>but the countless volumes and tomes of ancient wizarding knowledge tucked away in their castle (see The Burning of the Great Library at Alexandria)<\/i><\/b>, Slytherin says\u00a0\u201cI really don\u2019t think we should allow people with connections to Muggles in here. We could lost *everything.*<\/p>\n<p>Gryffindor calls Slytherin a coward, saying they would fight back and beat down any who try to oppose them. Slytherin suggests they do all they can to avoid confrontation. Hufflepuff can\u2019t bring herself to deny that sanctuary she\u2019s built. Ravenclaw sees endless potential in bridging that gap between worlds with learning. And this is what drives them apart. Future racists and pureblooded elitists will take and twist Slytherin\u2019s words, having heard only the story that has been passed down for a thousand years. They use words of caution to justify their want for genocide.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Slytherin isn\u2019t the bad guy, here. And I am so down for clearing his name.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>To continue the crusade to clear the name of Salazar Slytherin, I have more evidence for your consideration. <i>This is regarding the <b>Chamber of Secrets<\/b>.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Now, the scene pictured above is one of Harry\u2019s slightly less dull History of Magic classes, in which Professor Binns is asked to talk about the Chamber of Secrets. What we get from him is that the Chamber is a myth. There is legend surrounding it, no one is sure if it exists, etc etc etc.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img src=\"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/2c6ea4831146eea34323ee24180fd0ef\/tumblr_inline_npa2otdmHg1r7eqfm_540.jpg\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/figure>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Here is the VERY NEXT PAGE in the book, in which Professor Binns again admits to the Chamber (as we know it today) to be a complete myth. We find out, obviously, that the chamber isn\u2019t a myth, <i><b>but I believe that the purpose of the chamber has been fabricated over a thousand years by misinformation and slander<\/b><\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s check it out. Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, and Godric Gryffindor all know Salazar Slytherin and say \u201cyep, he\u2019s an upstanding man. Let\u2019s start this school with him!\u201d For a number of years, they had a school together and it worked out great. What we know is that there was a <i>falling out,<\/i>\u00a0not Slytherin declaring they needed to murder muggle-borns! A disagreement that may have ruined friendships but did little else, I think.<\/p>\n<p>What we know is that one of Slytherin house\u2019s key virtues is self-preservation. As I discussed earlier in the thread on this post is that Slytherin was afraid of muggle-born witches and wizards acting as spies for the larger muggle community during a time in which wizards and witches were killed for their\u00a0\u201cdemon powers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i><b>And so, when it comes to the Chamber of Secrets, I believe Slytherin built a Panic Room, not an Evil Lair.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Think about it. Slytherin is horrified that any day there might be an attack on the school. So he builds a secret chamber that only he (or another parseltongue, an incredibly rare magical ability) can open. He doesn\u2019t want any double agents or spies to know about it, so he tells no one. He hopes, of course, that he never has to use it, but in the event that there is an attack, he can get the school to safety while he sets the basilisk on the attackers.<\/p>\n<p>But I\u2019m sure you\u2019re looking at the basilisk and thinking\u00a0\u201cwhat sane man would put a monster in a panic room?\u201d Glad you asked. I can consider two possibilities.<\/p>\n<p>1) Slytherin put a basilisk that was <b>under his control<\/b> in the chamber, a creature that he could set loose on his enemies, aka, anyone attacking the castle. The basilisk would <i>annihilate any army of thousands just by looking at them<\/i>, and what\u2019s more, <i>it could get almost anywhere in the castle through the goddamn walls<\/i>! That kind of power is exactly what you need to defend your castle. And again, <b>ONLY HE or an heir could control it<\/b>. I\u2019m sure at this point he was thinking about himself and his potential progeny, not Tom Riddle some thousand years later.<\/p>\n<p>2) Slytherin didn\u2019t put the basilisk there, and it was instead placed there later by Tom Riddle while he was at school. I don\u2019t have evidence supporting or disproving this.<\/p>\n<p>So how does this get so misconstrued to modern-day Hogwarts lore? Maybe toward the end, the founders did find out about the Chamber. Maybe Slytherin said something to them, maybe he let it slip\u2026maybe as they were cleaning out his room after he left, they found some journal entries about it. It could have been anything. But perhaps, in their wisdom, seeing no way to access the chamber, felt it best that no one knew about the existence of a (now) useless panic room, nor did they want anyone to worry about the basilisk.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe word *did* get out, though. And not one of the founders wanted to admit that Slytherin didn\u2019t trust their students, and so to most of the student body, Slytherin\u2019s departure was suspect. And the moment they heard about a secret room that no one was quite sure about, they started inventing campfire stories about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Fast forward ONE THOUSAND YEARS and now everyone assumes Slytherin was always evil (despite being a good friend and founder of Hogwarts with three other lovely people) and created a secret evil lair to murder muggle-borns, which he could have easily done without a lair if that was *ever* his intention.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Thank you so much! I\u2019ve been looking for this post. I always felt like Slytherin being a horrible evil bigot never really made any sense historically speaking, and it just doesn\u2019t add up. Although I have to say I don\u2019t put much stock in option 2. The dude could talk to snakes. And as Hagrid will happily tell you, a creature being scary and \u201cmonstrous\u201d doesn\u2019t make it evil. Why couldn\u2019t he be a Hagrid, with a fondness for big \u201cmisunderstood\u201d creepy crawlies? Having a basilisk doesn\u2019t make Slytherin evil in and of itself, any more than Hagrid having an acromantula makes him evil, even if most of wizarding society would condemn him for it. Obviously popular opinion isn\u2019t always accurate.<\/p>\n<p>The conservationist and history nerd in me feels a pang whenever I think about how much of a loss that basilisk was. I know it was being used for murder and that it needed to be stopped, but it\u2019s a knee-jerk reaction to such a huge loss of knowledge. That thing was alive a thousand years ago. It knew one of the original founders of Hogwarts. Any parselmouth could have spoken to it and asked it what things were really like in those days and gotten a first hand account, but unfortunately the only person to speak to it in a millennium was an idiot who only thought about killing people. Did he even think to ask its name? Nagini clearly had a name, but he never refers to the basilisk by name. That\u2019s just\u2026 really sad to me.<\/p>\n<p>I think a lot of people forget that Slytherin house is more than just self-preservation too; loyalty is a core value. Slytherin\u2019s message is about protecting your own more than nearly anything else. Slytherin pushes <i>unquestioning<\/i> acceptance of and loyalty to your fellows, regardless of blood status, even in Harry\u2019s day, according to their welcome message on Pottermore. You very rarely see a Slytherin making a disparaging remark about another Slytherin. You do see even the most bigoted Slytherins (like the Malfoys) being supportive of Slytherins who are much lower on their little social hierarchy than them (like Snape). In Salazar Slytherin\u2019s day, I think he would have extended that loyalty to the whole school and the other founders. They were \u201chis own\u201d, and he would have wanted to protect them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>psychopompious: datvikingtho: datvikingtho: magelet-301: Here it is, canon evidence that Salazar Slytherin was NOT a racist bigot. He was concerned for the well-being and safety of the magical community, which could have been compromised by letting the \u201ccommon people\u201d know that wizards and witches existed. datvikingtho Shoutout to this fine lady for bringing this to &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/06\/22\/psychopompious-datvikingtho-datvikingtho\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[151,43,17012,4426,8433,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148861"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148861"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148863,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148861\/revisions\/148863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}