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Overview

"I just thought maybe the moment has come just to just to say how it happened. Truthfully. And then I can at least go easy to my bed and think, well the truth's out there. And people can take it or leave it."
     -- Jo Rowling

• The Harry Potter canon
• Illustrations and artwork
• Detailed list of interviews 
• Non-canon sources of Lexicon information
• List of abbreviations
• List of icons used in the Lexicon 

Because of all this careful work on her part, the world Rowling created is rich beyond what can be included in the books themselves. She has written past histories of many of the characters and developed origins and back stories for many parts of her world. For example, she has written that the Death Eaters were originally called the Knights of Walpurgis. The Lexicon's entry on this topic shows the richness of her work:

JKR made this comment during the Jeremy Paxman interview on the BBC, Thursday night, June 19, 2003, while looking at some of her notes on the books: "...here is the history of the Death Eaters and I don't know that I'll ever actually need it -- but at some point -- which were once called something different -- they were called the Knights of Walpurgis. I don't know if I'll need it. But I like knowing it. I like to keep that sort of stuff on hand."

This is a play on "Walpurgis Night" -- April 30th, named for Saint Walpurga (whose feast day is the next day, 1 May, and who is the protectress against witchcraft and sorcery). On Walpurgis Night, witches are supposed to meet in the Harz mountains, especially near the highest point. Incidentally, Walpurgis Night stands opposite the calendar from Halloween. (http://www.hp-lexicon.info/wizards/death_eaters.html)

The 'canon'

The Harry Potter Lexicon is an attempt to catalog in a user-friendly way all the information J .K .Rowling has given us about the world she has created, the universe of Harry Potter. For that purpose, a distinction is made between information which comes from the author herself and that which comes from other sources, whether officially licensed or not. Information which comes directly from Rowling is referred to as "the canon."

The use of the term "canon" to represent the body of work by a particular author, excluding that which is added or derived by others, is not unique to the Harry Potter books. Aficionados of the Sherlock Holmes stories refer to Arthur Conan Doyle's complete stories and novels as "the canon". Holmes fans have been writing fan fiction and deconstructing the tiniest of canon details for decades. The same is true of fans of Tolkien's Middle Earth saga. Potter fans are in good company indeed.

It would never occur to a Tolkien fan to include the animated Lord of the Rings film in their studies of that author's work. No Holmes fan would argue a point about Dr. Watson's skill as an M.D. based on lines from one of the plays or films that have featured the famous detective and his assistant. In the same way, the Lexicon makes a distinction between material which appears in the writings or words of the author and that which is derived from her work, such as the films or the video games. In order to make that distinction clear, it is important to state which sources are considered to be part of the canon and which are not.

The definition of canon is not agreed upon by all fans, however. A strict interpretation of canon insists that only information specifically stated in the books themselves qualifies, and (if you're going to be extremely strict about it) only in the corrected Bloomsbury editions. By that definition, the discussion of the Knights of Walpurgis cited above would not be considered canon.

Most fans are willing to expand the definition of canon to include any information developed by Rowling, whether published in the books or stated in other sources. The Lexicon uses this expanded definition. Since Rowling herself treats the extensive backstory as part of her world, we do as well. Some of the back story is a bit difficult to categorize, of course. For example, can we say that it is canon that a dog-loving witch named Mopsy lives on the outskirts of Hogsmeade? In one draft of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Rowling had Sirius staying with Mopsy in his dog Animagus form. Since Mopsy never made it into the final version, is she canon? We're not sure.

It is important to realize that, there are still inconsistencies no matter how narrowly you define canon. Within the published books there are contradictions. Some of Rowling's comments in interviews simply don't fit with the world she's described in the books. Some dates and other information on the Famous Wizard cards are just not logical. Fans like to assume that there is one true set of facts, and as a result they work very hard to rectify these inconsistencies.

For that reason, the Lexicon prioritizes canon sources. It is important for people trying to better understand the Harry Potter universe that they understand which canon sources are considered "more correct." Below you'll find the list, with the most trustworthy canon sources listed first. The various canon sources on this list are linked to separate pages where they are described in more detail. The abbreviations following the sources are used throughout the Lexicon in endnotes.

Information which has come directly from JKR in either written or spoken form is considered canon. All other sources, including the film version from Warner Bros., are NOT considered official or canon, although some information from them is included in the Lexicon.

After the release of the fourth book, the world of Harry Potter expanded quite dramatically. Rowling sold the film rights of the series to Warner Bros. and also signed merchandising contracts with a number of companies. Rowling was called upon to create some "filler" for the development of the video games and other products. One result of this was the Famous Wizard cards. These cards appeared in the Electronic Arts games and were included in actual Chocolate Frog candy.

The companies who used this information were not allowed by their contracts to indicate that their products included new Harry Potter information, so it can be a bit difficult to determine what is canon in, for example, a video game. However, Rowling announced on her website that she wrote the "original chocolate frog cards," so we can say with certainty that those facts are canon.

Since all of this material was created by Rowling, the Lexicon includes it. However, numerous inconsistencies can be found in these sources, some of which are impossible to rectify. As Rowling makes corrections to the text and adds details on her website, some of these inconsistencies will be ironed out. The Lexicon will attempt to include the latest and most accurate information available.

A note about illustrations and artwork

As products were developed by these various companies, it became necessary to standardize the "vision" of the characters and settings of the Harry Potter universe. The resulting artwork appeared in a variety of places, from product packaging to coloring books. Rowling didn't create that artwork, so it is not canon. The same is true for the illustrations in the Scholastic versions of the book or the cover art for any other version: since they didn't come from Rowling herself, they are not canon. Rowling did create some illustrations for the books. Some of these illustrations appear on her website while others were shown during the "Harry Potter and Me" television special. Because they are directly from Rowling, they are considered to be canon, although they include details never mentioned in the books, such as a goatee on Professor Snape.

List of interviews with J. K. Rowling:

Abbreviation	Date	Interview
ET	25 July, 1998	"Harry Potter Charms a Nation." Electronic Telegraph
AOK1	early spring, 1999	on amazon.co.uk
Ind1	29 January, 1999	The Independent, "The spotty schoolboy and single mother taking the mantle from Roald Dahl"
Con	12 October, 1999	on The Connection radio show
SLG	16 October, 1999	The Star-Ledger, "Harry Potter's creator meets her public: Author J .K. Rowling answers questions from students at a school in Montclair"
WP1	20 October, 1999	Washington Post, "Charmed, I'm Sure."
NPC	20 October, 1999	Q&A at the National Press Club
SFC	30 October, 1999	The San Francisco Chronicle, "Harry Potter's Wizard / Creator of children's book series tours Bay Area"
Sch1	3 February, 2000	on Scholastic.com
HE	8 July, 2000	Fry, Stephen. "Launch Day interview aboard the Hogwarts Express," Bloomsbury Press
SN	8 July, 2000	on Southwest News
Sch2	16 October, 2000	on Scholastic.com
AOL	19 October, 2000	on AOL
BN	20 October, 2000	on Barnes & Noble.com
CBC	23 October, 2000	on Rogers, Shelagh. "INTERVIEW: J .K. Rowling," Canadian Broadcasting Co.
RC	March 2001	with Raincoast Books
CR	12 March, 2001	on Comic Relief website
BP	12 March, 2001	on Blue Peter TV show
HC	20 March, 2001	with the Houston Chronicle
Nr	27 April, 2001	on BBC Newsround
HE	2 November, 2001	on BBC Newsround, aboard the Hogwarts Express
HPM	28 December, 2001	"J .K. Rowling--Harry Potter and Me,", BBC1
NR2	19 September, 2002	on BBC Newsround
Scot2002	November, 2002	"Harry Potter - Harry and me," The Scotsman interview
RAH	26 June 2003	interview conducted by Stephen Fry at the Royal Albert Hall
WBD	4 March 2004	World Book Day online chat
EBF	15 August 2004	Edinburgh Book Festival
PA/dvd	23 November 2004	PA/dvd "Extra"
ITV	16 July 2005	Edinburgh "cub reporter" press conference, ITV
TLC	16 July 2005	The Leaky Cauldron and MuggleNet interview Joanne Kathleen Rowling: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
R4	10 December 2005	conversation with Stephen Fry on BBC Radio 4
BP2	20 July 2007	post-DH chat with kids on the Blue Peter show
Today1	26 July 2007	first part of the post-DH interview on the Today Show (NBC)
Today2	27 July 2007	second part of the post-DH interview on the Today Show (NBC)
BLC	30 July 2007	live online chat with on Bloomsbury's website
PC-JKR1	18 December 2007	first half of the Pottercast with JK Rowling
PC-JKR2		second half of the Pottercast with JK Rowling
YL	30 December 2007	"J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life", ITV (website)

Other non-canon sources for some information in the Lexicon:

• Information from the filmed version of a book is referred to by adding /f to the abbreviation. Therefore the filmed version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is noted as CS/f. Such information is not considered to be canon or official unless it is clear that it originated with JKR herself. Some of the details are mentioned in the Lexicon in the interest of completeness, however.

• Information from the video game version of a book is referred to by adding /g to the abbreviation. Therefore the video game version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is noted as CS/g. Such information is not considered to be canon or official unless it is clear that it originated with JKR herself. Some of the details are mentioned in the Lexicon in the interest of completeness, however.

• References are included from the book The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter by David Colbert. Any such references are indicated with a icon. Page numbers given are from the Berkley trade paperback edition, June 2002.

• The book The Bantam New College Latin & English Dictionary, revised and enlarged 1995 edition by John C. Traupman, has been used in the derivation of some words.

• References are included from the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (NSOED) for the derivation of some words.

• USDA, NRCS. 2005. The PLANTS Database, Version 3.5 http://plants.usda.gov. Data compiled from various sources by Mark W. Skinner. National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

  This database has been used to supply more information about various mundane plants.

• Much of the information in the Muggle Encyclopedia was researched using Smith's biography of JKR (cited as SS_JKRB):
  Sean Smith, J. K. Rowling: A Biography, Michael O'Mara Books Limited, 2001).

• Much of the speculative material, in the form of essays and some notes, is from fans who frequent the Harry Potter for Grown Ups group on Yahoo. The fan art is by a variety of talented artists, all of whom are listed on the pages on which their work appears. They are also listed on the About the Artists page.

• The maps, which are actually fan art as well, were drawn mostly by Steve Vander Ark. A few were contributed by others, and these are carefully credited like any other fan art. Each map is carefully researched, and whenever possible, references from the canon are included below the map.