Focus on Harry Potter: Hedwig

by Wendy on July 23rd, 2007

Hedwig is the name of Harry Potter’s owl in the fictional Harry Potter series of books and films.
Hedwig is a gift to Harry from Hagrid in the first book of the series, purchased in Diagon Alley while shopping for supplies for Harry’s first year at Hogwarts. The name Hedwig is a name Harry found in his school book “A History Of Magic”.
Hedwig carries messages for Harry: to Hagrid, from the Dursleys, and from Hermione even when she was on holiday in France. She is an extremely competent post owl: “Wherever Dumbledore was, though, Harry was sure that Hedwig would be able to find him; Harry’s owl had never yet failed to deliver a letter to anyone, even without an address”.
At Hogwarts, Hedwig lives in the Owlery. Even when she doesn’t have a message for Harry, she drops by with the rest of the morning post owls to nibble his ear and have a bit of toast before going off to sleep for the day.
Hedwig is exceptionally intelligent for an owl, being able to follow more complex instructions such as to “keep pecking them until they’ve written decent-length answers”, and to send packages addressed to “Snuffles” to Sirius. She also fought to get away from Umbridge, despite being wounded, although Umbridge managed to get the letter, suggesting that she is capable of loyalty and other “human” emotions.

And here’s a beautiful video of an orchestra playing “Hedwig’s Theme”:

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