What does JK Rowling say about Dumbledore?
Here’s an interesting round-up of everything JK Rowling has said about Albus Dumbledore:
Dumbledore has a scar on his left knee which is a “perfect map of the London underground.
‘Dumbledore’ is “old English word meaning bumblebee. Because Albus Dumbledore is very fond of music, I always imagined him as sort of humming to himself a lot.”
# Dumbledore is the “epitome of goodness.”
# ‘Dumbledore’ was an old English word for Bumblebee
# McGonagall is 70, and Dumbledore is 150. Wizards have a longer life expectancy than muggles.
# Why did Dumbledore have a look of triumph in his eyes at the end of book four?
JKR: “Good question … excellent, in fact, and like all the best questions I get asked, I can’t answer it! Because it would give too much away. However, well-spotted. Have fun guessing … someone’s bound to get it right!”
# JKR: “What’s very important for me is when Dumbledore says that you have to choose between what is right and what is easy. This is the setup for the next three books. All of them are going to have to choose, because what is easy is often not right.”
# Why does Professor Dumbledore allow Professor Snape to be so nasty to the students (especially to Harry, Hermione, and Neville)? JKR: “Dumbledore believes there are all sorts of lessons in life … horrible teachers like Snape are one of them!”
# JKR: “Dumbledore often speaks for me.”
# If JKR needs to tell the readers something, she lets Hermione or Dumbledore say it.
# SF: I don’t know how many boys and girls are aware that a lot of names have very particular meanings Albus Dumbledore is on the side of light and his name means white.
JKR: Yes, white and wisdom as well
SF: And wisdom from “Alb.” And in Britain, Albion was an old name for a Briton.
# “I don’t want to give too much away, but Dumbledore is a very wise man who firstly knows Harry is going to have to learn a few hard lessons to prepare him for what maybe coming in his life, so he allows Harry to do a lot of things he wouldn’t normally allow another pupil to do and he also unwillingly permits Harry to confront a lot of things he’d rather protect him from but as people who have finished Order of the Phoenix will know, Dumbledore has had to step back a little bit from Harry in an effort to teach him some of life’s harder lessons.”
# Dumbledore thought the DADA job would “bring out the worst in Snape.”
# Dumbledore has heard and believes Snape’s story as to why he should be trusted.
# JKR: “If Dumbledore had been Harry’s grandfather, why on Earth would he have been sent to live with the Dursleys?”
# Dumbledore’s patronus is a phoenix.
# Dumbledore’s brother Aberforth is the barman at the Hog’s Head in Hogsmeade.
# The second question we should be asking is “why Dumbledore did not kill or try to kill Voldemort in the scene in the ministry.” Dumbledore did not give the real reason.
# Someday we may find out how Dumbledore got his scar shaped like the London Underground.
# What did Dumbledore’s Howler to Aunt Petunia mean? (”Remember my last?”)
Dumbledore is referring the letter he left for Petunia upon the Dursleys’ doorstep (along with Harry). It was his “last” because there were letters to Petunia before that. A day later, JK clarified that Dumbledore was not thinking of school letters he sent to both the Dursleys.
# Dumbledore is not Ron or Harry “from the future;” no book character has returned from the future.
# Dumbledore has not requested the school song since book 1 because he has not felt as “buoyant;” times are getting darker. If he ever “suggests a rousing encore,” you can assume he is on top form once more.
# The Order communicates by Patronus; Dumbledore taught them how to do this.
# Jo agrees that Dumbledore can seem trusting almost to the point of recklessness.
# We will earn more about Dumbledore’s backstory in Book 7.
# Dumbledore’s “wisdom has isolated him … where is his equal, where is his confidante, where is his partner?”
# Although McGonagall is a worthy second in command, she is not Dumbledore’s equal.
# Dumbledore is detached and likes to let people solve problems on their own. He thinks “let’s wait and see if he can work this out.”
# JK won’t tell us what Dumbledore would see in front of the Mirror of Erised, or what his boggart is, though we might be able to guess the boggart from clues in Book 6.
# It is possible that we will find out what spell Dumbledore was trying to cast on Voldemort in the Ministry.
# “Draco would not have killed Dumbledore.” [Read the whole quote from the Leaky Cauldron, 2005]
# JK won’t tell us if Dumbledore was planning to die. “I have to give people hope.”
# Dumbledore is primarily self-taught. He also had access to superb teachers at Hogwarts.
# JK: “Dumbledore’s family would be a profitable line of inquiry.”
# Dumbledore’s line “the prophecy is significant only because you and Voldemort choose to make it so” is a key point in Book 6.
# Dumbledore’s “gleam of triumph” (GoF) will be enormously significant to Book 7.
# Dumbledore’s guesses about how to kill Voldemort are “never very far wide of the mark.” Harry will need to get rid of four horcruxes, and then “go for Voldemort.” Dumbledore has given Harry “some pretty valuable clues” and Harry “has amassed more knowledge than he realizes.”
# Dumbledore is about 150.
# Dumbledore and Flamel “became friends during Dumbledore’s lifetime, they hadn’t been friends from boyhood.”
# Fawkes has always been owned by Dumbledore. JK will not answer a question about his role in the next book “which probably gives you a big clue.” Fawkes is Dumbledore’s possession, not a Hogwarts possession.
# Jo is implying that Dumbledore had a hand in ending WWII when he defeated the dark wizard Grindelwald.
# Dumbledore regretted that it was he “who had the burden of knowing.” He would “rather not know.”
# She didn’t enjoy killing the character who dies at the end of book 6, but it wasn’t quite as poignant as we may have imagined because she had planned it for years and had already done her grieving.
# Dumbledore had to die because ‘In these sort of epic sagas, the hero eventually has to fight alone’, although Harry still has his two faithful sidekicks. Fundamentally, Jo is saying ‘the old wizard always gets it’.
# When asked about Draco, Jo said that all of her main characters except for Voldemort can be considered redeemable.
# Harry believes that Draco would not have killed Dumbledore even if he had all the time in the world. Indeed he would not have; this will have implications for Draco’s future.
# Dumbledore will not “do a Gandalf;” he is truly dead.
# JKR: “Why did Dumbledore have James’ invisibility cloak at the time of James’ death, given that Dumbledore could make himself invisible without a cloak?” is an important question that no one has asked her (”NAQ”).
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POSTED IN: Dumbledore, JK Rowling
1 opinion for What does JK Rowling say about Dumbledore?
Aoife
Jan 18, 2008 at 10:09
“Why did Dumbledore have James’ invisibility cloak at the time of James’ death, given that Dumbledore could make himself invisible without a cloak?”
godd question but i think its because he wanted to see if it was one of the hallows since he and Grindelwald wanted to find all three of them..its all in the 7th book and thats why i think he had the cloak?! =]
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