The Significance of the Quidditch World Cup

An original editorial by Hillary

The superbly awesome JK Rowling never does anything without a purpose. Just think back to PoA where she so ingeniously had Dumbledore say that Trelawney made two correct predictions. Although these little clues don’t pan out for several books, JKR’s wording is still very important.

Let’s look at another, more symbolic case. In GoF, why was it important for Ireland to win, but for Krum to get the Snitch? How did Fred and George guess that this would be the outcome?

Let’s look at the scenario as symbolic. Who do our heroes root for? Ireland. Therefore, let’s call Ireland the “good side.” By default, Bulgaria becomes the “bad side.” Isn’t it ironic that Ireland is very near Great Britain (where our heroes live), and that Bulgaria is quite near Albania (the last refuge of Voldemort)? Now that we know what each side represents, let’s look at some comments made by our heroes.

After the match, Ron asks why Krum caught the Snitch. After all, Bulgaria would still lose. Harry replies that Krum knew he would lose in the end, he just wanted to end it on his own terms. And why would Bulgaria surely lose? Because the Irish chasers were too good. They worked well as a team.

Let’s replace the Quidditch players with characters from the story. Krum would then be Voldemort (not to say that Krum is evil, just that he represents the Dark Lord), and the Irish chasers would be Harry, Ron, and Hermione (it fits well, doesn’t it?). So, Voldemort loses and ends the war, knowing that Harry, Ron, and Hermione are such a fantastic team, that he could never beat them.

Other instances in the game lend themselves to this theory. For instance, Krum performs the Wronski Feint causing great injury to the Irish Seeker. In OotP, Voldemort plants a false vision in Harry’s mind (the Wronski Feint), which causes the death of Sirius (the Irish Seeker).

If this theory holds true, it’s interesting to note that, although Ron is an Irish (good) supporter, he is fascinated by Krum (Voldemort). Could this be a sign of things to come?

In the long run, my theory is incredibly vague and may very well be disproved, but it’s still interesting to look at the very deliberate wording of this Quidditch game.

10/15/04

Posted by: Sara

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