I WAS going to write a post today about how I'm never, never, never going to graduate (apparently), but then a MAGICAL thing happened. So I'll do that later.
As you may have heard, JK Rowling posted a story about the origins of Ilvermorny, the North American school of witchcraft and wizardry, today. And I know there are issues with the lack of Native American roots in the North American school, I do. But the story she tells us today rings true as the origin of a based-on-European-model-(Hogwarts) school brought by settlers. I'm sure the Native American magic folk had their own (no doubt better) way of doing things before, during, and after Ilvermorny was set up. And I think the story leaves us room for that option.
What I'm really jazzed about is the fact that she placed Ilvermorny on the highest peak of Mount Greylock. Because this means that the North American school of witchcraft and wizardry is literally in my backyard.
I mean literally. I took this picture from my porch.
And, look. I feel like it's my moral duty to set some people straight on some things about the area, already. io9's already complaining about ~of course it's in Massachusetts~ and my fellow Williams alums, as much as I love them, are claiming Ilvermorny for themselves, but I need to be clear.
The *highest peak* of Mount Greylock is in
Adams, Massachusetts. And we *need* this. Badly.
I mean, we've got Susan B. Anthony's birthplace, and that's pretty good. But the people who started and run her museum are of the "SBA was anti-abortion" ilk, and that's....not my jam. Adams isn't ivy-covered. It's an old mill town that's struggling to figure out what it's going to be in the 21st century. North Adams has started to be the new, cool, Art town. Williamstown will always have Williams. All Adams has is the peak of Greylock. (
And it's been trying desperately to get something going in the surrounding glen for decades.)
And now it has Ilvermorny.
So, things to know if you're writing about Ilvermorny and you need a local guide. First of all,
here's an album I made years and years ago for an online friend who lives in N. Ireland and wanted to see what the area looked like (and, okay, yeah, there's some Williams in there too. I do love the place. It's just not Ilvermorny. :D)
Second of all,
the Audubon Society probably has the best map and good information about the mountain and its environs.
And yes, it's basically a hill, but it's the highest point in Massachusetts, which is probably why she picked it.
What is *actually* up at the peak, for us Muggles anyway, is a lighthouse-looking War memorial tower (currently under reconstruction and covered with scaffolding) and
a little lodge that serves lunch and a prix fixe dinner in season. I may go up there sometime this week and get some current pics for you all.
It's also ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE STATE from Plymouth, so it would be awesome if fic set in this setting could acknowledge that fact. ;)
I mean, it takes four hours to DRIVE that distance. In the 21st century. Just sayin'
At present, there is exactly one stoplight in Adams, Massachusetts. There is a McDonalds and a Subway, and a couple of family-owned local eating joints. A diner/pizzeria and a a couple pubs. A decent Austrian restaurant that also used to be an Inn. One elementary school. One charter school (where I used to work), and a regional high school shared with two other towns, and is technically on the town line with one of them. There is a statue of President McKinley (for no real specific reason other than he was a friend of the Plunketts, the big family in town for whom the elementary school is named) in a little traffic circle in front of the library and one of the three Catholic churches in this tiny town of under 9000. One of them is closed now, but the people of the town held vigil in one of the other ones to keep it open. There's a large Polish heritage contingent in town, and St. Stanislaus Kostka's is theirs.
ETA more things I keep thinking of. There's so much that is magical about Greylock. My husband, who isn't really a HP guy, keeps popping up to tell me about the magical things he's seen while he's trail running. There's a great big old hollow tree trunk! There's the
Old Coot of Mt. Greylock!. There's
the Bob's Hill boys and the novels about them.
There's the influence of Greylock on Herman Melville when he was writing Moby Dick, and
Thoreau's walk up the mountain.We literally just had
a Faerie Festival last weekend.
ETA more things, like
this video my daughter's class made. (she's not one of the speakers, but she's in there)
The Thunderbolt, which is a ski run straight down the mountain and used to be used for Olympic training in the 30s and 40s. There's still an annual ski race and town festival around it.
My husband's hiked straight up the Thunderbolt a couple times (the first time by accident because he got off his intended trail.)
I took a pic of the mountain from my porch again today, which is a much clearer day. You can see the Thunderbolt cut right into the side of the mountain. The rockslide to the right of the Thunderbolt is held to be the face of "Chief Graylock," but from what I can tell that rockslide happened in 1990 (I've lived here since 2003), and the interpretation of it as the head of a Native American chief appears to be local legend.
We have lots of street parties in the summer, and outdoor movies projected on the lawn of town hall. Basically: we're Stars Hollow, not Cambridge.
I'm here for more Ilvermorny context details, seriously. Just ask.
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