Information about Muggle

Muggle is the only word used in the Harry Potter series of books by J. K. Rowling to refer to a normal person who lacks any sort of magical ability. The word was used in popular culture and literature prior to the usage by J. K. Rowling. However, the Harry Potter series popularised the word and it has come into common usage in other contexts.

Harry Potter

Muggle is a term, sometimes used in a pejorative manner, from the fictional Harry Potter series of books, the first of which was published in 1997. "Muggle" refers to a person who is a member of the non-magical community. That is to say that Muggles are ordinary people. According to J. K. Rowling, a quarter of the annual Hogwarts intake have two non-magical parents; thus far in canon, there have also been a few children shown to derive from a mixed parentage of one magical parent and one non-magical parent. Children from mixed households families are called half-bloods (strictly speaking, they are 'Literal Half-bloods'); children with recent Muggle ancestry are also called Half-bloods (strictly speaking, 'Technical Half-bloods').

In the Harry Potter books, non-magical people are often portrayed as foolish, often befuddled characters who are completely ignorant to the Wizarding world around them. If, by unfortunate means, non-magical people do happen to notice the presence of magic, a Memory Charm is cast upon them.

Some muggles, however, know of the Wizarding world; the Grangers (Hermione Granger's parents), the muggle Prime Minister (and his predecessors), and the Dursleys (Harry Potter's only living relatives) being just a few of these. Informed muggles generally keep quiet about magic to their uninformed fellows — either out of shame at their connection to magic, or fear of being disbelieved or thought mad or gullible. Some humans who come by knowledge of the magical world unconventionally do spread their knowledge: one man who had been a witness to a dragon attack on a beach told stories to anyone who would listen for years afterwards of the lizard puncturing his lilo.

J. K. Rowling said she created the word "muggle" from "mug", an English term for someone who is easily fooled. She added the "-gle" to make it sound less demeaning and more "cuddly."^[1]

Prior usages

There are several uses of the word "muggle" or "muggles" prior to its use in the Harry Potter novels, arranged in chronological order:

• "Muggle" is the name of the antagonist in Lewis Carroll's 1854 short story "Wilhelm von Schmitz."
• "Muggles" was a slang term for marijuana in the 1920s and 1930s, associated with the jazz scene.^[2]
• Muggles is a tune recorded by Louis Armstrong and his orchestra in 1928.
• "Muggles" is used in a 1946 book Raggedy Ann in the Snow White Castle.^[3]
  • "Muggles" is a character from Carol Kendall's first Minnipins novel The Gammage Cup (1959).^[4] She acts as an initially-unwitting and confused participant in challenging the narrow-minded orthodoxy of the powers that be in Valley Between the Mountains. However, it is her down-to-earth thinking and personal integrity and support from her friends that give them the ability to think outside the square. It is this that gives them the capacity to save their community from an external threat, the Mushroom people. The book's chapters are headed with a series of "Muggles' Maxims" which provide the moral and intellectual spine for the story.
    • "Muggle" is used once to refer to a spliff in Zap Comics No. 0 (published 1971).
    • "Muggles" are a race in "RAH" (later retitled "The Legend of Rah and the Muggles"), a 1984 book by Nancy Stouffer. She claimed that she owned the trademark for the word "muggle", and sued Rowling and her publishers. In 2002, the case was dismissed.^[5]
    • "Muggle-Wumps" is a family of monkeys in "The Twits", a novel by Roald Dahl first published in 1980.^[6]

    Later usages

    The word "muggle" or "muggles" is is used in other contexts, most of which are similar to the sense used in the Harry Potter series of books:
    • "Muggle" was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2003, where it is said to refer to a person who is lacking a skill.^[7]
    • "Muggle" is used in more-common English by those in small, specialised groups (such as hacker culture;^[8] and Pagans, Neopagans and Wiccans^[9]) to refer to those outside the group.
    • "Muggle" (or geomuggle) is used by geocachers to refer to those not involved in or aware of the sport of Geocaching. A cache that has been tampered with by non-participants is said to be "muggled"^[10][11].
    • "Mister Muggles" is the name of the Bennet family dog in the NBC drama, Heroes, first aired in 2006. Mister Muggles is a pomeranian.^[12]

    Related Terms

    • In Sorcerer Hunters, any non-sorcerer (a muggle) is called a "parsoner".

    See also

    • List of Muggles in the Harry Potter series
    • Blood purity (Harry Potter)
    • Mundane

    References

    1. ^ [1] JK Rowling's World Book Day Chat, March 4, 2004
    2. ^ Harry J. Anslinger, with Courtney, Ryley Cooper, "Marijuana: Assassin of Youth," American Magazine, 124 (July, 1937): 19, 150.
    3. ^ Court document:
  SCHOLASTIC, INC., J.K. ROWLING, and TIME WARNER ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY, L.P.,
  Plaintiffs/Counterclaim Defendants, -against- NANCY STOUFFER,
  Defendant/Counterclaim and Crossclaim Plaintiff, -against- ABC CORPORATIONS
  4. ^ Court document:

SCHOLASTIC, INC., J.K. ROWLING, and TIME WARNER ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY, L.P.,
Plaintiffs/Counterclaim Defendants, -against- NANCY STOUFFER,
Defendant/Counterclaim and Crossclaim Plaintiff, -against- ABC CORPORATIONS
5. ^ Court throws out 'Muggles' claims against Rowling
6. ^ The Twits, ISBN 0-224-01855-8 (hardcover, 1980)
7. ^ BBC: 'Muggle' goes into Oxford English Dictionary
8. ^ Jargon File: muggle
9. ^ Faith von Adams, "I Roomed With A Muggle", New Witch Magazine, Issue 5 (Fall 2003) pg. 34
10. ^ Geocaching Glossary (HTML). Geocaching.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
11. ^ (HTML/wiki). GeoWiki. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
12. ^ Heroes episode Fallout