Rowena Ravenclaw

> "*Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure.*"
> ― Ravenclaw's philosophy[source]
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**Rowena Ravenclaw** (fl. c. 993) was a Scottish witch and one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was noted for her intelligence and creativity.

Ravenclaw died sometime in the eleventh century, after she fell fatally ill. Legend had it that a broken heart is the cause — because her daughter Helena ran away with her diadem. Rowena's portrait remains at Hogwarts.

## Biography

### Early life

> "*Fair Ravenclaw, from glen….*"
> ― The Sorting Hat on Ravenclaw's birthplace[source]
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Rowena Ravenclaw was born sometime in the tenth century. She was from the glens of Scotland, She was both born into and married into the Ravenclaw family. Rowena was a close friend of Helga Hufflepuff, from the Welsh valleys.

At an unknown time and by unknown means, Rowena acquired a wand. It is possible she purchased it from the Ollivander family, who had been in the wand-making business since 382 B.C., or made it herself.

### Hogwarts founder

> "*You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago — the precise date is uncertain — by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school Houses are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin.*"
> ― Cuthbert Binns teaching Hogwarts' history[source]
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United by the common goal of creating the world's best magic school, Rowena Ravenclaw and her good friends Helga Hufflepuff, Godric Gryffindor, and Salazar Slytherin built Hogwarts Castle together and established Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry sometime around 993. It is a popular historical theory that the location and name of Hogwarts were both chosen by Rowena, who dreamt that a warty hog was leading her to a cliff by the lake. She also came up with the ever-changing floor plan.

Rowena selected her students according to intelligence and wisdom. Ravenclaw House therefore values a sharp mind, wisdom, creativity, and cleverness in its members. At some point, Rowena bore a daughter, Helena, who was taught by Rowena herself at Hogwarts.

After a time in which the school enjoyed great prosperity, Rowena's fellow founder Salazar Slytherin proposed a controversial action in which Muggle-born students should not be admitted to Hogwarts based on their heritage. Ironically, a large percentage of Ravenclaw's own house were of Muggle descent. She and the rest of the founders refused Slytherin's plan and the problem escalated to such degrees that Salazar ultimately left the school permanently.

### Later life and death

> "*I stole the diadem. I sought to make myself cleverer, more important than my mother. I ran away with it. My mother, they say, never admitted that the diadem was gone, but pretended that she had it still. She concealed her loss, my dreadful betrayal, even from the other founders of Hogwarts. Then my mother fell ill — fatally ill. In spite of my perfidy, she was desperate to see me one more time. She sent a man who had long loved me, though I spurned his advances, to find me. She knew that he would not rest until he had done so.*"
> ― Helena Ravenclaw's ghost reminiscing on her past[source]
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At some point after her graduation from Hogwarts School, her daughter Helena stole Ravenclaw's diadem, which was said to enhance the wearer's wisdom. Helena was jealous of her mother's famous intellect and took the diadem with her to Albania, far away from her mother's reach, in hopes of surpassing her. Ashamed of her daughter's betrayal, Rowena opted to keep her daughter's treachery a secret from others and denied it even from her fellow founders.

Shortly afterwards, Rowena fell fatally ill. Disregarding her treason, she asked the Baron, who was in love with Helena, to go and find her daughter, merely wishing to see her one last time. He eventually tracked her to a forest in Albania but when she refused to return with him, the Baron flew into a fit of rage, furious at her refusal and envious of her freedom, and stabbed her. Immediately overcome with guilt, he then took his own life. The two would later become, respectively, Ravenclaw and Slytherin house ghosts. Thus, Rowena apparently didn't get the chance to reconcile with her daughter before their untimely deaths, unless her daughter's ghost returned to the castle before Rowena's own death. Legend had it that a "*broken heart*" added to her early demise. This story may have had origin in her estrangement with her daughter. Rowena was the first of the founders to die.

### Legacy

Rowena's stolen diadem would remain hidden in its lonely locale for centuries until the mid 1900s, where her daughter's ghost was charmed by Sytherin student Tom Riddle into revealing its location. Acting on this information, Riddle took the diadem from its hiding place and defiled both it and the memory of Ravenclaw by turning it into a Horcrux. The defiled artefact was then hidden within the castle Rowena had helped build for years more until it was indirectly destroyed by Harry Potter during the Battle of Hogwarts in 1998.

According to the questionable publication *The Quibbler*, Rowena also developed a strategy for traversing the tricky stairs of the Grand Staircase.

## Physical appearance

From her statue in Ravenclaw Tower and Xenophilius Lovegood's bust of her, Rowena was a beautiful yet austere-looking and slightly intimidating woman. She was tall, had pale skin, dark eyes, and long black hair.Rowena spoke in a pronounced Scottish accent.

## See also

* Godric Gryffindor
* Helga Hufflepuff
* Salazar Slytherin
* Hogwarts founders
* Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem
* Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

## Etymology

* In Welsh poetry, Rowena is named "mother of the nation", which could link in to her being a founder of Hogwarts. She also is another character whose name surfaces in the great epic *Ivanhoe*. Rowena is a Latinised form of an old Germanic name: "Fame" (cf. the Anglo-Saxon hrōd, or hrōð), and "Joy", (cf. the Anglo-Saxon wyn(n)), or "Friend", (cf. the Anglo-Saxon wine). Rowena, Queen of Britain, is a figure in Britain's traditional history; she was supposedly the daughter of Hengest and the wife of Vortigern.
* Other character of the same is Lady Rowena Trevanion from the short story "Ligeia" by Edgar Allan Poe (who also wrote "The Raven") whom the narrator marries after the death of his first wife with raven-colored hair. When Lady Rowena dies, he watches as she comes back to life in the form of his first wife.
* Ravenclaw is simply 'raven' + 'claw'. A raven is a large black bird that belongs to the crow family. However, Ravenclaw's symbol is an eagle. Ravens and other birds of the corvid family are known to be smart birds and quick learners.