Recently I have been rereading the Harry Potter series in
order to give me something to do while I’m at work and after taking this class
I was kind of surprised about how many of the themes and ideas that we
discussed in this class appeared throughout the books. One of the ideas that appeared in these
books was the idea of mysterium tremendum and mysterium fascinans, particularly
in relation to the Forbidden Forest.
The Forbidden Forest is a large forest on Hogwarts grounds and it
contains countless magical creatures and other unknowns. Through J. K. Rowling’s imagery of the
forest throughout all of the books the forest is described as a place with many
wonders and beautiful creatures, but at the same time filled with unknown
horrors that make entering it a possibly terrifying experience. Because of
these two characteristics of the place, it gives it a sense of having some sort
of power that in the book is described as magical, but in a more general sense
is very similar to the divine.
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