Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis

Harry Potter joins Winnie the Pooh and Paddington Bear in what may seem one of the oddest and most quixotic enterprises of modern times, translations into Latin. Who does Latin nowadays? And what place can it claim on the overcrowded school curriculum, in competition with such arcane, abstruse and taxing areas of learning as Citizenship? A deserved one, some of us might say, if we remember the old grammar school curriculum and realise, as I do, that apart from bits of Maths the only stuff from all those hours that we still gratefully use is Latin and French. Something of the mystique of Potter is shown up by the pedantic dignities of Latin. ‘Albus Dumbledore, currently Headmaster of Hogwarts. Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times,’ takes on extra wizardly glory when he becomes ‘Albus Dumbledore, nunc Praeses Scholae Hogvartensis. Magus nostrae aetatis maximus, ut fert opinio multorum hominum.’ Rowling’s creation has many relatives, living and dead. A modern one may be Ang Lee’s film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but older ones are the heroic stories of classical Greece and Rome. If a few children, using side-by-side copies of this book and Harry’s first adventure in English, are captivated by the magic of language as well as the magic of wands, this will count as a publishing Good Deed. Teachers who can should try it.