The man later called Salazar is born in Al-Andalus around 950, to Moorish parents of a wizarding family. The Caliphate of Cordoba is at this time at the peak of its power - in the late 970s, it will strike north to take a huge chunk of Christian Iberia, nearly unifying the penninsula.

Things are fairly good for wizards in Al-Andalus. Magic is an accepted part of Islamic folk religion, and (unlike Christianity) isn't viewed as automatically evil. Al-Salazar spends his youth in the libraries of Medina Azahara, learning about both magic and the world, and is favoured by the wizard Caliph, Al-Hakam II.

But the world is not content to simply be learnt about, and Salazar's studies leave him more and more disturbed. There is an implacable hostility between Al-Andalus and the Christian kingdoms to the north (Leon, Navarre), and the pagans aren't much better - Viking raids, though a century past, left a mark on the landscape of southern Al-Andalus. They also scarred Salazar's family, killing his grandparents despite (or even because of) their magic.

Everywhere he looks, Salazar sees the drawing of battle-lines: not just between religions, but between wizard and Muggle. The Frankish wizarding community is siding with Christendom, trying to buy favour for itself by establishing an anti-Caliphate magic centre in the Pyrenees (which will later become Beauxbatons). Over in Eastern Europe, the peaceful Durmstrang College in Scandinavia has been bent by its second master into an anti-Muggle institution aimed squarely at the Vikings (in fairness, Salazar can sympathise with this). And the Vikings are ranging further and further west, promising future tensions with the Maya who view the whole Western Hemisphere as their area of influence.

Around 970, following a certain incident with the Caliph's daughter Lubna of Cordoba (ahem), Salazar begins to travel the world. He visits proto-Beauxbatons, convincing the Frankish wizards to make peace with the Caliphate (though the Caliph's death in 977 and the subsequent invasions of Christendom reverse this). He trains at Durmstrang under Harfang Munter, introducing the Norse wizard to some of the spells used in the Caliphate. He visits the Mountains of the Moon, learning from the African wizards - and uses their expertise in astronomy to undertake a perilous journey to the New World.

Salazar's adventures in Mesoamerica and North America are numerous. He learns to perfect his inborn skill at Parseltongue, and uses it to meet with the ancient Feathered Serpent who lives in the Mayan lands. This turns out to be a Basilisk, which Salazar befriends to the point that it grants him a sliver of its horn to use in his wand.

Salazar departs, promising the Mayan wizards that he will prevent any Viking incursions into their lands. To this end, he travels first to Iceland, and then to Ireland. In 980, he stands with High King Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill of Ireland at the Battle of Tara, driving the Vikings out of the Kingdom of Dublin. Then, he journeys to neighboring England.

Why England, and not Scandinavia itself? Three reasons. First, he trusts Durmstrang to keep a lid on things in the Norse lands. Second, he's very concerned by the 'peace' that has sprung up between the Saxons and the Norse - it looks likely to end with the Norse simply taking over the whole of England. Third, there is a prophecy uttered many years ago - a very confusing one, saying things like 'Four must come together for Three to arise, but One will walk a different path' - that suggests Britain is definitely a place to watch.

He enters Britain in the east, on the edge of the ancient Fens, and in the heart of the former Danelaw. It becomes clear that his suspicions are correct - the Viking settlers are seething with resentment at the Saxon king Aethelred, and it is clear that revolt is not far away. Danish raiding parties already harry the English coast, striking all along the south coast. Salazar tries to calm things down, but he is outed as a wizard, and driven from the Fens. He heads west, towards Winchester and the court of King Aethelred, seeking the famous Champion Godric Gryffindor...

Or something like that. Obviously none of this is from the books (which don't even say how old the various schools are), but it serves as backstory to the hypothetical Salazar series. With that in mind - how well does it hold up to both history and canon?

hS

It's been quite a while since I read The Once and Future King for high school, but I do remember Merlin explained his knowledge of the future by telling Arthur that he experienced time backwards—his memories start at his death. Moving that into the Wizarding World's universe, it sounds like it could be the bizarre results of an untested curse or potion that used Merlin as a test subject—or perhaps even a failed early model of what would go on to become the time turner? Regardless of the actual process or event, it's very clearly magic that involves time in some way. Perhaps another side effect of the living-backwards is a dramatically extended life span, even by wizard standards? Then he can still serve King Arthur in the fifth century, closer to his actual birth—the end of his life, from his perspective—but also would have needed to be trained in magic much later in history, closer to his actual death. By the time Hogwarts opened, he was already an established powerful wizard from everyone else's perspectives, and the founders surely wouldn't have turned him away from enrolling, strange as the request must have seemed.

(Merlin's experience of life must have been difficult. Was he "born" on his death bed unable to talk? Did he have to be taught how to walk and eat? And think of Hogwarts's year structure: the seventh year classes must have been insanely difficult for him, not yet having experienced the basic foundations in the classes of any earlier years.)

—doctorlit, acknowledging that there's ultimately no evidence to this theory on the Potter end.

Question 1

I am inclined to believe they did. Maybe not from the very childhood (like Slytherin; I doubt he carved his wand at the very old age of eleven... Also, he might've just travelled for a plant with particular symbolism), but there is a passage from the Wiki's page on Godric Gryffindor, which I believe was taken from Rowling's official site before it redesigned:

"He also had a versatile mindset as he chose to wield a sword as well as a wand (...)"

The only mention of Rowena Ravenclaw's wand is from the Philosopher's Stone video game, but that's a dubious source.

Also, Helga Hufflepuff came from Welsh valleys, not Scandinavia.

Question 2

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (which, again, might be a dubious source, but I believe it had Rowling's supervision?) kinda answers this one - the castle was designed and built by Rowena and an unnamed wizard architect



So, while I like the idea of the ancestral Ravenclaw House being used, I doubt it.

Question 3

- the Scouring Charm, Scourgify, comes from English.
- Alohomora apparently comes from West African Sidiki dialect
- Pack, used by Tonks

And the Sorting Hat once again comes to the rescue, placing Slytherin's birthplace as "fen".

Question 4

I... I have nothing here. The entire "Merlin and Hogwarts" thing is paradoxical enough.

Question 5

This is another one of the 'maybes', but I'm gonna use my linguistic knowledge to explain this one:

There are two most common reasons for adopting words and phrases (and spells I guess?) from another language:
a) Necessity - when there is no word or phrase in your native language that would describe the phenomenon/object/etc.
b) Fashion - when something from the other country is viewed as prestigious, fancy, luxurious, the adoption of the foreign term and replacement of the native term might occur.

And now I'm gonna go with a hypothesis pulled straight outta nowhere:

"Danelaw: a part of England in which the laws of the Danes held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons." Danelaw appeared as early as the 9th century. And the two parts did held non-hostile relationship, as evident by many Old Norse words entering the English language.

On the Wizarding side, one factor was, as you mentioned, the appearance of Ollivander Prime, who established his famous shop and gained popularity due to his Roman wandmaking technique. In real life Scandinavian Magic, wands weren't used; instead, sorcerers would mostly use a distaff, a tool used for spinning flax and wool. But just encountering wands wouldn't be enough as, fun fact, the word 'wand' comes from Old Norse "vǫndr", and might be related to "wind".

But the spells produced by wands are a different thing. Perhaps the Scandinavians didn't know half as many convenient spells as the Britons did and the effects couldn't be achieved with the use of a distaff, so they were forced to switch to wands and use words associated with wands.