Godric Gryffindor

Godric Gryffindor
Biographical information
Born	Before 993 Godric's Hollow, England
Died	11th century (possibly)
Blood status	Pure-blood or half-blood
Title(s)	Founder
Physical information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Hair colour	Red
Eye colour	Green
Skin colour	Pale
Affiliation
Occupation	Teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Founder of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
House	Gryffindor
Loyalty	Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Gryffindor

"We'll teach all those with brave deeds to their name."

—Gryffindor's preference of students

Godric Gryffindor was a wizard and one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was great friends with Salazar Slytherin but opposed him when he later thought that they should not accept Muggle-born students at Hogwarts. It is unknown when he died. Gryffindor's birthplace became known as Godric's Hollow, in his honour. Godric Gryffindor's portrait still remains at Hogwarts.

Biography

Early life

"Bold Gryffindor, from wild moor..."

—The Sorting Hat singing about the founders' birthplaces

Gryffindor hailed from a moor which is now known as Godric's Hollow, a small West Country village in England. He was described as being "the best duellist of his time".

Founder of Hogwarts

Said to be one of "the four most brilliant witches and wizards of the time", Godric Gryffindor founded Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in his adulthood, with friends Salazar Slytherin, Helga Hufflepuff, and Rowena Ravenclaw, though he later severed ties with Slytherin. He even appears to have carefully selected members of his own House.

Preferences for students

"By Gryffindor, the bravest were prized far beyond the rest."

—Sorting Hat regarding Gryffindor

Gryffindor is said to have praised courage, determination and strength of heart above all other qualities. Indeed, he selected students for his house based upon their daring and bravery, according to the Sorting Hat. He also was the most in favour of allowing Muggle-borns into the school.

The founders, however, were unsure of how they would Sort the students when they were dead. To solve this, Gryffindor took off his hat and all four of them enchanted it so that it could sort the students long after their deaths. It was, from then on, known as the Sorting Hat.

Gryffindor was initially a close friend of Salazar Slytherin, but over time their friendship deteriorated. After a number of years of working peacefully together, Slytherin eventually grew apart from his fellow founders due to his distrust of Muggle-borns, and his belief that they should not be accepted into Hogwarts. When Slytherin failed to convince Gryffindor and the others to accept his ideas, he chose to leave the school. Unbeknownst to Gryffindor, his former friend built a hidden chamber within the castle, in which he hid a basilisk that his heir would later use to try and purge the school of Muggle-borns.

It is unknown how or when Gryffindor died, though he left an enduring legacy.

Post-mortem

A portrait of Gryffindor hung at Hogwarts Castle guarded a secret short cut between the seventh-floor landing of the Grand Staircase and the Entrance Hall side room. The password required to gain access to said shortcut was Starshine.

Gryffindor left two known relics: a goblin-made sword, adorned with rubies, and the Sorting Hat. The two items share a particular bond; whenever a "true Gryffindor" needs it, the Sword will let itself be pulled out of the hat. Godric's sword was capable of acquiring powers from those it had slain and thus was imbued with venom from Harry Potter's defeat of the Basilisk, making it suitable as a tool for destroying Voldemort's Horcruxes. Albus Dumbledore used it to destroy Marvolo Gaunt's Ring, Ron Weasley used it to eliminate Salazar Slytherin's Locket, and Neville Longbottom used it to kill Nagini, the final Horcrux.

Godric Gryffindor with his sword

Physical appearance

Godric Gryffindor's portrait depicts him as a tall, muscular man with a lion-like mane of wavy red hair and a beard to match. He had green eyes, peach-coloured skin and is often shown with his famous sword, with which he had great skill in wielding.

He has also been shown as wearing segmented red sword gauntlets adorned with gold fittings that are often depicted as being rather worn and burned-looking. He is also shown as wearing magnificent red robes with gold highlights and rather intricate designs on the sleeves. He is also frequently depicted with a rather powerful and stern gaze.

Personality and traits

Godric Gryffindor valued courage, determination, chivalry, and strength of heart, and was described as one of the four most brilliant witches and wizards of his time. He was also tolerant and accepting of Muggle-borns, a point which brought about the end of his friendship with Salazar Slytherin. He was very forward thinking due to his creating the Sorting Hat to preserve the selection of the students after his time. This showcases his cleverness and creativity.

He also had a versatile mindset as he chose to wield a sword as well as a wand, making him a rather dynamic man who deferred to the duelling style of his opponent, muggle and wizard alike. Going along with this, it shows that he was respectful and fair, choosing to wield a sword instead of magic against muggle combatants out of a sense of fair play as magic would be a most decidedly unbalanced weapon in a duel against a simple sword. In addition to showing his sense of fairness, his deference to the duelling style of opponent also shows a need to challenge himself, proving his worth and courage, which became one of the signature traits of his House at Hogwarts.

His threat to unsheathe and use his famous blade against Ragnuk the First and his followers shows that despite his noble heart and good intentions, that Godric was very much capable of taking the lives of sapient beings such as Goblins. This would not have been an uncommon trait for a man of his era or personality due to the constant violence that pervaded medieval Europe and the acceptability of duelling to the death among both wizard and muggles alike.

Magical abilities and skills

• Duelling: Godric Gryffindor was said to be the greatest duellist of his time, and was also highly skilled in Muggle duelling, using his sword in combat. His skill as a swordsman was such that he preferred to duel muggles with his sword instead of his magic, despite magic being the more decisive and powerful weapon.
• Transfiguration: With the help of the other founders, Godric transfigured the Sorting Hat into a sentient artefact to sort students after his lifetime.

Etymology

• The name Godric is an Anglo-Saxon name in form, and can have several meanings, including, "he who rules with God" or "he who rules well".
• His surname is a reference to the half-lion magical beast, the Griffin, a fierce, legendary beast with the body of a lion, and the head and wings of an eagle. The Hogwarts house named after him uses a lion as its symbol. Furthermore, the last part of his surname, "dor", is similar to both the French d'or, "made from gold", "golden", which is one of the colours of his Hogwarts House, or the suffix dore, which means "gift of," in which case the meaning of "Gryffindor" would be "gift of the Gryffin."
• Gryffindor is also a pun on the golden griffin, which is a lion that only has eagle wings, so it has the head and front paws of a lion, and has golden fur and feathers. Even the French for Griffindor, Griffondor is a French homophone for the actual beast, Griffon d'Or.

See also

• Rowena Ravenclaw
• Helga Hufflepuff
• Salazar Slytherin
• Hogwarts founders
• Sorting Hat
• Godric Gryffindor's Sword
• Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Notes and references

Hogwarts Castle
Locations on the seventh floor
Attic · Bean Challenge rooms · Classroom 7A · Classroom 7B · Classroom 7C · Dark Tower topmost cell · Disused bathroom · Divination Classroom · Fat Lady's Corridor · Filius Flitwick's office · Grumpy Staircase · Gryffindor Tower reading room · Gryffindor girls' staircase · Gryffindor Boys' Dormitory · Hall of Hexes · Knights' Room · North Wing · Porticus Olidus · Pungent Passage · Room of Requirement · Runic Corridor · Seventh Floor Corridor · Sybill Trelawney's office · Divination corridor · Staircase to the seventh-floor corridor
Portraits, statues and other artwork located on the seventh floor
Barnabas the Barmy · Bridget Wenlock · Sir Cadogan · Caged monkey · Edward Rabnott · Elephant · Elizabeth Burke · Fat Lady · Flowering almond trees · George von Rheticus · Giraffe · Godric Gryffindor · Healers · Hippopotamus · Journeying wizards · Lachlan the Lanky · Mother and baby · Oraclitus Spheer · Staring Portrait · Three young ladies · Tiger · Two lovers in a graveyard · Valeria Myriadd · Wailing Egyptians · Witch flying to the moon · Wizard in black flowing robes · Wizard in blue · Wizard with a broomstick · Wolfhound

Chocolate Frog Cards
Gold cards: Alguff the Awful | Amarillo Lestoat | Armando Dippet | Albus Dumbledore | Babayaga | Barberus Bragge | Bertie Bott | Billywig | Blodwyn Bludd | Bowtruckle | Bran the Bloodthirsty | Carlotta Pinkstone | Carmilla Sanguina | Common Welsh Green | Cyclops | Cordelia Misericordia | Double-ended Newt | Doxy | Dzou Yen | Eargit the Ugly | Giant Purple Toad | Giant Squid | Goliath | Gringott | Godric Gryffindor | Gytrash | Hermione Granger | Hebridean Black | Hengist of Upper Barnton | Herbert Varney | Herpo the Foul | Helga Hufflepuff | Harry Potter | Hungarian Horntail | Imp | Kelpie | Leticia Somnolens | Montague Knightley | Malodora Grymm | Manticore | Morholt | Mountain Troll | Norwegian Ridgeback | Old Mother Hubbard | Phillipus von Hohenheim | Phoenix | Roderick Plumpton | Rowena Ravenclaw | Romanian Longhorn | Ronald Weasley | Salazar Slytherin | Streeler | Troll | Ug the Unreliable | Unicorn | Urg the Unclean | Vlad Drakul
Silver cards: Alberic Grunnion | Alberta Toothill | Andros the Invincible | Artemisia Lufkin | Blenheim Stalk | Bowman Wright | Chauncey Oldridge | Circe | Cliodna | Crispin Cronk | Cyprian Youdle | Daisy Dodderidge | Derwent Shimpling | Donaghan Tremlett | Dunbar Oglethorpe | Dymphna Furmage | Elfrida Clagg | Felix Summerbee | Fulbert the Fearful | Gaspard Shingleton | Gideon Crumb | Glenda Chittock | Gondoline Oliphant | Gregory the Smarmy | Gwenog Jones | Honoria Nutcombe | Ignatia Wildsmith | Joscelind Wadcock | Kirley Duke | Laverne de Montmorency | Leopoldina Smethwyck | Maeve | Mirabella Plunkett | Mopsus | Morgan le Fay | Oswald Beamish | Sacharissa Tugwood | Thaddeus Thurkell | Thurkell brothers | Wendelin the Weird | Xavier Rastrick
Bronze cards: Adalbert Waffling | Almerick Sawbridge | Archibald Alderton | Balfour Blane | Beatrix Bloxam | Beaumont Marjoribanks | Bridget Wenlock | Burdock Muldoon | Cassandra Vablatsky | Celestina Warbeck | Cornelius Agrippa | Devlin Whitehorn | Dorcas Wellbeloved | Edgar Stroulger | Elladora Ketteridge | Ethelred the Ever-Ready | Flavius Belby | Gifford Ollerton | Glanmore Peakes | Glover Hipworth | Greta Catchlove | Grogan Stump | Gulliver Pokeby | Gunhilda of Gorsemoor | Havelock Sweeting | Hengist of Woodcroft | Heathcote Barbary | Herman Wintringham | Hesper Starkey | Jocunda Sykes | Justus Pilliwickle | Merlin | Merton Graves | Merwyn the Malicious | Miranda Goshawk | Mungo Bonham | Musidora Barkwith | Myron Wagtail | Newton Scamander | Norvel Twonk | Orsino Thruston | Perpetua Fancourt | Quong Po | Roland Kegg | Stoddard Withers | Tilly Toke | Uric the Oddball | Yardley Platt