Albus's OFFICIAL age

[pinnacle]

J.K. Rowling just updated her website's Wizard of the Month (see here: www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/wotm.cfm).

1881 - 1996
Brilliant and often controversial headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Albus Dumbledore is most famous for his 1945 defeat of Grindelwald and his steadfast championing of Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived. Dumbledore's self-proclaimed proudest achievement, however, was featuring on a Famous Wizards Chocolate Frog Card.

That is considerably younger than the projected birthdate of 1840, eh? Just goes to show how much you can trust interviews.

Edit: Just for perspective, I did a few quick calculations -

1936 - Age when Minerva began at Hogwarts (based on JKR's statement that she was "a sprightly 70"): 55 (vs. 96)
1956 - Age when Minerva started teaching at Hogwarts: 75 (vs. 116)
1981 - Age when Harry got his scar/his parents were killed/was brought to Privet Drive: 100 (vs. 141)

I'm reeeaaally kind of out of it today, though, so I hope those are right. Yeah, I know, how hard can it be to navigate HP Lexicon and subtract... you might want to double-check still.

Edit again: Okay, JKR at her best might be even worse at math than me at my worst. I thought it was quite well-established that the school year in HBP ran from 1996-1997? I think we should assume that the 1996 is a typo.



AND - see the timeline I posted below to get your head straight about dates if it needs straightening...

[Leaves of Green]

WoW! Only 115! And here we were thinking he was 150, at least.

[monsie]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing that with us.

[childminerva]

so only about a 40 year gap? much better than the 80 some year gap we had all forced ourselves to accept!

Thanks for posting!

[monsie]

Does anyone remember when exactly we were supposedly told he was 140/150 years old? Just curious.

[esoterica1693]

It was in an interview early on.

I am in the middle of drafting a "vacation" scene in my own ADMM fic, a vacation which Albus, feeling the stresses of VoldWar I very acutely, finds incredibly restorative. I now know one line which will definitely be in it...something like, "This vacation was an absolutely brilliant idea Minerva--I suddenly feel at least 40 years younger!"

[monsie]

esoterica1693 said:

It was in an interview early on.

I see. Thanks.

[McGonagallsGirl]

bahahaha. "40 years younger". That's clever.

[mmadlyinlove]

Wow.... That's interesting... Much closer gap... And makes a lot of my stories bogus now. Hahaha. Interesting how that one fact can make my eye twitch... See? *eye twicthes at thought of all my stories now... bleh... hahaha* ~mmadlyinlove~

[pinnacle]

Follow-up:

I don't know about you all, but the more I thought about it, the more I got confused with the dates and everything. So I made a nice little timeline of his and Minerva's lives, outlining major events and how old both were for each. I hope you'll find it useful if you want to revise your fics/minds! If nothing else, I enjoyed writing it up and am very pleased with it indeed.

SPOILERS from this point on:


Direct download: img406.imageshack.us/img406/1707/admmtimelinefj3.png
Last edit: 09.04.07

Also. Whoa, I saw a whole load of people Not Pleased with the date change, the majority of them elsewhere. Yeah, I agree - to an extent - JKR is bogus with dates. It's a wonder she kept most of it right, even. BUT. Consider the events in DH (which, may I remind you, is 100% canon), with Great Aunt Muriel saying she's 107 and knew the Dumbledores - the previous birthdate of c. 1840 had a lot of people scratching their heads. So this date of 1881 fits the books.

I think some are just setting too much store by what "JKR said" and "that one interview where she stated" and etc. Authors are allowed to change their minds, yet their final published products, save for any typographical errors, remain unchanged. Obviously the website content =/= book canon, but the new birthday is much more harmonious with the books.

monsie, the specific interview where JKR first said he was 150 can be found here (www.accio-quote.org/articles/2001/0301-bbc-rednose.htm). As you can see, that interview was WAY back in 2001, and she obviously wouldn't have had any clear details about HP7. Sidenote: I totally envy her process of writing the books.... ahhh.

esoterica1693 said:

I am in the middle of drafting a "vacation" scene in my own ADMM fic, a vacation which Albus, feeling the stresses of VoldWar I very acutely, finds incredibly restorative. I now know one line which will definitely be in it...something like, "This vacation was an absolutely brilliant idea Minerva--I suddenly feel at least 40 years younger!"

BRILLIANCE. ;D

[monsie]

pinnacle - love the timeline! Very detailed, clear and well done! I'm don't have the memory for dates and such but it all seems to make sense the way you've put it in the that timeline. Also thank you for the link to the interview.

[pinnacle]

*blushes* You can be my new best friend.

I modified a few mistakes in it just now, so if you downloaded it 5 minutes ago, ya might want to look again. If you're OCD about details like me..

[morgainegaunt]

@ pinnacle: Your timeline is brillant. Thanks a lot. *hugs*

[monsie]

pinnacle said:

*blushes* You can be my new best friend.

I modified a few mistakes in it just now, so if you downloaded it 5 minutes ago, ya might want to look again. If you're OCD about details like me..

I would love to!

Thank you for letting me know about the changes. I'm downloading it again now. Btw lol @ OCD about details. I'm like that with my videos sometimes, so I know what you mean.

[ιady ταвz]

god at least theyre no 80+ years apart, this is so mcuh better!

[alter.ego.alana]

I <3 that timeline with a fiery passion.

[McGonagallsGirl]

eeeeeeeeeh.... So....... math-like....


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,;'.]l[ tcyvuhbin;poiouiyuiyutyetytkuygliu;bohigyiftudyrtehjryukfilghklij



*brain dribbles out of ears*

[beMMADfabulous]

*SQUEALS!!*

This makes me very happy. ;D

[Drake]

Grrr... *pokes it*

Well, it's not in the books... so it isn't canon. He's still 150.

[Alexannah]

That can't be right ... must be a misprint ... Albus is supposed to be REALLY old ... and my Muggle grandmother was older than him when she died (she was 107). If wizards live longer than Muggles, how come we have yet to come across a wizard older than that who isn't drinking the Elixir of Life?

I suppose it does make sense in one way - when JKR said that Minerva "was getting on a bit" so someone else became head, I thought, what? She was earlier described as a "sprightly 70".

I always thought the more powerful a wizard, the longer he/she would live for. I don't know if JKR ever said this, but I knwo I picked it up from somewhere. I know Albus didn't die a natural death but he seemed older and tireder to Harry before HBP.

But I don't like it. I mean, the more apart they are by age, the more special their love. And I've always had Albus in my head as 150 or therabouts. And I'm KEEPING him as that age. I'm not revising all my fics. Perhaps later ones, but not until I start writing fics with DH included. Then maybe.

I'm confused now :(

[ιady ταвz]

btw some of the ages are a year off, for example, in May 1998 MM cannot be 73 yet, as her birthday has not come around yet, but she's 72 still i think. Maybe im wrong though . . .

[pinnacle]

Thanks for catching my slip-up, ιady ταвz - at least someone (read: definitely not me) was paying attention! Hopefully that's the last time I have to edit this.

[ιady ταвz]

quite welcome dear, i think its fine now =)

[StormAngel]

Ahhh... This is getting confusing... I need my calculator here. XD

And here I am thinking that he was at least 120