Quidditch
Quidditch is a fictional ballgame, a sort of magical variant of football or polo, devised by J. K. Rowling in the Harry Potter series of children's books. It was apparently inspired by the Eton Wall Game.
It is portrayed as very popular in the fictional world of Harry Potter. Hogwarts has four Quidditch teams in the books, one for each house in the school. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Harry attended the Quidditch World Cup.
History
It has been suggested that the name "quidditch" is derived from the names of the balls: Quaffle, Bludger and Snitch, though the book Quidditch Through the Ages suggests that the game is named after Queerditch Marsh, where the earliest version of the game was played in the eleventh century.
According to Quidditch Through the Ages, Quidditch began as a simple broom-based game, with players passing a leather ball, the quaffle, which they attempted to place in goals at either ends of the pitch. Soon after, the bludgers were added as charmed rocks, possibly an influence from the Scottish game Creaothceann, in which players attempted to catch falling rocks in a cauldron attached to their heads.
The addition of the Golden Snitch also derived from an earlier wizarding sport, in which wizards attempted to catch a Golden Snidget, a magical bird. In 1269, the Chief of the Wizards Council, Barberous Bragge unleashed a Golden Snidget, offering 150 galleons to the player who caught the bird. The value of 150 points was added as a tribute to this event, though in time the Golden Snidget was replaced with an enchanted ball, as the Golden Snidget became endangered.
A variant of Quidditch, Quodpot, is popular in the USA and the rest of the Western Hemisphere.
Rules
Teams of seven players mounted on broomsticks compete by throwing a ball called the Quaffle through any of three high mounted hoops at either end of the field. Meanwhile, magical Bludger balls actively attempt to unseat broom riders while team members called Beaters may use sticks to direct those balls at opponents.
The game ends when either team's Seeker gets hold of a small golden winged ball (the Golden Snitch). Getting the Snitch is worth 150 points, which is often enough to win the game. Many fans feel that this is a plot device intended to make it possible for Harry Potter to be single-handedly responsible for his house's victories.
House Teams
Gryffindor
Slytherin
Ravenclaw
Hufflepuff
Commentator
League Teams
Reference
Referenced By
4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey | 4 Privet Drive, Little Winging, Survey | Adrian Pucey | Avada Kedavra | Beast Division | Beating the Bludgers - A Study of Defensive Strategies in Quidditch | Bludger | Broom (Harry Potter) | Broomstick | Cedric Diggory | Chamber of Secrets | Cho Chang | Cruciatus Curse | Dark Arts | Dark Magic | Dark Mark | Defence Against the Dark Arts | Defense Against the Dark Arts | Defense Aganist the Dark Arts | Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures | Department of Mysteries | Dobby | Durmstrang | Durmstrang Institute | Eton Wall Game | ExpectoPatronus | Expecto Patronum | Expecto Patronus | Fidelius Charm | Floo powder | Floo system | Forbidden Forest | Fred Weasley | Fred and George Weasley | George Weasley | Ginny Weasley | Gryffindor | Hall of Prophecy | Harry James Potter | Harry Potter | Harry Potter's | Harry Potter/Broom | Harry Potter (plot) | Harry Potter Lexicon | Harry Potter Lexicon (fan website) | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | Harry Potter in translation | Hogwarts | Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry | Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardery | Howler | Hufflepuff | Igor Karkaroff | Imperius Curse | Kennilworthy Whisp | Lee Jordan | Ludo Bagman | Madam Hooch | Magic (Harry Potter) | Magical Schools (Harry Potter) | Marauder's Map | Michael Corner | Minerva McGonagall | Ministry of Magic | Minstery of Magic | Oliver Wood | Pensieve | Phoenix escapes | Pitch | Portkey | Potter, Harry | Powerful truth potion | Professor McGonagall | Puddlemore United | Quidditch Through the Ages | Quod | Quodpot | Ravenclaw | Remembrall | Rita Skeeter | Roger Davies | Seamus Finnegan | Seamus Finnigan | Seeker | Slytherin | The Chamber of Secrets | The Forbidden Forest | Truth potion | Tutshill Tornados | Unforgivable Curses | Veritaserum | Viktor Krum | Wicca/broom | Wigtown Wanderers | Winky
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