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Mount Greylock, the state's highest peak, is site of a wizarding school in famed J.K. Rowling's wizard series.

Rowling Picks Mount Greylock as Site of Fictional Wizarding School

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ADAMS, Mass. — The state's highest peak was revealed on Tuesday to be the location of a school of wizardry.

J.K. Rowling, author of the immensely popular "Harry Potter" series, released a short story on Tuesday on the history of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at Pottermore.com.

"It stands at the highest peak of Mount Greylock, where it is concealed from non-magic gaze by a variety of powerful enchantments, which sometimes manifest in a wreath of misty cloud," she writes of the hidden granite castle.

The North American version of Hogwarts was founded by Isolt Sayre, an Irish woman of wizarding heritage, who fled to the New World on the Mayflower disguised as Muggle boy to escape her wicked aunt.


She fled the Pilgrims, who had little truck with witchcraft, and later saved two boys whose wizard parents had died. Her journey crossed with that of James Steward, a "no magic," who also had left the Pilgrims behind. The two married, and raised the boys and their own children, creating a school for witchcraft in Massachusetts.

"Isolt and James both lived to be over 100. They had seen the cottage of Ilvermorny become a granite castle, and they died in the knowledge that their school was now so famous that magical families all over North America were clamouring to educate their children there," Rowling writes.

Four wooden carvings at the school represent the houses, via the magical creatures Isolt encountered in the New World: the Horned Serpent, the panther Wampus, the Thunderbird and the Pukwudgie. (No Wizard Gruulach, however, who made his appearance as the protector of Mount Greylock at this past weekend's Berkshire Mountains Faerie Festival.)

This chapter is latest in Rowling's "History of Magic in North America" that's being released piece by piece this week. No word if Mount Greylock will make it into the current trilogy of films based in the United States, which begins with "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" this fall.

The story doesn't give the secret entrance to Ilvermorny — perhaps via the Berkshire Scenic Railway?


Tags: books,   fantasy,   fun stuff,   wizard, witchcraft,   

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Adams Sees No Races So Far

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
ADAMS, Mass. — With less than a week left before nomination papers are due, there are currently no contested seats.
 
Only selectman incumbent John Duval has returned papers. Selectman Howard Rosenberg has decided not to seek re-election. 
 
Rosenberg, who was elected in 2021, said he has chosen not to run again to make room for younger candidates.
 
"I feel strongly, we need younger people running for public office,  as the future of our town lies within the younger  generation. The world is so fundamentally different today and rapidly changing to become even more so. I believe we need people who are less interested in trying to bring back the past, then in paving the way for a promising future. The younger generation can know that they can stay here and have a voice without having to leave for opportunities elsewhere," he said.
 
The only person to return papers so far is former member the board Donald Sommer. Sommer served as a selectman from 2007 to 2010 and before that was a member of the School Committee and the Redevelopment Authority. He ran unsuccessfully for selectman in 2019 and again in 2021 but dropped out of before the election.
 
Incumbent Moderator Myra Wilk and Town Clerk Haley Meczywor have returned papers for their respective positions.
 
Assessor Paula Wheeler has returned papers and incumbents James Loughman and Eugene Michalenko have returned papers for library trustees.
 
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