Sunday, 7 April 2024

HEDWIG & PIGWIDGEON, OWL'S INTELLIGENCE & LOYALTY

Today, The Fosters and The Grandma have known Hedwig and Pigwidgeon, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley's owls. They are intelligent loyal animals who serve and protect Harry and Ron.

Hedwig is a Bubo scandiacus, a gift from Rubeus Hagrid to Harry.

Pigwidgeon is a miniature scops owl, responsible for the handling of Ron's mail. He was a gift from Sirius Black after the loss of Ron's pet rat.

Hedwig is Harry Potter's pet snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus). Hedwig was an 11th birthday gift from Rubeus Hagrid to Harry. Hagrid purchased her at the Eeylops Owl Emporium. In addition to delivering mail, the typical use owls are put to, Hedwig was also a close companion to Harry. She remained one of his closest friends.

It was Rubeus Hagrid, while helping Harry Potter purchase his school supplies, who bought Hedwig as a birthday present for Harry in Diagon Alley. Harry was obviously delighted with his new pet and was very grateful to Hagrid. This was the first birthday present Harry had ever received, as the Dursleys never celebrated his birthday. He very quickly grew attached to her.

Harry decided to name her Hedwig after an individual he saw mentioned in A History of Magic. In the days before arriving for his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry avoided the Dursleys by staying in his room. Hedwig stayed with him during this time, his only friend at 4 Privet Drive.


Throughout her life, Hedwig fulfilled the traditional owl's function of delivering mail for Harry, but was also a loyal and affectionate companion; her usual way of showing affection was to gently nibble his ears or fingers.

She also demonstrated that she was fully capable of understanding his wishes and would faithfully follow his orders, such as when he instructed her to find and peck Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger to prompt them to write to him during the summer holidays.

Hedwig was resourceful and intelligent. She once flew to France to get Hermione's thirteenth birthday present to Harry while the former was on holiday there with her parents. During Hedwig's journey, Harry relocated to the Leaky Cauldron, having stormed out of Privet Drive after a particularly bad argument.

Despite not being in contact with Harry, Hedwig did not return to Privet Drive, but went directly to the Leaky Cauldron, arriving five minutes after him, according to Cauldron's landlord, Tom. Further evidence of Hedwig's resourcefulness is found in the fact that she didn't need a specific address to deliver messages, a name alone was sufficient.

Hedwig was a proud and dignified owl. She responded to the behaviour she considered inappropriate by staring or hooting reproachfully. She would sometimes show her displeasure physically, turning her back on Harry, showing him her tail, cuffing him with a wing, or even nipping him a little harder than usual if she was offended. In particular, she seemed disdainful of the hyperactive behaviour of Ron Weasley's pet owl Pigwidgeon.

More information: Wizarding World

In the holidays between Harry's first and second year at Hogwarts, while staying at the Dursleys, Vernon forced Harry to lock Hedwig in her cage, sometimes for weeks at a time to prevent Harry from sending messages to his freaky little friends. This caused Hedwig to grow bored and frustrated, a feeling Harry mirrored.

Harry felt forgotten by his friends and mused that Hedwig was the only proof he had that the wizarding world was real. When the Weasley twins, Fred and George, arrived to rescue Harry from Privet Drive in the flying Ford Anglia, Hedwig flew behind the car all the way to the Burrow.

In subsequent summers, Hedwig's frustrated hooting convinced the Dursleys to allow Harry to let her out to fly, on the condition that he didn't use her to send messages. However, Harry sometimes ignored this instruction, possibly dismissing it entirely after meeting Sirius Black and gaining leverage over the Dursleys.



In the build-up to the Second Wizarding War, Hedwig was constrained in what she could do for Harry, due to the fact that snowy owls aren't native to Britain, which made her conspicuous; this could potentially raise suspicions if onlookers witnessed a Snowy owl always going back and forth from a specific location.

A specific instance of this was during Sirius Black's evasion of the Ministry of Magic.  

Hedwig was keen to deliver messages, but Harry refused to put her at risk and this led to a minorfalling out between them.

Hedwig was attacked by associates of Dolores Umbridge in an effort to intercept Harry's mail, requiring Dobby and Professor Grubby-Plank to nurse her back to health. Harry owned Hedwig throughout the rest of the school year.

Hedwig brought Harry Potter a brand new copy of Advanced Potion-Making from Flourish and Blotts, which was intended as a replacement for the Half-blood prince's copy, but he did not use it nonetheless.

Hedwig was very loyal to Harry and frequently displayed affection for him by nipping him gently. She sometimes fell out with her master, but they always made up with each other before long. Hedwig obeyed Harry's requests and even pecked Ron and Hermione on Harry's orders, in order to get them to write back to him.

More information: Wizarding World

Hedwig was a dignified and proud creature and was disapproving of less mature owls such as Pigwidgeon.

Hedwig would also make a lot of noise if she was locked in her cage for too long. Like most owls, Hedwig was a keen hunter and when possible, was allowed to fly outside free and catch food for herself, such as frogs. She would also eat Eeylops Premium Owl Treats.

J.K Rowling found the name St Hedwig in a book of medieval saints. There are two female saints named Hedwig:

Saint Hedwig of Andechs (1174–1243), Duchess of Silesia, who is the patron saint of orphans.

Saint Hedwig (Jadwiga) (1373–1399), Queen (officially King) of Poland. A St Hedwig's Day dedicated to Hedwig of Andechs has been observed on October 16th every year since she was canonised in 1267.

Hedvig ia a Scandinavian name meaning female warrior or battle.

Harry now carried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy owl,
fast asleep with her head under her wing.

J.K. Rowling


Pigwidgeon, also known as Pig, is Ron Weasley's first pet owl. He is a miniature scops owl. Pig was responsible for the handling of Ron's mail starting, he was a gift from Sirius Black after the loss of Ron's pet rat.

After Scabbers, Ron's old pet rat, disappeared, having been found out to be Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, who felt partly responsible for Ron's loss of a pet, sent him Pigwidgeon, nicknamed Pig. Upon receiving the owl, Ron to the surprise of Harry and Hermione actually let Crookshanks sniff him to check if he really was an owl.


Pigwidgeon was named by Ginny Weasley, because she thought the name was cute. Though Ron tried to change it, the owl would not answer to another name. Pigwidgeon was exceedingly hyper, loud, bothersome, very small, and had been known to be a show off for other people, this, however, annoyed other owls, forcing Ron to keep him in his room.

Pigwidgeon was described by Harry as resembling a fluffy snitch. He was usually excited for a job to deliver letters, even though most of the time they were usually heavy for him.

Harry borrowed Pigwidgeon during the Triwizard Tournament to communicate with Sirius who was in hiding at the time. Fred and George Weasley also asked to borrow him in order to support their secretive business venture.

Pigwidgeon was occasionally known to hang around the stairways performing for students. This prompted Ron to call him a stupid little feathery git for his attempts to show off rather than promptly bringing Ron the letters. He also delivered food to Sirius when he was hiding in a cave in Hogsmeade, though not without the help of Hogwarts owls, as the food was quite heavy.

Pigwidgeon travelled with Ron to and from Hogwarts during his years in school, although he stayed at The Burrow when Ron skipped his final year at Hogwarts to accompany Harry and Hermione on the hunt for Horcruxes.

Pigwidgeon means small or petty and also can be spelled pigwidgin or pigwiggin. It combines pig with widgeon two species of duck found in North America and Europe, or pidgeon, another name for the rock dove. English author and poet Michael Drayton (1563-1631) had a male fairy named Pigwiggen in his comical poem Nimphidia.

More information: Screen Rant I & II
 
 
Harry stared at the word "Pig,"
and looked up at the tiny owl now fluttering around
the light fixture on the ceiling.
He had never seen anything that looked less like a pig.

J.K. Rowling

No comments:

Post a Comment