Ravenclaws daughter hid the diadem in Albania
Voldemort dead shade form went to Albania
Quirrell went to Albania following rumors about voldemort.
Peter Pettigrew went to Albania to find voldemort.
Why did bertha jorkins go to Albania?
Why Albania? And if Quirrell could find voldemort voldemort was not hiding that hard.
Hi! I think that the Diadem was in Hogwarts by the time Quirrel came to find Voldemort. As I remember when Voldemort came second time to Hogwarts for the DADA opening, his intention was just to put the Diadem. But maybe Voldemort knew the Albanian forest so well that it proved for him to be a good hiding place. I think that like Peter, Quirrel interacted with other species/monsters that he was so famous for chasing, and they might've pointed to some mysterious activity happening there.
But maybe Voldemort knew the Albanian forest so well that it proved for him to be a good hiding place.
This is kind of confirmed in Deathly Hallows, upon finding out that the Diadem had originally been hidden in Albania Harry's internal monologue goes:
"And wouldn’t those secluded Albanian woods have seemed an excellent refuge when, so much later, Voldemort had needed a place to lie low, undisturbed, for ten long years?"
Damn this makes me want to read hallows again. Such good writing
Agreed, the diadem was at Hogwarts for sure by the time Voldemort’s power broke. Reading between the lines I kinda pictured the following scenario about him in Albania: his power broken, he was fearing for his life. If you are Voldemort, that fear is worse than anything. He was fearing that if discovered in his weak form, he could be destroyed somehow. Imagine if Dumbledore found him, he could just magically contain him into a jar or something lol and that would be it for Voldy for a loooooong time. And if seen in his form, someone (Dumbledore) could realise his big horcruxy secret. Albanian forest was remote, vast, and perfect for hiding because of the animals that dwelled there and he could suck the life of them.
That would've been fun if Voldy got Rita Skeetered into an Unbreakable Jar.
Books would have been less compelling though.
Didn’t Voldemort put the diadem in the room of requirement when he went to hogwarts to apply for defense against the dark arts teacher?
Yes, the second time, as /u/haribo_pfirsich pointed out. Riddle first applied right out of Hogwarts and Dippet said he needed some life experience first. When he came back years later, Dumbledore was headmaster and outright refused him, so Riddle used the meeting to hide the Diadem in the RoR.
I think the interview with Prof Dumbledore was just a pretense. I don’t think Tom Riddle really believed Prof Dumbledore would hire him but Tom needed an excuse to visit Hogwarts.
That’s how I read it anyway.
Dumbledore even alludes to this at one point, I think in HBP, that Riddle coming back to Hogwarts for a "job interview" was suspicious, and Dumbledore feared he wanted to stay in the castle for nefarious reasons under the guise of teaching, which was part of why he refused his application.
The jar 😂
Ah yeah, you're right. Helena thought that she hid the diadem in a tree hollow in Albania, but I'm not sure if she knows what Voldemort did to it.
I think at some point she tells Harry that "there was another who promised to destroy it but he defiled it" So she certainly has some idea of what Riddle did to it
Movie only though....
So with Bertha its selection bias. Any number of wizards traveled to other places that weren’t Albania and had pleasant Voldemort-free vacations. So we don’t hear about them. We hear about Bertha because she was the one who happened to go to Albania and happened to come across Voldemort and thus became relevant to the story.
And she has the relatively good judgment that she agreed to take a nice little walk in the woods with this person who is thought dead by the government for 12 years
Quirrell went snooping around looking for Voldemort's remains (assuming he knew where Voldemort was known to be last spotted, or was tracing the places where Voldemort used to be)
Can someone remind me which book this is in?
I met him when I traveled around the world. A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it.... Since then, I have served him faithfully
From Philosopher's Stone
I do believe however that the fact Quirrell figuring out Voldemort's whereabouts and set out to find him because he wanted to be recognized as the one who caught Voldy is from Pottermore.
I don’t think there’s any actual textual evidence for this other than speculation. Quirrell talks about being possessed by Voldemort in the last chapter of the first book but he doesn’t say what he was doing in the forest.
Expanded on Pottermore.
Isn’t it Philosopher’s Stone?
I've wondered whether Bertha was a descendent of Ravenclaw. I know Sirius says she was an idiot, but her name means "bright" and she has family where Helena Ravenclaw chose to hide the diadem. It's at least two generations, by the sounds of it (I think it's an aunt and a second cousin, so different branches of the family tree). She was also confunded by that point, and we know Voldemort killed an Albanian peasant to make the diadem horcrux. Maybe the peasant was a significant death because they were a Ravenclaw descendent, and Bertha was trying to visit them, but had forgotten they'd died due to being confunded.
Why didn’t any of the death eater looked for him there if it was common knowledge that he was last seen there?
Because the truely loyal ones were in Azkaban or dead. Voldemort himself addresses that in the graveyard to Lucius Malfoy specifically.
Exactly. The ones who would have looked for him were in no position to do so. The ones who could look for him had no intention or desire to do so.
In-universe, Albania seems to have been some kind of remote vacation spot preferred by witches and wizards, maybe because Muggles tend not to vacation there.
Outside the text, Albania was just what Rowling felt like seemed a remote part of the world that few people knew about or where it is.
Muggle here, love Albania as a travel destination. Prespa on the verge of Lake Ohrid if there was any justice in the world, should be considered a true wonder of the world. The Macedonian side is excellent too.
Been to Macedonian side of Ohrid lake and I confirm it is a gem. Albania is becoming more and more popular as a tourist destination in the last few years, because it is cheaper than Spain, Greece and Croatia and the coast is just as beautiful
don't forget, she started the series in the 90s - Albania was going through pretty intense civil unrest/civil war during that time. That wouldn't have been at the top of travel lists in her mind at the time
Which is funny, because Albania is full of resorts and vacation spots! It also doesn’t have much more forested area than most other countries in Europe, so I always found it to be a funny choice, as it is far more well-known for its beaches. I always had this mental image of Voldemort in a floppy beach hat.
ideal answer would have been Siberia or any equatorial rain forest like amazon, Indonesian islands , or central Africa.
hell Tibet or Himalayas would have sounded cool too
You do know that the first HP book came out in 1997 right? In the middle of the Yugoslav wars? While Albania wasn't directly involved in the conflict, visiting Albania in the 90's would have been like visiting Jordan during the Syrian civil war and the war against ISIS. Probably technically safe, but not on the top of most people's minds.
Not to mention that it's just five years after Albania stopped being a communist dictatorship. In this dataset which goes back to 2005 you can see tourism in Albania didn't really become much of a thing until the 2010's. Rowling casting Albania as a far-off strange corner of Europe was very accurate at the time.
I get Transylvania vibes from Albania. Like, I legitimately wouldn't be shocked if Rowling wanted it to be Transylvania but changed it because it was too on the nose. Stoker set Dracula in Transylvania because it was "foreign" while still very much being in Europe. It was as far East as you could go while still being in the "West". Albania is a small, relatively obscure country that not many people knew too much about (especially back in the 1990s), yet it is still in Europe and therefore kind of familiar and it makes sense for stuff to happen there given its closeness to the UK.
I think most people know where Albania is mate
You’re overestimating the average person’s knowledge of geography
Probably not as many as you would think. And more so not back when the books were written.
These days, it’s easy to Google anything and maybe yeah more people know now.
Twenty years ago, Google was just getting started and not everyone could Google in an iPhone.
And Philosopher's Stone was written closer to 30 years ago. Most people in the UK didn't even have the internet at home at the time.
If you'd show a map of Europe without country labels significantly fewer than half of all people would be able to correctly identify Albania.
I think the answer is that J.K Rowling just loves Albania.
Edit: Maybe she wanted a faraway remote enough place and Albania was her choice.
Not to mention Albania could be seen a a more dark less populated area, Transylvania would've been too obvious so required somewhere close and similar
She googled European countries and Albania was first on the list.
Google didn't exist then
She asked Jeeves
And yet the idea behind the joke works despite using a modern neogolism.
The first book was written in 97, and the Kosovo wars started in 98. Could be that JK Rowling saw Albania in the news and included it in her book.
Voldemort stirring shit everywhere he goes even as a fraction of a living being
You just explained in your post why 2 of them went to Albania. So the question is why did literally 3 people go to Albania?
Albania is a country. People go there sometimes. The only reason it kept popping up was because that was where The diadem was.
Helena Ravenclaw hid the diadem there because she didn't think her mother would find it (or others, presumably).
Voldemort returned there after the events that took place prior to the first book.
Bertha Jorkins went to visit her cousin.
he went there in 1981 after he was defeat by a 15 month old baby
Actually he went there when he was still at Hogwarts, to take the diadem for himself and hide it in the RoR.
He went back to Albania because he was vaguely familiar with it and felt like no one would ever look for him there.
Yup. That's why I used the phrase "returned there."
And saying he went there in 1981 isn't wrong and doesn't need correcting. For example, I'm going to Walmart tomorrow. That doesn't necessarily mean I haven't been there before.
I saw. But madamelee must not have understood that this:
Voldemort returned there after the events that took place prior to the first book.
meant what I said, as comment OP was still under the impression 1981 was the first time Voldy was in Albania.
I said 'returned there" as well.
he went there in 1981 after he was defeat by a 15 month old baby
This is what you said.
pretty sure he went there after hogwarts and hid it when he asked Dumbledore for tje DADA spot
He was defeated by the power of love, technically.
But yes. Yes he did.
People go there sometimes
Good thing it was Albania and not Nebraska or something. Nobody goes to Nebraska.
You're missing the point of the question. OP is asking why Albania, a relatively obscure country, is referenced so much in the series. Your answers are literally just "cuz the book says so, duh lmao"
Because Rowling liked using obscure countries in her storytelling.
Again, it’s because that’s where the diadem was hidden. Which the comment explains.
Because the Diadem had to be hidden in a relatively obscure place. So a relatively obscure place is chosen for the purpose. Obviously.
Could you please point out where I said that or even where I paraphrased it in my original comment?
It's mostly tied to the fact that Ravenclaw's daughter ditched the Diadem there. That's why Voldemort went there the first time, that's why he went there as a shade (it seemed like a good place to lay low), and that's why Quirrell and Pettigrew went there- because that's where they thought they'd find them. The first four are fairly logical.
The only coincidence is that Bertha was also vacationing in Albania at the same time as Pettigrew's search, but that's all it is- a coincidence. Contrived for the sake of plot, sure, but believable.
Did bertha jorkins have any other plot significance other than being there at the wrong time? I mean hundreds or even millions of british wizards could have been traveling at that point in time all over the world (apart from the apparently super small population of the WW). We only get to know Bertha, because she was accidentily traveling to Albania at the moment that Voldemort/Wormtail searched for a new victim.
Sorta. She worked for Ludo and went by Crouch’s house and saw Winky talking to Crouch Jr which is what caused Senior to blast her with a memory charm.
So she was already kinda dumb (per Sirius) then Senior accidentally charmed her too hard so she was extra dumb, then she goes to Albania and runs into Wormtail and can’t really fight him off because she’s so dumb and then Voldy breaks the charm to build the world’s most convoluted plan thanks to her info that Jr is alive and free.
It is really VERY wild. If Bertha doesn’t go to the Crouch home to get some papers signed one day, Voldy doesn’t come back quite as effectively. If she doesn’t decide Albania is nice for a holiday, same deal. Also if she wasn’t already believably ditzy it would’ve been discovered that she was memory charmed when she went to work, but because she was already kinda dumb nobody really noticed.
The moral of the story is study, do your homework, don’t be dumb, don’t go to your boss’s house ever, and don’t go to Albania- this advice could literally save the world.
BRB sending notes to myself a la Memento.
Maybe Albania is like the wizarding version of Disney Land
Helena went to Albania because she thought she wouldn't be found there.
Voldemort went to Albania because he knew the forests were an excellent place to hide himself, as he'd spent quite some time there in his youth, looking for Ravenclaw's diadem.
Quirrel went to Albania because Voldemort was rumored to be there.
Peter went to Albania because Voldemort was rumored to be there.
Bertha Jorkins went to Albania to visit her cousin.
Albania is a popular vacation destination for a lot of people from the UK. I’m guess she was familiar with the area, it’s unique history and incredible natural beauty
I think US readers might not realize that Albania is an unusual but not unheard of travel destination in Europe. Might be comparable to someone in the US visiting Michigan or Pennsylvania.
Also that Albania was kind of North Korea of Europe until late 1990’s. It was totally closed and isolated under a dictatorship (Hoxha, d. 1985), and it was near impossible to visit Albania during those times.
Oh so only US and european readers are here in this sub right?
The rest of the world other than west, doesn't exist?
I can’t comment on what readers in other parts of the world understand about geography, but people from the US specifically are notoriously bad at realizing how close together other countries can be. Speaking as someone in the US.
Albania is really pretty.
Because we Albanians are very hospitable.
It's only really ravenclaw and Bertha that went coincidentally, Voldemort went because he'd tracked the diadem down there so knew it was a good place to hide, everyone else went looking for him there other than Bertha
These are all quite literally connected, it’s plot - not some random obsession with the country. Helena Ravenclaw was murdered there, Voldemort went there to find her diadem after she told him about it, he went back there to hide when he was in his weakened state, people came looking for him there, and Voldemort was able to come up with the entire plan for GoF when Bertha visited / crossed Peter’s path - plus her death was instrumental in making Voldemort’s final Horcrux.
Ravenclaws daughter hid the diadem in Albania for some reason. Remote and far away from UK, so her mother couldnt find it.
Voldy found diadem there. Then when he lost power, he just went there to hide. Remote and far from uk and he knew area since he was there before.
Quirrell and Peter went to look for Voldy. They just heard rumours about dark forces there. quirell wanted to show himself and defeat those dark forces, yet voldy won him over. Peter used his animagus powers and got info from rats that there is dark powers in forrset where voldy was hiding.
Previous people went there due to kind of butterfly effect. If Rawenclaw hid diadem somewhere else, then instead of Albania, all of them would go somewhere else.
Bertha is kind of outlier. She just went there on holiday. She went missing on her trip, because she run into peter there (who really had no reason to be in his rat form, he was away from uk. Meeting bertha was unlucky coincidence.). And funnily enough, stuff like this happen. I went to holiday 1500km away from where i live and i met someone who lives few streets away from me in that place. Just massive coincidence.
Also, note that books were written in 90s. Albania and whole area were in the news quite often back then (kosova, albanian financial crysis), i assume that albania stuck with Rowling.
Helena Ravenclaw went there to hide her diadem.
Bertha Jorkins went there to visit family.
And these are the only two people in the book that went to Albania independently, for personal reason only, in a span of many centuries. Voldemort, Quirrell and Pettigrew all went there to follow the same trail: Voldemort after the diadem first and then to hide, Quirrell and Pettigrew after Voldemort
Albania means Scotland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albania_(placename)
Alba, a Gaelic name for Scotland, may be related to the Greek name of Britain Albion, Latinized as Albania during the High Medieval period, and later passed into Middle English as Albany.
Thank you i didn't realize that Albania and Scotland were the same.
They’re not. Hogwarts is in Scotland. It’s extremely unlikely that Voldemort would be able to hide out completely undetected for a decade around a 10 hour drive from the school.
You say that but Scotland isn't fully built up. Large swathes of it are fairly empty and left natural. Of course back in the times when these events happened, there would be even more land left naturally and even fewer people there.
Thank you for this information…
over 1,000 years ago Helga Ravenclaw went to Albina. in 1940s Voldemort persade Helga- as a ghost to tell him where the DIadem is. And after working X years after graduing at Borgin and Burkes he goes to Albina in human form. HE founds the Diadem, and then after finding it, he takes it back and hides it at Hogwarts in 1981 he's gets defeat by a baby Harry and then his Shade goes back to Albania
Well most of these are pretty easily connected, Helena went there just cuz, Voldemort went there becakse of the diadem and probably jent back becakse he lped the area or something, Peter and Qkirrell went there because of him. Not sure about Bertha, mainly just plot convenience I guess lol.
Their BRP allowed them visa free travel to Albania
Because Eastern Europe holds belief in serpentine dragons, ogres, vampires, djinns, etc.
Albania, in particular holds folklore traditions. Jk Rowling, probably--this is not fact--but i can only assume, knew about mystical beliefs Albanians have. HEnce it only makes sense, that the balkans, where everything is desolate and folklore exist, wizards probably go there to check out those fantastic mythical beasts.
THat is why Charlie and Lockhart also go to romania..dragons... and west romania is transylvania. That's where Dracula/vampires are from.
Geographically Albania is by sea. Specifically the adriatic sea.. and there's folklore about that that sea as well.
Anyway, it's also known, balkan folk do believe in witchcraft.
My head canon is that Albanian wizarding community mirrors Albanian irl society as it used to be until recently. With dysfunctional ministry or any form of government, and all the power being held by local wizarding clans... of course relations between clans varying and clans being in war with one another more often than not... perfect conditions for a hiding place for shady wizards from all over the world.
JK Rowling has a thing for Albania.
It is the only country in Eastern Europe JK Rowling had visited when she wrote the books.
I’m a cynical bastard.
I think Albania, is just a lazy cipher for Bram Stoker’s Transylvania, aka a simplified view of Eastern Europe as a place that’s creepy and backwards held by a lot of westerners including jkr
Red and Black I Dress, Eagle on my chest…
I figured there's maybe a large magical community there, which is well hidden from Muggles because Albania was still a Communist state behind the Iron Curtain in the 1980s.
It looks like a really lovely country with spectacular scenery, so maybe Voldemort and Bertha Jorkins' family had good taste in holiday destinations.
Because of it's geopolitical status in the 60s, 70s and 80s, Albania was quite mysterious to us Brits growing up. JKR wanted somewhere real but mysterious for Voldemort's shenanigans, but not too far away, she picked Albania.
Or they used to say that Norman Wisdom was popular in Albania, maybe everyone involved is/was a Norman Wisdom fan. It would explain a lot.
Sorry to all Albanians because I will grossly oversimplify stuff. For a lot of Western Europeans Albania ist a special place, because it is not that far away, but it feels very exotic. Because of historical stuff a Majority of Albanians are Muslims and Islam hast shaped the local culture more then christianity. That makes it to stand out in Europe, where Most countries are shaped by Christianity. But its not a country in the edge of Europe Like Turkey, which for Western Europeans seems far away but its one boat trip away from Italy. Its in the one Hand definitely European in its culture but also very distinct. In Romanticism, there we're even orientalist paintings, depicting Albania.
Might be bias of seeing that as a distant place where there’s crime, although there is lots of crime by Albanians internationally it’s a relatively safe place there.
I’d say they’re one of the most renowned criminal elements in London. Albania also experienced an economic collapse in the 90’s and lots of people migrated around. They were a topical notorious sub-culture in 90’s Britain.
They all just chose to visit as it was on their bucket list. /s
JK needed a country. She looked down a list of countries and stopped early. She didn’t want to look again.
Voldemort wasn't hiding in Albania, and the only outlier is Bertha Jorkins here. Everyone else went to find Voldemort, and Voldemort went to find the Diadem.
The diadem being there for centuries flooded the area with magic
Albania wasn’t even called Albania when Helena Ravenclaw was alive
I think there was a super Carlin brothers vid that explained scotland used to be called Albania durring midevil period.
So they might not be very far away.
Thanks to HP I've always felt as if Albania = forbidden forest
Lots of forests. Not many questions asked by locals.
read Deathly Hallows again and you'll know the answer
Because Allah gave Albania sacred powers which wizards want to use
Albania is just another word for Scotland. The latinization of a Gaelic name to be precise. That would make the most sense if you consider that JK wanted to keep the series British.
It doesn't make any sense for it to be referring to Scotland, though. Voldemort says that Quirrell "brought me back to this country" - if he was already hiding in Scotland, he wouldn't have been brought back by Quirrell.
“Then . . . four years ago . . . the means for my return seemed assured. A wizard — young, foolish, and gullible — wandered across my path in the forest I had made my home. Oh, he seemed the very chance I had been dreaming of . . . for he was a teacher at Dumbledore’s school ... he was easy to bend to my will ... he brought me back to this country, and after a while, I took possession of his body, to supervise him closely as he carried out my orders. But my plan failed. I did not manage to steal the Sorcerer’s Stone. I was not to be assured immortal life. I was thwarted ... thwarted, once again, by Harry Potter. ...”
Voldemort also says that he went to his hiding place "far away":
“The servant died when I left his body, and I was left as weak as ever I had been,” Voldemort continued. “I returned to my hiding place far away, and I will not pretend to you that I didn’t then fear that I might never regain my powers. ... Yes, that was perhaps my darkest hour ... I could not hope that I would be sent another wizard to possess ... and I had given up hope, now, that any of my Death Eaters cared what had become of me. ...”
Scotland would not be considered "far away" to wizards, especially since he left from Hogwarts in Scotland to go to this hiding place. Another place in Scotland is not a hiding place "far away".
Scotland is also called Albania so they could theoretically all be in the Scottish Highlands
There’s a theory by the Super Carlin Brothers that in the HP universe, Albania is a different name for Scotland, since over the years, Scotland has went by multiple names before settling on Scotland, including Albania. It does kinda make sense because why would Voldemort, after being weakened from his failed assassination attempt on baby Harry, travel overseas to hide when he could just travel to cross the England-Scotland Border?
Right. Where Hogwarts is located. He’s hiding out for a decade completely undetected maybe a half days drive from Hogwarts.
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not.
Quirrell found Voldemort because Voldemort wanted him to find him.
RED AND GOLD I DRESS LION ON MY CHEST GOOD TO BE IN GRYFFINDOR KEEP MY HEAD UP HIGH FOR THE HOUSE I DIE PROUD TO BE IN GRYFFINDOR
I think Albania was also another name used for scottland or parts of it? Not sure though Edit: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albania_(placename)#:~:text=The%20name%20for%20Scotland%20in,once%20alternative%20names%20for%20Scotland.
I think the Albania or Albion mentioned in HP might be Scottland and average viewers just confuse it with Albania the Balric Country... Which would make much more sense, that tve british dark loard and a daughter of a Schoolfounder are going up into the wilderness of northern scottland...
Maybe they are in the organ trafficking business?
Aren’t the dragon baby from and Ron’s brother in Albania, too? I think he said that in Philosopher‘s Stone.
I thought that was Romania. I may be wrong, though.
The Wizarding world may have never adopted the muggle name for Scotland. Pretty sure Alba/ Albania is an old name for Scotland - like medieval old. The wizard populace may not recognize “Scotland” as the true name of the land because the name they know it by rose out of the time of the founders and during the height of wizard/muggle tensions.
They did adopt the use of the name Scotland - there's a reference to the Scotland Quidditch Team when they're talking about the World Cup competitors.
“Went down to Transylvania, three hundred and ninety to ten,” said Charlie gloomily. “Shocking performance. And Wales lost to Uganda, and Scotland was slaughtered by Luxembourg.”
If you put yourself in a British perspective, Albania is basically on the other side of Europe and full of hiding places.
Plot wise, it all starts with Helena Ravenclaw stealing the diadem and hiding it in Albania. Centuries later, Voldemort located it and travelled to Albania to collect the diadem and turn it into a Horcrux, then came back to Hogwarts and hid it in the Room of Hidden Things.
It’s unknown where Quirrell met Voldemort. Hagrid mentions the Black Forest but it’s vague.
Fast forward to 1994. Bertha Jorkins goes to Albania in holiday, Voldemort (who was back in there after the events of 1992, and Wormtail was there with him) finds her and kills her.
To sum up. Voldemort is a narcissist: he went to Albania after failing to collect the Stone both because it was far from England and because it was connected to one of his Horcrux, which he believed he was the only one to be aware of. Bertha ending up there was probably unfortunate, but also a plot device for keeping the reader aware that Albanian forests were important.
It all stems from Helena Ravenclaw hiding the diadem in Albania. Voldemort went there to turn it into a Horcrux, so that place holds some importance to him. Eventually, Quirrell went snooping around looking for Voldemort's remains (assuming he knew where Voldemort was known to be last spotted, or was tracing the places where Voldemort used to be) when Voldemort overpowered him (think of Voldemort as a trap-door spider just waiting near the Diadem in wait). Pettigrew went a similar route, trying to find Voldemort when his animagus form was revealed (so he traced the places Voldemort went to as well).
Bertha was the outlier there - she merely went to Albania to meet her cousin, only disappearing afterwards when she's supposed to meet her aunt.