3/1/2016 Harry Potter Numerology: Thirteen (Misfortune) | The Hog's Head https://web.archive.org/web/20151029145240/http://thehogshead.org/harrypotternumerologythirteen9628/ 1/4 Harry Potter Numerology: Thirteen (Misfortune)  July 30, 2013  Symbology Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling, numerology Kris Swank [This is a bonus essay to my series on numerology in the Harry Potter books. I had originally intended to stop at seven essays, but some people have asked me to write about a couple additional numbers. The previous essay – “Harry Potter Numerology: Twelve (Abundance)” – was published on November 4, 2012.] Since I began writing this series, several people have asked me if I thought J.K. Rowling intended for her numbers to have specific meanings? Or if it’s coincidence (e.g. coincidence that every time an Eleven pops up something transforms)? Or if I’m just seeing things where I want to see things? Well, there is no stronger case for Rowling’s intentional use of number symbolism (that I have found) than The Number Thirteen. Thirteen was a significant number in many ancient cultures, possibly due to the number of lunar months which occur in a solar year: 12.41, that is, 12 full months plus a partial 13th. Because this 13th month was shorter, different, it was often set apart as special. Anthropologist Tok Thompson and scholar Ernst Böklen have separately noted that this 12+1 motif appears in numerous traditions (Thompson 148; and Schimmel, 204-5): 12 jury members plus a presiding judge 12 Norse gods plus Loki, the trickster the Biblical Jacob and his 12 sons, Jesus and his 12 apostles (or, Jesus and his 11 faithful apostles plus the traitor Judas Iscariot) Odysseus and his 12 men, The Irish hero Conchobar and the 12 heroes, King Arthur and his 12 knights, The 12 good fairies plus 1 evil fairy in the traditional tale of Sleeping Beauty Antonio Banderas as the Arab 13th Warrior who joins 12 Vikings to fight a monster Thorin Oakenshield and his company of 12 dwarves in The Hobbit Some of these “plus ones” are particularly lucky (Odysseus survived while his men perished), while some are unlucky (e.g. Loki and Judas bring about calamity). The 13th person was, originally, not specifically “lucky” or “unlucky,” just different, set apart. Some cultures regarded The Number Thirteen as an auspicious number: the Maya counted 13 heavenly spheres; the Cabala speaks of 13 heavenly fountains, 13 gates of mercy, and 13 rivers in Paradise; a Jewish boy celebrates manhood at the age of 13; the medieval Christians interpreted 13 as a combination of the 10 Commandments and the Trinity, and thus a combination of the Old and New Testaments (Schimmel, 207). For the ancient Egyptians, the 13th step on the ladder of Life led to immortality. It wasn’t until later that The Number Thirteen began to take on a specifically negative connotation. According to Nathaniel Lachenmeyer, author of 13: The Story of the World’s Most Notorious Superstition, the “first record of it being a superstition was in the late 17th century, and the first incarnation of unlucky 13 was “13 at a table.” If you sit 13 people at a table, one will die within a year” (Hansen 2005). Another saying is “The first to rise will be the first to die.” This superstition is traced  