Charms, Spells, Curses and Jinx
Few days back my brother (who is a HP fan but not as much as myself) asked me a simple question
what is the difference between charms, spells, curses and jinx ?
He had a valid point. Even after reading Harry Potter books atleast three times i find myself unable to answer this simple questions purely based on what is written in the books. In short JKR has failed to address this question in her books. There isnt any mention anywhere in any books by which we could classify different things in charms, spells curses and jinx. Also there are hexes, which he missed while asking the question. But we cannot rule them out if we need to know the difference.
To find the answer we need to look at orther sources of infomation on magical world. I think we can rule out Samata as i find her more comic then informatic. But a movie of Sandra Bullock and Nichole Kidman called "Practical Magic" could be of our interest.
Lets start from basics.
Spells. As the name suggests, could have something to do with spellings, or what we say incantation. Whether it is Merlin or our own Harry Potter all have used many types of words and incantations with wands to perform magic. What is common in both apart from incantation is use of wands.
Curses. In Harry Potter, most of the time few spells have been labelled as curses like the imperious curse, etc. But if we go by the only HP we could not find any difference between spells and curses. If we read HBP closely, we find that there is a reference to a curse that voldy put on the DADA post which dont let any one last more than one year in that post. Even though we have no information on how he performed that curse i believe that it is not performed with a wand. Why? If we compare the effect of other curses (which uses wand) with this one we find a great deal of differences. Wand-Curses are needed to be aimed at a perticular person and the incantation has to loud and clear while one cannot aim his wand at DADA post as it is simply impossible.
One example of curse i found in a movie "Practical Magic" staring Sandra Bullock and Nichole Kidman. In the movie too one charator(their grandmother) curses herself to stop loving any man. In that scene too she does not have any wand or any other magical objects.
And ofcourse we always get plenty of examples of curses in literature and even in daily lives, people cursing each other, on the street, in houses, offices and public places. Also we do hear some times that these curses come true.
So what does we can learn about curses. I think that curses are pretty power piece magic that generally do not require a wand or other magical objects but has to come from very sour heart, ie. one has to hate the other person/thing from the bottom of his heart to actually throw a powerful curse at it. It is more like the concentration that is required for normal spells but this time it has to come from heart not mind and that too of extreme hatred.
Charms. The first charm that comes to my mind is Accio. We know Vingardean Leviosa is also a charm. Then there are stunning charms. We also know that Lily was good at charms. Other instance of charms that i can recall now is the story of King Aurther and Merlin. And ofcource we always hear about the charms of a perticular person, espcially a girl. So what does all this lead us to. I feel that charms are that branch of magic which deals with milder aspects. That makes our life easier (accio, levitating charm, charming a person). That could be another reason why Lily was a popular girl in her times. She was good in charms, may be because her natural charm were highly tuned too, and that made her popular.
Now comes the Jinx. First jinx that comes to my mind is anti-disapperation jinx. There are plenty of other jinxes mentioned throughout the books. One more case of jinx I would like to mention here is an episode from smallville (smallville 407 - Jinx). And there are ofcource jinxes used in common life english "he has jinxed this object . . . " etc. After going through all these examples of jinxes I feel that jinx are like curse but on a milder note, much milder note. They serve a short term purpose, and are valid in the present time frame. They do not require the amount of hate or concentration like a curse but are also much weaker.
One stark contrast I found between Harry Potter world and other sources of information on magic that in HP world most spells/curses/charms/jinxes can be performed by simple and short incantation. While in other sources we often come across different bands of magic where the performer has to recite a perticular phrase many number of times or has to speak a very long piece of poem like recital to perform magic. Secondly the amount of wand usage in HP is far greater than that in other sources of magic.
I hope i have cleared few doubts, if any one has any more, please do write to me.
PS: Please ignore typos and spelling mistakes. I didn't kept the book with me while typing.
what is the difference between charms, spells, curses and jinx ?
He had a valid point. Even after reading Harry Potter books atleast three times i find myself unable to answer this simple questions purely based on what is written in the books. In short JKR has failed to address this question in her books. There isnt any mention anywhere in any books by which we could classify different things in charms, spells curses and jinx. Also there are hexes, which he missed while asking the question. But we cannot rule them out if we need to know the difference.
To find the answer we need to look at orther sources of infomation on magical world. I think we can rule out Samata as i find her more comic then informatic. But a movie of Sandra Bullock and Nichole Kidman called "Practical Magic" could be of our interest.
Lets start from basics.
Spells. As the name suggests, could have something to do with spellings, or what we say incantation. Whether it is Merlin or our own Harry Potter all have used many types of words and incantations with wands to perform magic. What is common in both apart from incantation is use of wands.
Curses. In Harry Potter, most of the time few spells have been labelled as curses like the imperious curse, etc. But if we go by the only HP we could not find any difference between spells and curses. If we read HBP closely, we find that there is a reference to a curse that voldy put on the DADA post which dont let any one last more than one year in that post. Even though we have no information on how he performed that curse i believe that it is not performed with a wand. Why? If we compare the effect of other curses (which uses wand) with this one we find a great deal of differences. Wand-Curses are needed to be aimed at a perticular person and the incantation has to loud and clear while one cannot aim his wand at DADA post as it is simply impossible.
One example of curse i found in a movie "Practical Magic" staring Sandra Bullock and Nichole Kidman. In the movie too one charator(their grandmother) curses herself to stop loving any man. In that scene too she does not have any wand or any other magical objects.
And ofcourse we always get plenty of examples of curses in literature and even in daily lives, people cursing each other, on the street, in houses, offices and public places. Also we do hear some times that these curses come true.
So what does we can learn about curses. I think that curses are pretty power piece magic that generally do not require a wand or other magical objects but has to come from very sour heart, ie. one has to hate the other person/thing from the bottom of his heart to actually throw a powerful curse at it. It is more like the concentration that is required for normal spells but this time it has to come from heart not mind and that too of extreme hatred.
Charms. The first charm that comes to my mind is Accio. We know Vingardean Leviosa is also a charm. Then there are stunning charms. We also know that Lily was good at charms. Other instance of charms that i can recall now is the story of King Aurther and Merlin. And ofcource we always hear about the charms of a perticular person, espcially a girl. So what does all this lead us to. I feel that charms are that branch of magic which deals with milder aspects. That makes our life easier (accio, levitating charm, charming a person). That could be another reason why Lily was a popular girl in her times. She was good in charms, may be because her natural charm were highly tuned too, and that made her popular.
Now comes the Jinx. First jinx that comes to my mind is anti-disapperation jinx. There are plenty of other jinxes mentioned throughout the books. One more case of jinx I would like to mention here is an episode from smallville (smallville 407 - Jinx). And there are ofcource jinxes used in common life english "he has jinxed this object . . . " etc. After going through all these examples of jinxes I feel that jinx are like curse but on a milder note, much milder note. They serve a short term purpose, and are valid in the present time frame. They do not require the amount of hate or concentration like a curse but are also much weaker.
One stark contrast I found between Harry Potter world and other sources of information on magic that in HP world most spells/curses/charms/jinxes can be performed by simple and short incantation. While in other sources we often come across different bands of magic where the performer has to recite a perticular phrase many number of times or has to speak a very long piece of poem like recital to perform magic. Secondly the amount of wand usage in HP is far greater than that in other sources of magic.
I hope i have cleared few doubts, if any one has any more, please do write to me.
PS: Please ignore typos and spelling mistakes. I didn't kept the book with me while typing.
posted by Ankur Saxena at
6:13 AM
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1 comments
