Rowling Outs Dumbledore
Saturday October 20, 2007
CAUTION: THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD!!
In an interview at Carrnegie Hall in New York City, Harry Potter author JK Rowling dropped a magical bombshell -- Albus Dumbledore is gay. Rowling met with the thousand grand prize winners of a Scholastic Books contest to sign books and answer questions Thursday night, and one of the questions that happened to come up was the issue of Dumbledore's love life.
The question was, "Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?"
Rowling's answer? "My truthful answer to you... I always thought of Dumbledore as gay.... Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald..."
The comment about Dumbledore's orientation was met with an ovation from the audience, and Rowling said that if she had known how happy the news would make people, she'd have mentioned it years ago. Rowling also revealed that Neville Longbottom married Hannah Abbott, and explained why she changed her mind about killing off Arthur Weasley in a previous book.
In an interview at Carrnegie Hall in New York City, Harry Potter author JK Rowling dropped a magical bombshell -- Albus Dumbledore is gay. Rowling met with the thousand grand prize winners of a Scholastic Books contest to sign books and answer questions Thursday night, and one of the questions that happened to come up was the issue of Dumbledore's love life.
The question was, "Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?"
Rowling's answer? "My truthful answer to you... I always thought of Dumbledore as gay.... Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald..."
The comment about Dumbledore's orientation was met with an ovation from the audience, and Rowling said that if she had known how happy the news would make people, she'd have mentioned it years ago. Rowling also revealed that Neville Longbottom married Hannah Abbott, and explained why she changed her mind about killing off Arthur Weasley in a previous book.
Weelll now…the whole Dumbledor/Grindewald thing makes more sense now! Good for them!
I always thought me and Dumbledore were alike.
When I read the Dumbledore/Grindelwald bits I wondered whether she meant what it sounded like or whether she had accidentally overemphasised their friendship, I’m so happy to find out that Dumbledore is gay and I read it right the first time!
The only thing that has annoyed me is that it feels like a publicity move telling the public in this way instead of having it explicit in the book itself. Had she been more open about Dumbledore and Grindelwald in Deathly Hallows people would have accepted it as part of the story instead of being a headline grabber. Ultimately it shouldn’t matter whether one of our favourite wizards is gay or not!
Im actually re-reading that book right now, and knowing now that he was gay does make the parts about him and Grindewald make more sense. In one part of the book she wrote that Dumbledore had great affection for Grindewald. It also explains more why she said Dumbledore was hestitant about confronting Grindewald and dueling him later on in his life.
Dang… and i always thought there was a Dumbledore/McGonagall thing going on…Im kinda heartbroken…..
Did this come across in any of the movies???
I wondered about Dumbledore’s orientation right from the beginning. The fact he never married, and was over 150 years old, and little things here and there. I always felt a kindredness with him, and now it’s been brought out of the closet.
I think it’s wonderful how positively the news has been received. Maybe she could do a prequel to the series about Dumbledore and his early years.