These are quite interesting facts about Hogwarts founders

Salazar Slytherin’s wand responded only to Parseltongue

Salazar Slytherin is the first known wizard to speak Parseltongue – snake language. He created his wand and it only responded to his commands in that tongue. Moreover, Salazar could command the wand to become dormant and only he can awaken it, meaning only he could use it.

In the known Harry Potter lore, Salazar Slytherin’s wand was passed down through his bloodline to Gormlaith Gaunt, who, with his dying breath, commanded the wand to go dormant. This rendered it useless.

Isolt Sayre, Gaunt’s niece, the founder of the American Ilvermony School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, took Salazar’s wand and buried it in the school’s courtyard. From it, a snakewood tree sprung up that was magically impregnable to cutting or trimming and produced powerful healing leaves.

House-Elves were first brought to Hogwarts by Helga Hufflepuff

Hufflepuff dormitories are the closest to Hogwarts kitchens and Helga is famous for being quite adept at conjuring food. Several of her recipes and food conjuring spells are used centuries later. She also fought for house-elf rights and wanted to bring them to a secure environment.

She offered them jobs at Hogwarts for pay, which was revolutionary since they worked as slaves in their households. This has established a tradition that lasted centuries and house-elves worked at Hogwarts even when Harry was there.

Rowena Ravenclaw designed the floors at Hogwarts

Remember the moving stairs at Hogwarts? That was Rowena’s idea and design. The stairs are constantly changing and evolving even, as the students use them to reach their dormitories, classrooms, the hall, and other parts of the castle.

The “Hogwarts” name was Rowena’s idea

Besides designing a lot of the interior space, Rowena is also the godfather of Hogwarts. She chose this name because of a dream she had. As per HP lore, she had a dream where a warty hod was going to a cliff overlooking a lake.

Naturally, this is the lake that students go to near the school. Because of this dream, she chose that place for the location of the school and the name after that warty hog.

Salazar Slytherin’s real-world snake species

Salazar could speak to snakes and these reptiles are a large part of his heritage, including the symbol of the House Slytherin. This fictional character was an inspiration for a name of a real-life snake species discovered in 2019. Its name is Trimeresurus Salazar.

It is a venomous species discovered in India, in Arunachal Pradesh. This snake is a pit viper which is why it is also called Salazar’s pit viper. This is the fifth species discovered that same year in India. Who knew there are Harry Potter die-hard fans among Indian researchers?

Godric Gryffindor’s real-world spider species

Salazar is not the only fictional character that has inspired a real-world animal name. Godric Gryffindor was an inspiration for naming a new spider species from the Araneidae family, called Eriovixia gryffindori.

Admittedly, this one doesn’t quite fit as well as naming a snake species after Salazar, but it is always good that HP lore is spreading onto modern culture like this. The species is also discovered in India, in 2015, in Karnataka state, and the reason for the connection with Harry Potter books is because the discoverers all thought it resembles the Sorting Hat, which it does!