Manos Kontoleon’s Prologue to the Greek Chamber of Secrets
The Greek translation of the Chamber of Secrets contained a prologue1 written by a prominent Greek author Manos Kontoleon. The original text follows this translation.
Author: Manos Kontoleon
Translation: Alexander Christou
Edited by: Harrison Tu
Narration available:
Dear reader,
I must inform you from the outset that, sadly, you belong—like me and many others—to the world of the… Muggles.
What is that world? Well, the novel you have chosen to read will explain it to you in more detail. To be more precise, in this story, you will learn less about the Muggle world (which both you and I already know very well and live in every day) and more about who falls into the category of wizards.
But, dear reader, I worry that I may have confused you with all I have written.
It’s better if we take things one step at a time.
Joanne Rowling is a young writer who managed, even with her first book, to achieve—marvelously—the dream of almost all novelists.
She not only created a lovable hero and enjoyed great publishing success, but most importantly, she built an entire world that did not exist before she conceived it. Yes, that is every author’s dream: to transform, as dynamically and completely as possible, into a kind of small god—a supremely powerful creator—and in the pages of their work, to build a truly original universe.
What is Rowling’s world like? Who is her protagonist?
Young Harry Potter belongs to the wizarding world. According to Rowling, wizards look just like ordinary people; they live among them, but at the same time, they have their own daily affairs (which, more or less, mirror those of ordinary people). They have their own shops, their own schools, their own ministries. All of this is, of course, approached in a magical way. They have feelings—they fall in love, they dream, they get angry, they feel resentful, they rejoice, they support one another, they compete, they kiss, and they fight. In the wizarding world, there is good and evil. There is right and wrong. There is life and death, love, friendship, and rivalry.
All that in one wizarding world. After all, as Rowling seems to suggest, magic is nothing more than a means of escaping one’s everyday life.
Yes, this young author had the inspiration to speak about our own world (the Muggle world, as she calls it) by describing a fantastic one.
Her main character, Harry Potter, is a boy who reminds us of an ordinary kid: he has courage, wit, insecurities, warm feelings, and magical abilities.
In other words, he is precisely the kind of hero a novel needs if it is to be beloved by its readers.
Harry accomplishes many things, but he also faces many struggles. His adventures filled one book, and now they have filled a second—soon, we’ll be waiting for the third. Underappreciated by his family, who belong to the Muggle world, he finds love in the wizarding world. Through the people who surround him there, he wins the sympathy of all who read his adventures. Personally, I love traveling through literature into different worlds and encountering unusual sorts of people.
Harry Potter, with the way he combines the everyday with the unexpected—and how he draws me in and out of my own world and into the wizarding one right beside it—has given me a one-of-a-kind journey. I recommend, dear reader, that you accept the terms of this adventure, board the Hogwarts Express at eleven o’clock from Platform 9¾, and begin your own journey that will carry you from our everyday life into a world of intense emotions and sparkling humor.
Everything you read will be entirely new, given that you are a representative of the Muggle world… But what if I’m wrong? Maybe you’re from the other side—a wizard, that is? And then again, perhaps I’m the wizard. Or maybe both of us belong to the world where everything takes place… If that’s so, then I look forward to seeing you on the first day of the new school year at Hogwarts School. Word has it that many unusual things may happen.
Until we meet again—enjoy your reading.
Manos Kontoleon
