#wizard's hall

I am, of course, talking about Wizard's Hall by critically-acclaimed author Jane Yolen, author of over four hundred novels. Whose book I read first, and can and will loudly and proudly recommend to any and everyone to this day as a lovely read that came out an entire six years before any TERFs Who Shall Remain Nameless crashed onto the scene.

The Invisible College, from Diana Wynne Jones' The Tough Guide to Fantasy Land, one year before Harry Potter - AND which forms a parody/reference to most of the schools listed below.

Wizard's Hall, from the titular Wizard's Hall book by Jane Yolen - six years before Harry Potter.

Groosham Grange, from the novel of the same name by Anthony Horowitz, nine years before Harry Potter.

The Unseen University, from Terry Pratchett's Discworld - 14 years before Harry Potter.

Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches, from Jill Murphy's The Worst Witch, 23 years before Harry Potter

The island of Roke, from the Earthsea series by Ursula K. Le Guin - 29 years before Harry Potter.

We can even go back to Dom Daniel, from T.H. White's original version of The Once and Future King, 58 years before Harry Potter.

And I am not even counting the various "magic colleges" and "sorcery academies" that appeared in role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons long before Harry Potter came out...

my aunt’s She-Ra: Princess of Power books

various Disney Renaissance films

Secret of Mana (I devotedly watched my parents play it from 1993 on)

Jane Yolen’s Wizard’s Hall (don’t remember when, but I was quite young)

Heroes of Might and Magic II & III + Might and Magic VI & VII (1996-1999)

inevitably, P&P (I first imprinted on it in 1997)

Tamora Pierce’s Emelan books (they came out when I was in middle school in the late 1990s and were my first Pierce; I liked Tortall, but wasn’t impacted in the same way)

Piers Anthony’s Xanth books, despite myself (I received and read a gazillion of them when I was hospitalized and then housebound for several months in 1999-2000)

Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books, esp the early ones

Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar books (my school library had them and I adored them)

Also inevitably, LOTR (after several attempts, I got through the first half of FOTR and then couldn’t stop reading until the end in ~2001)

In various respects, the original SW films, which my best friend pressured me into watching around 2003; I eventually fell in love

David and Leigh Eddings’s Belgariad, Malloreon, associated works, Elenium, Tamuli + The Redemption of Althalus

The first ... eight or so of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time books through high school, and then New Spring (which I got in hardback and loved when it came out the year I graduated)

And like... regardless of the everything that's come out about HP's author since, I enjoyed that series while reading it. I enjoyed Hogwarts.

Never forget that Rowling was the inheritor of an older literary tradition of magic schools. It is true that the Harry Potter series cemented the wizarding school concept in popular culture, but it was far from being the first literary work to explore it, and it certainly was not where the magic school concept began. 

Let’s not forget Wizard’s Hall. Let’s not forget the Earthsea Cycle. Let’s not forget “The Worst Witch” and let’s not forget the Unseen University of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. There were many more different magic schools, of all types, levels and genres before Hogwarts.

OH MY GOD I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO REMEMBER THE NAME OF WIZARD’S HALL FOR YEARSSSSSSS