We all know by now that the existence of Durmstrang is a real clusterfuck, don't we? I mean, it's a real clusterfuck. But I came across this post which got me thinking, so I thought to make a summary of what we know, what it means for Durmstrang in relation to historical facts, and how it conflicts with..well, most of said historical facts.
So here's the facts we know from canon: the name is Durmstrang. It's located in Scandinavia (as per JKR) somewhere with mountains and lakes all around (as per Viktor Krum in the books), and was founded by a bulgarian chick called Nerida Vulchanova. And we know it was founded before 1290 or so (when Triwizard Tournament was established), although not for sure how long before then.
I take that last to mean that it was founded sometime late in the Early Medieval Period (what you might also call the Viking Age), roughly contemporary to Hogwarts. Because canon has severe trouble allowing any other school to be definitively older than Hogwarts. But just know that the explanations below assume founding in 800-1199, and if Durmstrang is earlier than that things are going to get even more strange and off-kilter.
The Founder and Her Trip to Scandinavia
Nerida Vulchanova, as we know, is mentioned as being Bulgarian. Her name first name is Greek and last name Slavic, which is not an uncommon combination for Bulgaria (if any of you haven't looked at a map lately, Bulgaria is a neighbor of Greece roughly to its north), nothing to remark upon there. But how on earth did she end up from Bulgaria all the way up to the unexplored wilds of Scandinavia?
Let's take a look. At the estimated time range of founding alone, there are three separate countries that claimed the land that is Bulgaria in the present day. Wikipedia is our friend.
The first possible option is the First Bulgarian Empire, during which the land was christianized. Would this be enough for a self-respecting witch to escape all the way across the continent to the uninhabited north? Possibly. The second option is the Byzantine Roman Empire (remember your history lessons folks, that's the one with the capital in Constantinople, the current name of which is Istanbul), which conquered the land right after that in 1018. Byzantine Rome was thoroughly christian by then too, so if the christianization itself wasn't enough cause to make witches and wizards flee the area, then it's unlikely that was the cause and they simply protested the change from Bulgarian rule to Roman rule. The third option then, is the Second Bulgarian Empire, when the old Bulgarian nobility rose against their new masters a hundred years later and reclaimed the land.
There's plenty of causes for any person to flee the area in the time period around the founding, to put it short. The only unexplainable decision is, why go all the way north? Why not stop somewhere on the way? Maybe she was simply determined to find land that no others had pre-existing claim over. Would have been hard to find that in central Europe. But that does kind of presume that she left specifically in search of land where no political powers would interfere, so the school's founding would have been a decision made long before she made it to the site.
The Location and Its Implications
As mentioned above, is said to be somewhere in Scandinavia as per JKR. If you go to the Wizarding World website (or the Fandom wiki, which currently has better availability of the map), you can see that Durmstrang is marked down in Russia on the map. This not only conflicts with JKR (understandable, she can't keep anything straight!) but also with Krum's description of the school - the marked location may have a large lake but there are no mountains anywhere even remotely close, and the climate is moderately temperate compared to Scandinavia. Let's chalk it up to an error on their graphical designer's part, to be generous.
More realistic scenarios after the Scandinavia reveal have placed it somewhere in Norway or Sweden, consistent with both JKR's and Krum's descriptions of the school.
However. Let us not forget the timing of the founding. Unless Durmstrang was right next to the coast and fairly south, it was not part of Norway at the time (Old Kingdom of Norway, to be more specific). There is no mention of the ocean in descriptions of Durmstrang, only lakes and mountains. Likewise, unless it's far to the south of Sweden close by to Denmark, it was not part of Sweden at the time. There are no mountains in the area that Sweden ruled at the time.
Conclusion: Durmstrang was founded in neutral territory, ungoverned by any muggle king. At most it was established on land governed by a local village chief, but considering how much uninhabited land there was around that corner of the world, especially at that point in history, chances are that Durmstrang was originally completely self-governing. That's bound to have created a rocky history for the school as subsequent muggle kingdom expansions brought it into line with one or the other government. Depending on how those interactions went, there is a good chance that even in the present day Durmstrang considers itself an entirely separate self-governing area.
The Languages of Durmstrang
We all know it - Durmstrang is German. And moreover, it comes from the expression "Sturm und Drang" which in turn dates back to the...18th century. Potentially almost a thousand years after Durmstrang's founding. So what's up with the name? For that matter, we know they accept Bulgarians (who speak Bulgarian), and they presumably accept students at least from Norway and Sweden and Denmark. And possibly Germany. And various eastern European countries. What on.....?
Let's look at the history. At the time of founding, the people around Durmstrang's location spoke Old Norse - it doesn't matter if you go for Norway or Sweden, it was all Old Norse back then, the languages hadn't separated yet. Nerida the founder would have spoken Old Church Slavonic. In Germany they spoke Old High German, at least in the central and southern parts of the (modern) country. In northern Germany (again, the modern country) and in parts of Denmark, they spoke Old Saxon. And if you count in Finland, depending on which areas/tribes you count that's 2-5+ languages more, of a completely different culture than those found in Scandinavia proper or in Europe. Let's not even get into the fact that the Sami also very much live in Scandinavia, and while the Sami languages are more closely related to Finnic languages than Norse ones, they're still substantially different and that's still another dozen languages to worry about. (disclaimer: I was unable to find reference on when Sami languages separated from each other, there might or might not have been as many a thousand years ago)
Now, it's entirely possible that the school would have gone with Old Norse for teaching language (which would have made it hell and chaos once the languages started properly separating into their modern versions, there's no telling what language they would have ended up with in the present day), but that would have left any Bulgarians out, not to mention any other countries. But there was in fact a common language people from all those countries would have spoken, at least if educated. Latin. Latin was the language of the educated elite and probably not all witches and wizards would have otherwise learnt it if the wizarding society in those countries resembled the muggle society of the time, but it was also the language of the (majority of the) spells taught, so there would have been good cause to learn it and learn it well.
The only other reasonable explanation for the wide range of students the school is implied to have would be constant translation charms, on all interactions, and it would only have gotten worse as time passed when the old languages separated into the modern ones.
As for the name itself? There's nothing that could possibly explain it away, even if I'm not personally qualified to say for certain if Old High German was enough alike modern German to make it halfway plausible. An 18th century German name is simply so out of left field that it cannot be possible. The most reasonable explanation I can come up with is that the school was taken over by some German witch or wizard at some point and completely renamed. We have precedent after all - the very first headmaster after Nerida herself rewrote the entire curriculum, after all. With such a wide variety of people attending the school, it's not a reach to say that somebody at some point got too prideful and took it over to emphasize their own national pride. Just like what likely happened with Nerida and Harfang Munter.
Yes, the movies screwed up big time. Who is surprised? And by 'screwed up' I mean the highly dubious inclusion of cyrillic script in the school crest.
Let's look at history again. Bulgaria? Sure, they use cyrillic alphabet - although at Nerida's time it would have been the Early Cyrillic that they used. Old Norse was written in Younger Futhark, and Old Saxon had just transitioned from futhark to latin alphabet several hundred years ago. Most of the school's students would have been familiar with either futhark runes (side note: elder futhark is one of the runic scripts taught in Ancient Runes class as per the extended universe) or with the latin alphabet.
But all that's probably a moot point anyway, since Durmstrang had to have had a different name before 18th century! So why the inclusion of cyrillic script in the crest? By 18th century most of the school's students (at the very least, the students that come from anywhere near the actual school) would know slavs (and thus the cyrillic script) as invaders that their governments are in constant war with. So why cyrillic?
Your guess is as good as mine. If you insist that the school crest is canon, that is. It is, after all, only from the movies. It'd be perfectly legit to dismiss it in favor of one less inconsistency to an already fucked up school. :)
The founder Nerida Vulchanova likely left Bulgarian Empire (or Roman Empire, depending on the exact time) specifically to look for a place where her school would not suffer constant interference from warring governments. She found that in the uninhabited wilds of Scandinavia, and the school may in fact consider itself separate from any government to the present day.
The language of teaching is likely Latin, and has been since the school's founding. What hasn't been there since the school's founding is the name - not only would a Bulgarian not have had any reason to give her Scandinavian school a name in Old High German, but the expression the name is based on is from the 18th century. There was likely a German headmaster at some point in the last few hundred years who changed the school's name.
The school's crest from the movies would be really, really difficult to explain away, so just dismiss it as not canon. Also, considering the scripts used in areas where the students come from, Durmstrang likely has a long history with quality Ancient Runes education.
