This chapter has no summary.
In “The Black Arms: Preliminary Observations” and “The Black Arms: Further Speculation,” wemyss talks about heraldry and tries to draw come conclusions about the Black family's history, based on what we know about their coat of arms.
Swythyv proposed that Salazar Slytherin's locket was actually a set of counter-Basilisk spectacles:
"Lockets" were invented during Victorian times. They enclosed a memento (usually hair) of a dead loved one, and didn't always have glass inside even after photography became more common. There was no such thing as a "locket" when Hogwarts was founded, and no millennium-old reliquary would open to reveal two glass windows.
"Slytherin's Locket" was a set of magical goggles. Basilisk goggles.
The attached chain would constrict itself snugly around the user's head, holding the opened goggles securely in place with its magical glass "windows" over the user's eyes and its metal casing toward the basilisk. This device allowed Salazar Slytherin to go safely where anyone with him would have to go blindfolded. Or die. So I doubt anyone but Sal ever saw it open, and anyone who did was not likely to talk about it afterward. Or describe the "monster."
References for the following section include:
We don’t know all that much about the Founders, but the Sorting Hat’s song in 1994 gives a clue to their origins: Godric, Helga, Rowena, and Salazar came from “wild moor,” “glen,” “valley broad,” and “fen,” which are generally interpreted as the West Country, Scotland, Wales, and East Anglia, respectively.
The Burkes are presumably related to William de Burgh, whose surname was later gaelicized to de Búrca, then became Búrca, then Burke.
The Gaunts may hail from the Flemish city of Ghent, which is also known as “Gaunt” in English, and is responsible for the epithet of at least one Englishman, John of Gaunt, and perhaps also Maurice de Gaunt and Robert de Gaunt, but we know little about Maurice and less still about his maternal grandfather, Robert.
We all know the joke about poor Remus Lupin being named “Wolf Wolf,” but did you know that his father, Lyall Lupin, is also a Wolf Wolf? Probably, the name that Remus was given was less “an obvious sign that this kid is going to be a werewolf someday” and more “a long-running family joke, now gone horribly wrong.” The name “Lyall” suggests a Scottish influence and a willingness to adapt surnames, so the Lupin family tree may also include wizards by the name of Lowell or Lovell, Shaw, and Ulric, and witches by the name of Lovelle and Ulrica. If any of his ancestors had a taste for French names, then they might have considered Loup or Louve (and the name “Loup Lupin” is undoubtedly appealing for a certain kind of person). Lupercus or Luperca, referring to the wolf who nursed Remus and Romulus, are also good choices.
LadyAramisGrey: Godric is from God and ric, “power,” i.e. “power of God,” which suggests devout Christian parents. LadyAramisGrey believes this further suggests that his parents were muggles, but the Christianity vs Magic thing is very overblown. Gryffindor can be understood as Gryffin d’Or, i.e. “Griffin of Gold” or “Gold Griffin,” suggesting that his father came from French nobility, or that Godric spent time with French speakers on the east coast or actually traveled to France for a time, and received his epithet there.
Wemyss: “Godric” is Saxon and Gryffindor is “bastardized French-Norman.” He was probably born in Devon, Cornwall, or the West Country.
LadyAramisGrey: Norse, of course. Helga is derived from Helge or Helgi, and further from heilagr, “blessed, holy.” What’s curious is that Helga came from the “valley broad,” indicating Wales, while Scandinavian influence was strongest in Scotland and Northumbria, but it’s not out of the question that one or both of her parents migrated south or even that they simply had some familiarity with the name and liked it, which would have been out of place but not unknowable. Hufflepuff can possibly be derived (in part) from pyf, “a blast of wind, puff” or ápyffan, “to exhale, breathe out,” perhaps indicating a windy location within the borders of modern Wales but, at the time, inhabited by English-speakers.
Loopily: Helga is Norse, meaning “faithful.”
Wemyss: Hufflepuff comes from Hvalpuf, or “whalespout.” Owing to the Germanic origin of her name, she probably came from Swansea or the Vale of Glamorgan, or perhaps from Cumbria, which lies further north but matches the “valley broad” description.
LadyAramisGrey: The tidiest etymology would be Germanic, Rowena coming from hrod, “fame” and wunn, “bliss, joy,” and Ravenclaw from Hrabanklawe, literally meaning “raven claw.” This would be a fine Saxon name, but she is said to have come from Scotland, which would make her more likely to be Norse than Saxon. A parallel construction is Hræfnclawu. In any case, she was probably from Lothian, possibly from Northumbria.
Loopily: Rowena is Gaelic, meaning “red-haired and rugged.”
Wemyss: Rowena is Jutish or Saxon, suggesting an origin in Kent, but “glen” suggests Scotland. Ravenclaw might be a literal translation from Gaelic or Welsh. However, the wizard Hengist of Woodcroft is clearly a Saxon, so it isn’t out of the question that Rowena or her family also immigrated to Scotland. It is also possible that Rowena is a Saxon woman of noble birth, who was wed to a Scotsman.
Someone suggested to me a long time ago that Rowena’s last name could also refer to a botched attempt at self-transfiguration or animagery, which left her with a bird’s foot for a hand. Rowena had been attempting to become an eagle, but the dark feathers gave other people the impression of a raven. She was unable to reverse the transfiguration for several years, so in paintings from this period Rowena is shown from a slightly slanted perspective in order to conceal her embarrassing bird-foot hand.
LadyAramisGrey: Salazar is a Spanish and Portuguese surname, from sala, “hall,” and the Basque zahar, “old,” meaning roughly, “dweller in the old hall.” He was probably from the Fenlands of Anglia, which were long regarded as a refuge for runaways, and was perhaps the son of a Spanish exile. Slytherin may come from slidrian, “to slip,” perhaps indicating a slippery waterbank; or sliferne, “slippery” but also “deceitful.” Godric just called him a slippery bastard and the name stuck (maybe because he was originally Salazar Slidrian and the epithet was kind of punny).
Loopily: Salazar is Spanish, meaning “manor.” He might have some from East Anglia or Spain, but “we could easily imagine Salazar as a Byzantine merchant, coming to Britain to trade [...] and funding the entire Hogwarts scheme.”
Wemyss: Slytherin is probably derived from sliþrian, which appears to be an original construction.
LadyAramisGrey: “Valley by the Hill” or “Hill’s Valley,” from hoge, “hill,” and mæd, “meadow, pasture, valley.”
LadyAramisGrey: “Hill of Wards” or “Warded Hill,” from hoge, “hill,” and weards, “guarding, protections,” eventually shifting from Hogeweards to Hogwarts.