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Death of the Riddles[]
In the fourth film, the grave of Tom Riddle Snr and his parents states they died in 1943. However, the first chapter of the fourth book - which opens in August 1994 - says they died "fifty years before on a fine summer's morning". Fifty years before 1994 was 1944, not 1943. Is this an error by the film-makers and should I therefore change their pages to say they died in 1944? (And also move the mention of the event from the 1943 page to the 1944 page)? --May32 (talk) 17:09, July 21, 2016 (UTC)
As there appears to be a conflict, I think we need to assemble references for 1943 or 1944 and see which has more support. (I swore this was asked of JKR at some point and she mentioned how bad she was at math so keep an eye out in the interviews as well)
- 1943
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 17 (A Sluggish Memory), page 362 - "In the summer of his sixteenth year..."TM Riddle born 31 Dec 1926, turns 16 in Dec 1942, summer would be 1943
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
- 1944
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 1 (The Riddle House)
Other evidence welcomed! --Ironyak1 (talk) 18:06, July 21, 2016 (UTC)
Personally, I´d assume that fifty years is rounded, and is not necessarily mean excact fifty years.--Rodolphus (talk) 18:17, July 21, 2016 (UTC)
- Thanks for your help! The only other place where I could find anything about the Riddles murder from Jo was on Pottermore here - http://www.pottermore.com/features/the-sad-history-of-merope-gaunt.
- It says about Tom Snr when he found out what Merope did, "Riddle returned to his family home without ever troubling himself to discover what become of her — to his cost 16 years later, when their son murdered him and the rest of the Riddle family." Tom Snr left and went home in 1926 before his child was born. 16 years later was 1942. So we have three different dates - Jo isn't really clear enough in many different sources. Should we just put "c. 1943" to reconcile the different dates? -- May32 (talk) 18:22, July 21, 2016 (UTC)
- Just had an interesting chat with Steve Vander Ark over at the redesigned Harry Potter Lexicon about this issue and he noted correctly that "In the summer of his sixteenth year" would actually be 1942 (Born 31 Dec 1926 so 1927 is 1st year, 1928 is 2nd... 1942 is 16th year. They still have this date displayed either as 1943 or 1944 on HPL but I think his interpretation of the text is correct and would take precedence over the tombstone dates shown in GOF. Thoughts? --Ironyak1 (talk) 21:58, July 22, 2016 (UTC)