Norbert
Norbert is the baby Norwegian Ridgeback dragon that Hagrid illegally hatches in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997); the dragon is later revealed to be female and renamed Norberta.
| Also known as | Norberta, Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback |
|---|---|
| Type | dragon |
| Tradition | J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter) |
| Category | Literature |
| Earliest source | Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, by J.K. Rowling, 1997 |
| Wings | Yes |
| Breathes fire | Yes |
| Guards treasure | No |
| Nature | Hostile |
The Story
Rubeus Hagrid, the gamekeeper at Hogwarts, has always wanted a dragon. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Sorcerer's Stone in the United States), he wins a dragon egg in a card game with a hooded stranger at a pub, and hatches it in the fire of his wooden hut. He names the hatchling Norbert and dotes on him, even though keeping dragons is against wizarding law.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione know the arrangement cannot last. The dragon grows fast, sets things alight, and bites Ron's hand, which swells up badly. A fellow student, Draco Malfoy, finds out. Ron writes to his brother Charlie, who works with dragons in Romania, and Charlie arranges for friends to collect the dragon by broomstick from the top of the Astronomy Tower at midnight. The smuggling succeeds, but Harry and Hermione are caught out of bed afterward and punished.
The episode matters to the plot: Hagrid later realizes that the stranger with the egg had been pumping him for information about how to get past the three-headed dog guarding the Philosopher's Stone. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007), Charlie mentions that Norbert turned out to be female and is now called Norberta.
Appearance and Powers
Norbert is a Norwegian Ridgeback, one of the dragon breeds of Rowling's wizarding world, with a row of ridges down the back. As a hatchling he has a spiny body, large wings, and orange eyes, and he grows to three times his size in a week. He can breathe fire young and has venomous fangs, as Ron learns. Rowling's companion book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them describes the breed in more detail.
Origins and Sources
Rowling's dragons are treated as dangerous magical animals rather than wise or talking beings. They have breeds, habitats, and handlers, much like real wildlife. Norbert's story follows that approach, playing a dragon for comedy and suspense rather than menace.
Legacy
Norbert appears in the 2001 film adaptation, created with computer animation. The Deathly Hallows detail about Norberta is not in the films. Compare the full-grown dragons in fantasy books of the same era, such as Saphira.
Related
- Hungarian Horntail: The Hungarian Horntail is a ferocious dragon breed from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, best known as the spiked-tailed dragon Harry Potter must get past in the first task of the Triwizard Tournament.
- Toothless: Toothless is the dragon partner of the Viking boy Hiccup in Cressida Cowell's How to Train Your Dragon books (from 2003), a tiny, talkative dragon who became the sleek black Night Fury of DreamWorks' 2010 film.
- Eustace Scrubb (dragon form): Eustace Scrubb is a selfish English boy in C.S. Lewis's The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952) who is turned into a dragon after falling asleep on a dragon's hoard, and is later restored by Aslan.
- Dragon Books
Sources and Further Reading
- J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Bloomsbury, 1997), chapter 14
- J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Bloomsbury, 2007)
- J.K. Rowling (as Newt Scamander), Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Bloomsbury, 2001)
Cite this entry: “Norbert,” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/norbert.