The following podcast contains audio extracted from videos on the Harry Potter Theory YouTube channel.

Before Harry Potter ever stepped foot in Hogwarts, and even before Voldemort killed his parents,

there was a whole other story, one of dark wizards, ancient secrets and magical wars.

This is everything that came before.

So settle in, brace yourselves, and let's wind back the clock on wizarding history.

Also a reminder that this is a compilation style video, so please be aware of some varied audio levels and inconsistent numbering.

Let's dive in. Herpa the Fowl creates the first Hawkerux, ancient Greece.

Voldemort is commonly associated with Hawkerxes

as he was successfully able to produce so many

but what a lot of people don't realize

is that a wizard by the name of Herpo the Fowl did it first

Herpo was an ancient dark wizard that hailed from Greece

and though we don't have an exact date for when he walked the earth

we do know that it was in ancient Greece,

a period of Greek history that lasted from the Greek Dark Ages, 1050 to 750 BC, to the end of antiquity, AD 600.

This would put his creation of the first ever Hawkerax as one of the earliest moments in known visiting history.

And although Herpo only created one Hawkerx, one of the earliest moments in known wizarding history.

And although Herpo only created one Hawkerax, a seemingly small feat when compared with Voldemort

7, what we have to be mindful of is the fact that he was the first to do it.

He set the stage and figured out that it was possible.

Over the course of history, J.K. Rowling has mentioned that many witches and wizards had tried to create one, but none succeeded or survived.

Wizards would have been looking for ways to do exactly what Voldemort did for years, and some of the ways they would have tried would have killed them.

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