Unrelated to J. K. Rowling. Alphabetiical few pages each description about history of terms. Plus old woodcut style illustrations. Wands and wizards, boggarts and broomsticks, hippogriffs and herbology, all have astonishing histories rooted in legend, literature, or real-life events dating back hundreds or even thousands of years. Magic wands, like those sold in Rowling’s Diagon Alley, were once fashioned by Druid sorcerers out of their sacred yew trees. Love potions were first concocted in ancient Greece and Egypt. And books of spells and curses were highly popular during the Middle Ages.

From Amulets to Zombies, you’ll also learn:
• how to read tea leaves
• where to find a basilisk today
• how King Frederick II of Denmark financed a war with a unicorn horn
• who the real Merlin was
• how to safely harvest mandrake root
• who wore the first invisibility cloak
• how to get rid of a goblin
• why owls were feared in the ancient world
• what really lies beyond the Veil
• the origins of our modern-day “bogeyman,” and more.