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$580M undersea cable rerouted to avoid the grave of Dobby the House Elf

https://www.tomshardware.com/networking/usd580-million-undersea-cable-rerouted-to-avoid-the-grave-of-dobby-the-house-elf-company-caves-to-fan-demands-to-safeguard-harry-potter-filming-location-will-instead-pass-by-bronze-age-burial-site
22•rbanffy•1h ago

Comments

Lx1oG-AWb6h_ZG0•1h ago
> The fans’ resistance to having Dobby’s “grave” desecrated seemingly prevented the undersea cable from going through the area. It was instead rerouted in an area that was close to some Bronze Age remains and urns, which, ironically, are associated with human burial.
Swizec•22m ago
> instead rerouted in an area that was close to some Bronze Age remains and urns

To be fair, in the UK (and much of Europe) bronze age remains are everywhere. But there’s only 1 fictional Dobby grave.

Like farmers will regularly dig up a bronze age thingamabob while plowing a field. For example [1], [2]. There’s a story like this every couple of years.

[1] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/23/farmer-bronze-ag...

[2] https://allthatsinteresting.com/rhubodach-scotland-bronze-ag...

yehoshuapw•9m ago
while I do agree with this point, I want to point out that this isn't quite a fair comparison.

every single entity has (normally) a single (real) burial site. Us grouping many unknowns in one group, and comparing to a single specific one is not quite fair...

there is only one burial site of many other fictional characters including some other well known and beloved ones.

Rebelgecko•18m ago
TBF, human burial sites are a dime a dozen. There's relatively few locations associated with house elf remains.
tgv•6m ago
None, to be precise.
OgsyedIE•1h ago
The cost of planning the alternative route hasn't been published anywhere yet AFAIK, although it's non-trivial to estimate.
mhb•52m ago
There is some skepticism about the veracity of this. Of course, be skeptical of the skepticism.

https://bsky.app/profile/dsquareddigest.bsky.social/post/3ms...

scottLobster•42m ago
If anyone doubts that popular media has at least somewhat taken the place of religion, here you go
seki285•13m ago
And made the cable reroute through a Bronze Age burial site too...
dist-epoch•42m ago
Reminds me of this classic article from Michael Lewis:

> Alcoa, the biggest aluminum company in the country, encountered two problems peculiar to Iceland when, in 2004, it set about erecting its giant smelting plant. The first was the so-called "hidden people"-or, to put it more plainly, elves-in whom some large number of Icelanders, steeped long and thoroughly in their rich folkloric culture, sincerely believe. Before Alcoa could build its smelter it had to defer to a government expert to scour the enclosed plant site and certify that no elves were on or under it. It was a delicate corporate situation, an Alcoa spokesman told me, because they had to pay hard cash to declare the site elf-free but, as he put it, "we couldn’t as a company be in a position of acknowledging the existence of hidden people."

https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/2009/4/wall-street-on...

voidUpdate•24m ago
If it's a legal requirement to have the government check for hidden people before you do building, why do they need to hide the fact they did it? I'm not a Christian but I'm pretty sure I'd still need to deconsecrate a church before knocking it down
Freak_NL•5m ago
> I'm not a Christian but I'm pretty sure I'd still need to deconsecrate a church before knocking it down

What makes you think that? If you own it, it isn't a listed building, and zoning laws allow it, you can knock it down in most countries. I'm not sure that would be illegal anywhere.

Deconsecration is part of canon law for some religions. Whether you as an individual care about those or not is a personal matter. I doubt that there are many cases where the previous owner forgot to deconsecrate the church when they sold it off.

gempir•40m ago
> The National Trust, which owns the land, has previously warned pilgrims not to do so, as the area is ecologically sensitive, but it seems that people still do so.

Ah okay, laying a few stones is ecologically sensitive, but if a billion dollar company wants to dig up the entire beach for a cable, that's not a problem.

bpodgursky•18m ago
I have literally never heard anyone associated with the environmental movement say:

"This area is ecologically insensitive. I'm not too worried what you do here."

Until they define some map or scale of what "ecologically sensitive" means, I put zero weight on that statement. It's meaningless. They say it about everything because it is their job to do so.

literalAardvark•8m ago
I'm guessing you also haven't asked. All places are very much not the same degrees of sensitive and important.
cjbgkagh•5m ago
A common trick in mining is to send surveyors to an area you don’t want so the various interests just so happen to decide that the area being surveyed is the one with historical / ecological significance. After that has been established they send surveyors for the area they do want.
DonHopkins•24m ago
>According to The Guardian, project manager Simon Ludlam pointed out in a BBC interview that the cable would transition underwater at Freshwater West.

Nicely played, Simon. All those international trans-Atlantic fiber optics cables must really rustle JK Rowling's jimmies, yet she still continues to post ignorant bigoted abusive tweets over them.

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$580M undersea cable rerouted to avoid the grave of Dobby the House Elf

https://www.tomshardware.com/networking/usd580-million-undersea-cable-rerouted-to-avoid-the-grave...
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