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"Fair Ravenclaw, from glen…."— The Sorting Hat on Ravenclaw's birthplace Rowena Ravenclaw was born sometime in the tenth century. She was from the glens of Scotland, and was either born or married into the Ravenclaw family. Rowena was a close friend of Helga Hufflepuff, from the Welsh valleys. At an unknown time and by unknown means, Rowena acquired a wand. It is possible she purchased it from the Ollivander family, who had been in the wand-making business since 382 B.C., or made it herself. Hogwarts founder"You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago — the precise date is uncertain — by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school Houses are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin."— Cuthbert Binns teaching Hogwarts' history United by the common goal of creating the world's best magic school, Rowena Ravenclaw and her good friends Helga Hufflepuff, Godric Gryffindor, and Salazar Slytherin built Hogwarts Castle together and established Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry sometime around 993. It is a popular historical theory that the location and name of Hogwarts were both chosen by Rowena, who dreamt that a warty hog was leading her to a cliff by the lake. She also came up with the ever-changing floor plan. Rowena selected her students according to intelligence and wisdom. Ravenclaw House therefore values a sharp mind, wisdom, creativity, and cleverness in its members. At some point, Rowena bore a daughter, Helena, who was taught by Rowena herself at Hogwarts. After a time in which the school enjoyed great prosperity, Rowena's fellow founder Salazar Slytherin proposed a controversial action in which Muggle-born students should not be admitted to Hogwarts based on their heritage. Ironically, a large percentage of Ravenclaw's own house were of Muggle descent. She and the rest of the founders refused Slytherin's plan and the problem escalated to such degrees that Salazar ultimately left the school permanently. Later life and death"I stole the diadem. I sought to make myself cleverer, more important than my mother. I ran away with it. My mother, they say, never admitted that the diadem was gone, but pretended that she had it still. She concealed her loss, my dreadful betrayal, even from the other founders of Hogwarts. Then my mother fell ill — fatally ill. In spite of my perfidy, she was desperate to see me one more time. She sent a man who had long loved me, though I spurned his advances, to find me. She knew that he would not rest until he had done so."— Helena Ravenclaw's ghost reminiscing on her past At some point after her graduation from Hogwarts School, her daughter Helena stole Ravenclaw's diadem, which was said to enhance the wearer's wisdom. Helena was jealous of her mother's famous intellect and took the diadem with her to Albania, far away from her mother's reach, in hopes of surpassing her. Ashamed of her daughter's betrayal, Rowena opted to keep her daughter's treachery a secret from others and denied it even from her fellow founders. Shortly afterwards, Rowena fell fatally ill. Disregarding her treason, she asked the Baron, who was in love with Helena, to go and find her daughter, merely wishing to see her one last time. He eventually tracked her to a forest in Albania but when she refused to return with him, the Baron flew into a fit of rage, furious at her refusal and envious of her freedom, and stabbed her. Immediately overcome with guilt, he then took his own life. The two would later become, respectively, Ravenclaw and Slytherin house ghosts. Thus, Rowena apparently didn't get the chance to reconcile with her daughter before their untimely deaths, unless her daughter's ghost returned to the castle before Rowena's own death. Legend had it that a "broken heart" added to her early demise. This story may have had origin in her estrangement with her daughter. Rowena was the first of the founders to die.

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