What's a Muggle?

Theology through the eyes of Muggletonians, William Blake, and others

What suggested to J.K.Rowling the word “Muggles” for non-magical human beings? I wonder if it was the word “Muggletonians”? If so, the word is misapplied - the Muggle[tonian] s should be (if my guess is right) the ones who see the magic. It would be the non-Muggles who missed the many-splendour’d thing.

The great William Blake Exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge - William Blake’s Universe - was one of the high points of this year for me.

It put on display more of his engravings and prints than have ever been shown and the range was astounding. Once he gets inside your head, Blake is not an artist you can ever get out of your head..

I was struck by E.P.Thompson’s suggestion (in his book Witness against the Beast) that Blake’s parents might have been Muggletonians.

My wife and I had a dear friend called the Revd Gerard Irvine, a great friend of Betjeman, who claimed to have visited the last two of the Muggletonians. He said they were