NEW YORK — As the Harry Potter series wraps up this summer, we can look back at two remarkable narratives: Potter the boy wizard and Potter the cultural phenomenon.

Potter the wizard's fate will be known July 21 with the release of "Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows," book No. 7 of J.K. Rowling's fantasy epic. Worldwide sales of the first six books already top 325 million copies and the first printing for "Deathly Hallows" is 12 million in the United States alone. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," the fifth Potter film, opens nationwide Wednesday and is likely to be a blockbuster among summer blockbusters.

Potter the phenomenon doesn't compare for suspense, but like the wizard's tale, it is unique and extraordinary and well-placed in tradition. Like "Star Wars" and "Star Trek," it is the story of how a work of popular art becomes a world of its own — imitated, merchandised and analyzed, immortalized not by the marketers, but by the fans.

"Every phenomenon is a kind of myth unto itself, a myth about how a phenomenon becomes a phenomenon. The story of how the public embraced Potter only gives more momentum to Potter in our culture," says Neal Gabler, an author and cultural critic whose books include "Walt Disney" and "Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality."

True phenomena are never planned. Not "Star Trek," a series canceled after three seasons by NBC; or "Star Wars," rejected throughout Hollywood before it was taken on by 20th Century Fox, which didn't bother pushing for merchandising or sequel rights. The public knew better — the young people who screamed watched "Star Wars" dozens of times or carried on for years about "Star Trek" after its cancellation.

For the media, the biggest news at first was Rowling herself: an unemployed, single English mother who gets the idea for a fantasy series while stuck on a train between Manchester and London and finishes the manuscript in the cafes of Edinburgh, Scotland.

"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," the first Potter book, was released in England with a tiny first printing. Publisher Bloomsbury Press suggested that Rowling use initials instead of her real name, Joanne, out of fear that boys wouldn't read a book by a woman.

The book quickly became a commercial and critical favorite and just kept selling. It came to the United States in September 1998, renamed "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" for young Americans.

The rest is publishing history. For a time, the first three Potter books held the top positions on The New York Times' hardcover fiction list of best-sellers, leading the newspaper to create a separate category for children's books. The fourth work, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," had a first printing of 3.8 million in the United States alone.

And Potter was pulling in all ages. Rene Kirkpatrick, a buyer for All for Kids Books & Music, an independent store based in Seattle, says the appeal to grown-ups set Potter apart. She began noticing that adults not only read Rowling, but would browse through other titles in the children's fantasy section.

"People were beginning to realize that there was some extraordinary literature written for people under 19," she says. "It doesn't feel odd anymore for adults to be seen reading children's books. ... Potter has made a big difference."

Meanwhile, Potter was alive and breeding on the Internet, thanks to fan sites such as www.the-leaky-cauldron.org and www.mugglenet.com.

"Around 2000, message boards, mailing lists, blogs were starting to form into the community hubs we have now. So the fans, who were desperately awaiting word on the fifth book ... obsessed together on the Internet, writing their own fan fiction, having huge discussions picking every last piece of the canon apart and finding whatever way possible to make the wait tolerable," says Mugglenet Web master Melissa Anelli, who is writing a history of Potter, due out in 2008.

"This built on itself exponentially until, by the time the fifth book came out in 2003, there was a rabid, active, flourishing online community that was spilling off the Net and into bookstores."

In theaters, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" is on the blockbuster path. The first four Potter movies have grossed more than $3 billion worldwide, and sales for the soundtracks top 1 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks the retail market. Potter is the rare literary series to inspire a video game and is expected to have a theme park, in Orlando, Fla., by 2010.

While fads fade out, phenomena last, thanks to the same folks who got them started: the fans, the people who hold "Star Wars" conventions, post their own "Star Trek" videos online or the Potter fans around the world already vowing to continue.

"When something has staying power, it's because it strikes some kind of fundamental chord," says Gabler, the cultural critic. "Kids identify with Harry Potter and his adventures; they identify with his empowerment. It's all very circular. We feel empowered by making a phenomenon out of something like Potter and Potter itself addresses the very idea of empowerment."