Hallows and Horcruxes
| Time's up. Everybody has had plenty of time to play hangman to find the title the fun way. Now let's analyze it some. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I'm trying to be the first hit on Google for another 15 micro-seconds of fame. (Sorry, Andy, what with inflation and all....)  When used as an adjective, deathly can mean deadly, but it can also mean indicative of death. When I think of the latter, the state of Dumbledore's hand in Half-Blood Prince immediately comes to mind as well as Voldemort's horcruxes. My first thought was that those are hardly hallows, literally "holies" or "saintlies". They are more aptly described as infernal or ruined. Of course, to be holy or hallowed means to be "set apart", and the horcruxes are definitely set apart in a "deathly" way. Plus they used to be part of something holy, i.e. Tom Riddle's soul. Next my mind went to Godric's Hollow. I don't particularly know why -- maybe the similarity between the words hallow and hollow? But it seems like a hallow could be a place as in the oft-heard phrase "these hallowed halls" to describe educational institutions (like Hogwarts?). There were two deaths at the hollow, Harry's parents, making the place deathly and hallowed, like the ground at a cemetery. The problem is that Godric's Hollow is just one place and the title specifies a plural. Could they refer to the places, like the cave, wherein the horcruxes have been hidden? The cave is rightly described as deathly what with Inferi swimming around waiting to recruit new members. And in a sense the place is hallowed if you separate the formal "set apart" meaning from the common nuance of hallowed as something good (e.g., Saints, Angels, Heaven, the Almighty God, a church sanctuary, etc.) This is preliminary guesswork to get a conversation going. I suspect we won't know what Rowling is getting at until we have our eyes glued to the pages of the book. Update: Here's a couple posts with good points:
Labels: book 7, horcruxes, predictions |
Comments on "Hallows and Horcruxes"
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Merlin said ... (December 21, 2006 12:11 PM)
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Anonymous said ... (December 21, 2006 1:17 PM)
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Pauli said ... (December 22, 2006 11:16 AM)
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Anonymous said ... (December 22, 2006 8:10 PM)
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Anonymous said ... (December 24, 2006 11:20 PM)
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post a commentheh heh ... I only had one stick on the hangman
It was a pretty cool way to do it. In the book of magical creatures (the schoolbook) there's a hangman game played by Harry and Ron and in HBP you have the hangman game thing at Fred and George's shop
Good thoughts, thanks for the pointer!
C. Christoffersen made a good point on Amazon here, basically assuming Hallows is short for "All Hallows Eve" which makes a lot of sense. She writes: I think "Hallows" is referring to "Halloween" also known as "All Hallows Eve", a night meant to honor the dead! Perhaps the conclusion of the series will end on the same night it began, the night of Lily and James murder which coincidentally occurred on Halloween.
I'm assuming CC is a she -- nickname on Amazon is Hermione.
She's a little off on All Hallows' Eve; specifically it's to honor the saints, but since they are departed souls and the day specifically to honor the dead is November 2, one day afterward, we're close enough for horseshoes, grenades and Harry Potter.
My guesses are up on my LJ.
Thoughts on the Meaning of "Deathly Hallows"
http://felicitys-mind.livejournal.com/4373.html
I'm so glad we're getting close to the Book 7 release. At least, having the title released gives me new energy.
Felicity, "new energy" is a good way to describe it. I'd been scrounging for stuff to put up at SoG for the longest time. The whole HP world seemed to be in a bit of a lull, really. Things are exciting again.
I'm just glad it happened over my school break, so I have time to write!