News reports today say that Scholastic has released the title of the final book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Who saw that coming?
“Deathly” – well, something pertaining to death, causing death, or like/in the manner of death. “Hallow” – comes from an old word for “Holy” (think, “Hallowed be Thy name” from the Lord’s Prayer). The death-like holy ones? The death-causing sacred ones?
I’m at work, so I hardly have the time to think much about this…Update: Nevermind, I can’t stop thinking about it. Initial, scattered thoughts:
- This series has been about death from start to finish; so, really, no surprise on the name.
- It’s also about dying well; so combining “death” with some plural form of “holy one” or “sacred one” is no surprise either.
- While dead people don’t come back, what exactly is “the next great adventure”? Is Rowling actually going to go in that direction? Are we going to hear what happens to great wizards who pass on (Sirius, Dumbledore, Flamel, the Potters)?
- Whatever the title means exactly (whatever a “deathly hallow” is), it’s going to link us in some way to wrapping up Rowling’s thoughts for us on this key theme of death.
I’m going to try to push ahead and get the next podcast out tonight if I can, or tomorrow night.
In the meantime, any ideas?
Update: This is comment #9; a commenter has found some excellent and interesting material at Leaky Cauldron:
I read a very interesting post over at the Leaky Cauldron that appeals to me very much:
“The Hallows could refer to the Four Hallows of Arthurian legend. They are intimately connected to the Grail and ultimately probably go back to the Four Treasures of the Tuatha de Danaan of Irish myth.
The Four Hallows are:
The Cup or Chalice
The Baton or Wand
The Sword or Dagger
The Coin, Disc or PentacleI think we were right all along in connecting the horcruxes to the four elements. These hallows are associated with the elements, and match up quite nicely to the remaining horcruxes:
Cup (HH)
Baton or Wand (RR)
Sword or Dagger (GG)
Pentacle (SS locket)Just my two knuts!”
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I did not read the imatation and I do not inted to. Hovewer the writer might work out something. I wonder if you could tell me what were horcruxes and what was the place and result of final battle.
Oh, no spoilers, please…speculation only. Even if it is a fake copy (and I’m sure it is), I don’t want to see or hear it from it.
I would wager most of those posting on this site feel the same.
I looked it up, it’s a Fan Fiction called “The Seventh Horcrux†that has been renamed and circulated, which is just annoying and unfair to the author. There are no spoilers, it’s been published some time ago, anyone who’s interested in the story can read it legitimately under the real title.
Thanks, Mia.
Something tells me things are going to get pretty ugly out there the closer we get to July 21st.
Not sure what we can do about it, although combating disinformation with the facts (thanks, Mia) is helpful.
Hey there! I’m new to this thread, but I just finished Book 6 for the umpteenth time in anticipation for the Book 7 release. I’m desperate to talk Harry Potter, so here goes (and I apologize if some of this has already been discussed):
- I’m leaning more toward “Hallows” signifying the horcruxes rather than a place b/c of “Hallows” being plural.
- JKR must tie up loose ends, so I’m thinking somehow the following will be major factors in the plot: 2-way mirror and the veil (a horizontal version of the U.S. cover art actually has curtains framing the image…connection?); Hogwarts itself (there are more school mysteries yet to be revealed, so some of the book must take place at the school I’m thinking); the disappearances, not determined deaths, of some Hogsmeade shop owners such as Olivander; why Harry’s scar is thunderbolt-shaped (and why it disappears, as the purported last line in Book 7 suggests); the phoenix’s flight at Dumbledore’s funeral (yes, he’s dead, but she wouldn’t have given the phoenix imagery unless it had meaning); and Aunt Petunia…to name a few.
- I also think that R.A.B. will not be the actual initials of an individual’s name b/c that would be too obvious, but rather a nickname or self-proclaimed title (such as Half Blood Prince) perhaps?
- Since love is the ultimate force that has been Harry’s greatest source of protection and also his greatest source of power, I don’t think he will ultimately use an unforgivable curse to kill LV. Dumbledore says time and time again that it’s LV’s greatest weakness, so I think his inability to and underestimation of love will be his demise. No way can Harry overcome LV with only his wizarding skills, nor should he be able to (you don’t fight fire with fire – you fight fire with water!).
- Interesting tidbits about the U.S. Book 7 cover art…Neither LV or HP are wielding wands, and they are both looking up at something, not facing each other. Also, they’re both wearing brown robes. Usually, Harry’s in black robes or plain clothes. It also looks like Harry’s wearing some kind of pendant or talisman around his neck which is pretty big, if you look closely. Maybe it’s the Slytherin locket, but I would think he would have that in his pocket if he’s toting it around. I also could be reading too much into the talisman aspect, but jeez, he’ll need something a l’il extra to defeat LV!
OK, I’ll shut up now.
Welcome, Avid Fan! I’ve been relishing this HP site for about a month. I’ve truly enjoyed the heated debates, brilliant theories and food for thought provided by our host and other participants. Jump in and enjoy!
Mia,
You are quite right. I it is absolutely unfair to the writer to spread her fun fiction as the book seven. Anyway I guess the book might be written rather well: The book title indicates she managed to work out something and people had to check adjective and adverbs to recognize it is not Rowling’s writing. I am not going to read the book now. I if did so, the book could fluent my posting and I respect people who do not want information from the book to appear on this chat. I have never been interested in spoilers and I also think there is lot to discuss.
Martin, it’s not a book, it’s just a story that’s been published on several HP-sites already. And I think it’s clearly recognizable as a fan fiction, without checking the adverbs. It seems to be well thought out and well written, but why on earth people passed it of for book 7 belongs in the department of mysteries.
Mia, just how long is this fanfiction?
I think Hallows has to do with All Hallows Eve on which Lily and James died. ‘Deathly Hallows’ fits with my theory I think.
Ive been wondering. What if harry get the items from the 4 founders (locket sword, cup and random ravencalw item) and unlocks the powers attributed in each one to destroy voldemort. Hes obviously not a very skilled wizard….. (harry)
O btw Avidfan, although your arguments are well based, do not place any faith in the details on the cover. Of u look at book 6 US art, dubledore has both his hands in mint condition. Also, he apears at full health after drinking the potion on the UK cover. Dont base anything on coverart.
O and btw the fake story is actually not that bad if u cant wait to read the real book. It kept me entertained, although its more of a romance novel rather than a violent gruesome book. IS anyone else hoping rowling kills harry?
I have a separate theory. Think carefull about the number seven. Seven is the number of books rowling wrote, the number of school years in a wizars life, the amout of years after a decade that a wizard comes of age, The number of pieces of LV’s sould, The moneth harry was born in (july), 7/21–721 is divisable by 7. SO the thought came to me 7 pieces of LV’s soul, 7 books
one in each book. This is only a speculation which i believe makes sense.
Socerers stone- LV himself
Chamber of secrets- diary
Prisoner of Azkaban- Ravenclaws_________(fill if you know)or the cup
Goblet of fire- Nagini?(if she is a horcrux)
Order of the pheonix- Locket (if RAB is Regulus)
Half blood prince- the ring
Book 7- The last one………..
Ace,
I’m not really sure where you’re coming from here. 7 books- 7 horcruxes. I think Voldemort already had most of the horcruxes made before he fell previously.
Would you clarify your idea please?
Matthew
all im saying is that JKR shows us the horcruxes, 1 in each book in a detail, and just flashes over them. If u read closely enough, ull find she tells us about 1 in each book. Im not tlking about when he made them, just when they are revealed to us.
I think that’s a reasonable theory, Ace. Only, I don’t think the Sorcerer’s stone was a horcrux. It was a source for Voldemort’s return to ‘life’.
Mia, just how long is this fanfiction?
Boggart, it’s 34 chapters long, just google “The Seventh Horcrux†and you’ll get there!
no Pip the sorcerers stone was the name of the book..
I was kind of wondering, between Ginny, Harry, hermione and Ron, there are 4 of them as well as 4 founders. If u had to compare each of the to a founder who would be who??
My choice:
Ginny- Slytherin
Harry- Griffindor
Hermione- ravenclaw
Ron- Hufflepuff
Keeping that in mind, what if Hogwarts is destroyed and they rebuild the school, and they are the new founders. Knid acool eh?
Ace,
If we had refound Hogwarts I’d pick- Hermione in Ravenclaw,
Neville in Hufflepuff,
Harry in Slytherin,
Luna in Gryffindor.(She certainly is brave!)
Matthew
ok, no cell phone abbreviation.Then this fake writer is quite gineus. His/her guess about the horcruxes is quite considerable.
I am not sure whether this would hurt you all or not. Here i am giving the link to the fake/leaked HP 7. I thought this might ease some of your curiosity. Pardon me if you think i am a spoiler. But i just want to share the genious of this writer.
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Link: http://rapidshare.com/files/37872253/Harry_Potter_the_deathly_hallows.rar
Pass: rossallyn
hey ive been wondering. People in hogwarts (dumbledore included) could never apparate on castle grounds. This was, according to hermione because of powerful enchantments on the grounds. Even LV could not break them after DD death. But despite all that, house elfs can apparate. I think that the house elves will become a huge weapon to harry (particularly dobby and kreacher). They may even be the ones to have a shield strong enough to destroy the Avada kedavra. just something to mull over.
O and Marconi, the writer may be genious, but she (it is a she) never claimed to have the real version, as she writes that she was unsure of some stuff and was aided by her friends in the writing of the book. Also, she is a genious writer but makes huge errors. first, she leaves out some things Rowling promised to clarify by book 7. Second LANGUAGE!! shes terrible at that. Third, she seems to make the book more of a romance novel and we lose Harry’s normal personality in the book. It is a great story though, dont get me wrong. I actually liked the story but she should have killed harry. It would have tied ends together and made for a more JKR ending rather than a fairy tale.
Has anyone else been feeling that JKR’s ideas come from a mix of the french revolution, world war two, many religious tales and of course mythology.
Does anyone else believe that Hermione may be an accomplished legimens or occlumens???
Does anyone else think that dudley could never be a wizard, I think that is not possible. The dursleys have always hated magic and they like it in The Seventh Horcrux?
There’s something we don’t know about Dudley.
Here are the facts:
He has an extremely strong reaction to the Dementors. I don’t think a Muggle would have reacted that way.
The presence of the Dementor stirs up some really nasty memories. What are those memories?
The Dementor tries to kiss Dudley. Would a Dementor kiss a Muggle?
Dudley is Lily’s nephew. It’s not impossible that he has inherited some wizarding genes.
JKR tells us Petunia is a Muggle, but suggests that there is more to her, which we will find out about in DH. Maybe she’s a Muggle but her son is not?
So there is some room for speculating that Dudders has some wizarding potential. But the question then would be: why hasn’t he used his powers? why isn’t he at Hogwarts?
I can see, with Petunia’s intense dislike of magic, that she would never have encouraged him to use his powers (if he had any), and of course kept him out of Hogwarts. But would Dudders, who is a bully, willingly have not used those powers to torment others, sort of like a stupider and less subtle version of Tom Riddle at the orphanage?
Questions, questions, questions.
But there’s something there.
Hi everyone! I’m new to the site i was looking up when the seventh book came out. i was pretty sure that it was the 21st but i didnt want to go to the barns and noble on the wrong day! Well I have a bunch of questions! I read through all of the comments before i posted this so that i didnt re-ask what someone has already said. First:the biggest thing on my mind is if harry will die. i dont want him to. if he dies then i will definately cry. i cried when dumbledore died, and i mean this is HARRY were talking about!
Second:why does kreaher like Beliatrix so much? she is an mean which!
To the theory that Dudley is a wizard, it is unlikley. He is terrified of magic. He was always telling harry to stay away from him. If he was a wizard he wouldnt have been so scared.
Is Dumbledore REALY dead? I dont know. But because he became a portarate in the headmasters office I think he is.
Oh, and marconi? dont spoil the end for us.
I’m looking forward to hearing from all of you!
Erin
Oh, and is anyone else TOTALY exited for The Order of the Phoenix to come out?
Welcome Erin.
I would say Dumbledore is dead since Snape, who made unbreakable wove, is still alive.
Perhaps you have chosen wrong and place and time to enter discusion: it looks like this discussion stopped. Why do not you enter the some of the active discussions? I am sure you will do well on Gryffidorsword.
Thanks. Well, what should I say? What have you have you guys been talking about?
Erin,
In a nutshell: We have been talking about Snanpe, horcruxes and many other topics that have occurred. I strongly recommend you the panel in right, there are three very important categories: Most Popular Posts, Recent Comment and Recent posts.
Category Most Popular Post lists the posts with the most comment. As you can see two horcrux posts are the most popular; we have reached 1000 comment mark recently on Is-Harry-a-horcrux. You can always go there; the discussion continues for very long and will continue until book seven is publish. Second popular post, Horcruxes-a-summary in not very active, but still there are some new comments. I am very interested in the topic, if you were interested as well we would meet there, most likely next week.
Category Recent comments holds five recent comments. The best way to know what is going on is to keep eyes on this category; it so happens sometimes an old and forgotten topic rise again. If there were no such a category I would never know about your two comments.
Our host Travis Prinzi adds new topics. As far as he adds a topic, the topic appears on the top of the list in category Recent posts, people usually add some comment. Severus Snape might not have been popular on Hogwarts, but he is very popular on Gryffindorswor. There are often posts related to :Snape: „Snape in Love“ is the second most recent. Hog’s Head PubCast #29 (the fourths) refers to Snape as well, in I am going to add a comment very soon, and I would be very pleased if you wrote me what do you think about it.
ok. So I need to go to the recent posts to stay with the conversation? Sorry, just trying to get aquainted!
Erin,
To join recent post is perhaps it is the best way. However you have some more possibilities: for example to join old but popular post rather then recent one. Is-Harry-a-Horcrux is a very old post as far as I know it started in September 2005, but it is still active. There are some people who prefer to discus the topic rather than join recent post, I seldom do so. You can reopen whichever post you like, but you would have to bring a stunning idea to do so. Generally speaking, recent posts and horcruxes are always good choices.
The HAllow is theplace of the climax where the deatheaterz are nd evythang
i think when it says hallows theyre refering to when harry says at the end of harry potter 6 hes going to his parents graves. the name is something that ends with hallows
yes erin dumbledore is dead remember in # 6 he got blasted off of that tower by snape and then buried in the white tomb by the lake
yes i know he’s dead. i already said that in my 1st comment.
And what do u mean Ronald Potter SP2?
the book harry potter and the deathly hallows was translated as “insigmas mortais” in portuguese, which means “deathly hints” i think it’s all about the horcruxes i think harry will get some hints the leads him to the horcruxes which are strongly protected and can kill anyone who is not capable of destrying and courses that pretect the horcruxe.
Not sure if the foreign publishers have the manuscript already. The German title hasn’t been announced yet, and the Swedish and French versions are a translation of the alternative title “Relics of Deathâ€. So how do we know that the Hallows are hints? Maybe it’s just an educated guess from the Portuguese translator…
you guys are forgetting a really important part besides the horcruxes, harry was born in Godrics Hallow, the name deathly hallows could signify the end of either voldemort or harry fighting at godrics hallow, the spot where the dark lord was brought down the first time.
Big D. agrees with Big-Z!
Big-Z,
Good point. Mabe it wil be de ja vu and voldemort will go down there for good. or mabe it will backfire and harry will die. Just have to be open to the possibilities.
yay!! the book comes out today im going to go to the store in like 30 mins!!
i started the book yesterday. im more than half way done!! its awesome! there are alot of twists. have any of u got it?
wow!! i just figured out what the deathly hallows means and it is not what and of yall think it is!! i wont spoil it but u find out in chapter 21. cool!!! im going to keep reading now.
I loved that book!! i loved it so much i read it again! i finished it for the second time about 3 days ago but it didnt occur to me to post this untill tonight. well bye!
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article Book 7 Title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
I liked how dh ended very much.I just didn’t like alot of the deaths lupin for one. or fred.do any of you share my veiws on this? also what do you think of dumbledores coming out? i guess rowling thought it was time he came out of the closet. all in all a wonderful book.good job jk rowling you are the best!
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