What's Going On Here?

I thought I'd provided a general update regarding this blog and some items of interest. The general answer to the question posed in the title is "not a whole lot". The real brains of this outfit has always been Merlin, and he is currently working like a dog on his doctorate up at Fordham U in the Bronx. Although he hasn't blogged here in quite some time, he can sometimes be found over at John Granger's blog commenting under his "secret identity", Brett. Cubeland Mystic likewise has decided to close up shop as far as blogging goes to concentrate more time and energy on his fiction writing. He has two books in the works and we wish him the greatest success. I have been blogging over here lately my relatively new, "kitchen sink-style" blog I named Contra Pauli for lack of any other name. The name is part tribute to the now defunct political parody blog I was part of for a time, The Contra Crunchy Conservative, and partly a shtick where I demand my readers offer heated criticism of anything with which they disagree. The content of Contra Pauli tends toward religion and society in general, but we get into film and music quite a bit as well with a touch of politics and all sprinkled liberally with my acerbic sense of humor. If you don't mind a few inside jokes, come on over and take a gander. As far as HP blog news, I see John Granger has a new post on the (rather unnecessary) proof that Rowling did intend Harry Potter to be an alchemical work. I'm sure the quote from Rowling herself will not satisfy those resembling Flat-earth Society members or the moon-landing deniers. Travis Prinzi continues his PubCast series which I highly recommend. He's currently on his 18th installment. He mentioned Dan Radcliffe's question to Rowling ("Isn't he [Dumbledore] dead?") and speculation stemming from the response last month. Sword of Gryffindor remains the first place I go to check on any Harry Potter news. I won't be formally shutting down Muggle Matters by any means. We'll leave it open indefinitely and as always, I welcome all readers' comments.

'Deathly Hallows' release date announced: July 21, 2007

The book 7 release date will July 21, 2007. Whoopee!

Meaning of Hallows: Felicity's Post

Busy HP researcher, Felicity, put an excellent post about the meaning of the book 7 title, especially of the word hallows. It made me rethink my trust in using only online dictionaries which only show one word at a time; if I had brushed the dust of my trusty thick American College Dictionary (which I just did) my post on Friday would have most likely been somewhat expanded. I would have seen the other meaning of hallow which is related to our words hello and holler and means a "calling out", as Felicity points out, quoting the Oxford English Dictionary: Hallow, n. (OED) A hallow is a call that a huntsman gives to the dogs to incite them to catch the quarry (e.g., rabbit). "A loud shout or cry, to incite dogs in the chase, to help combined effort, or to attract attention." A hallow also refers to the spoils (in the form of part of the rabbit) given to the dogs after it is caught; therefore it refers to the quarry itself. OED: "The parts of the hare given to hounds as a reward or encouragement after a successful chase." So you have a hallow as a holy person or place (Dumbledore, Potters, Godric's hollow), a "shout-out" ("Hey, yo, we got all your hocruxes, Big Guy!" and/or the quarry, i.e., the horcruxes themselves ("Hallow, what have we here? A horcrux!"). In her reply to my comment about the "blood of Abel", Felicity she gave some of the preliminary reported foreign translations of the title which are, as she pointed out, unofficial and "all over the place": French News: "Harry Potter et les Sanctuaires Mortels", "Harry Potter et les Reliques Mortelles" ("Mortel" has 2 meanings in French: that cause death or that's bound to die; sanctuary and relic are my guesses for the other two words. Italian News: "Harry Potter e il Rito Mortale", "Harry Potter and the deadly rite/ceremony/ritual" Russian News: "Harry Potter and the Deathly/Fatal Relics" Netherlands/Dutch News: "Harry Potter en het Fatale Heiligdom", i. e., "Harry Potter and the Fatal Relic" or "Harry Potter and the Fatal Sanctuary" [According to a Leaky comment, the official Dutch translator declines to translate as there are multiple translations in Dutch possible, including saints (as in Holy Person) and relic (Holy Artifact).] Danish News: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Screams" German News: "Harry Potter and the Saints of Death" Spanish News: "Harry Potter y los Santos Mortales", i.e., Harry Potter and the Mortal Saints", "Harry Potter and the Spirits of Death" Quite an assortment of meanings when brought back into English. Meanwhile, commenter Cory remarks on the "Arthurian angle" over at Travis's site. Cory got this from a Leaky Cauldron comment where I found this link to the Arthurian reference. Directly underneath was this comment which connects the title to the unbreakable vow(s?) made by Snape. It obviously means "Harry Potter and the Deathly Vows". The last book was all about the question of whether Snape was good or bad, so this one we will find about about the deathly vows Snape took, and how it will help him along his path to kill Voldemort with Harry. I bet you snape took a "deathly vow" with Dumbledore to kill Voldemort. Although I really like commenter Darth Vader's insight here, I disagree with him that anything is obvious at this point. Great theory though. Reminds me of the passage in Genesis when the Lord hallows the Sabbath; this is part of his covenant with man which is always enacted in the form of a vow -- I'll let that be a hand-off to Merlin the Hebrew scholar.

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: Good points by HP Prognostications. Travis weighs in La Shawn goes after Mallory -- and mentions MM -- thanks, La Shawn!

Book 7 Title Revealed

I know what the title is! I know what the title is! HT: HPANA, but there's a way to find out from JKR's site so I won't ruin it -- you can do it by clicking on the eraser. All the instructions are in that HPANA article. I'm too lazy to figure it all out myself.