From Joan Evans MAGICAL JEWELS, emerald is said to enhance conjugal love, bring freedom, and magnnify everything. (Think of Nero’s emerald monocle).

The Elessar or Elfstone from which Aragorn takes his regnal name is an emerald, sign of hope. In one version of its history, was set in a brooch by the elvish smith Celebrimbor as a gift for Galadriel. Looking through it showed dead and withered things alive and fresh.

In the Middle Ages marvellous powers were attributed to the emerald, the most conspicuous being the power to preserve or heal the sight.

Given all the “corrected vision” going on in HP, this seems significant.

also as youth, hope and gladness but equally change, transitoriness and jealousy.

So here’s part of the listing for GREEN:

“Ambivalent as both life and death in the vernal green of life and the livid green of death; also as youth, hope and gladness bit equally change, transitoriness and jealousy.”

Just that first part describes a lot of what is going on with Harry throughout the seven books. At times he is full of hope, and at times he is jealous. But all of his actions and reactions are a transition from the young boy we first meet to the young man who willingly faces Voldemort at the end.

In light (no pun intended) of what Hans said about the colors, this book goes on to say:

“Compounded of blue and yellow, heaven and earth combined, green forms the mystic colour; it also combines the cold blue light of the intellect with the emotional warmth of the yellow sun to produce wisdom of equality, hope, renewal of life and resurrection.”

So, thinking about Lily and Harry with that description seems to make their green eyes even more important – a visual reminder of their purpose and their intent.

“ALCHEMIC: The Green Lion or Green Dragon is the beginning of the Great Work; the young corn god; growth; hope.”

“CHRISTIAN: Vernal green is immortality; hope; the growth of the Holy Spirit in man; life; triumph over death and Spring over Winter. It is also initiation; good works, and in medieval times it became the colour of the Trinity, Epiphany and St John the Evangelist. Pale green is equated with Satan, evil and death.”

That last is interesting. Rowling sometimes uses green as an ambiguous color – it shows both good and evil intent. The good is in Lily and Harry and Dobby, the evil in the Dark Mark, etc. – all the things listed by Hans. But if you think about both Harry and Lily, they both did have times when they weren’t perfect, they had thoughts that were less than noble. So perhaps that is some of the reason for all the green. The characters or the events that have green all (or most) have that element of choice. Lily makes choices about her friendship with Severus, about how she reacts to James when he is a bully. Harry is making choices throughout the seven books.

Like Hans, I was struck with the contrast of seeing the rubies spilled on the floor at the end of HBP, and the emeralds in Deathly Hallows. It was that signal that the house connected to the emeralds was no longer in power as it had been.

I’ve now lost my train of thought, so I’ll just leave it there for now and try to make more sense of it tomorrow.

I see that the first part of this post is showing up without the rest, so perhaps, John, you could delete that part so it’s all together. Otherwise, it’ll make even less sense.

Pat

This is non-responsive but additive – I note that Dobby’s eyes also are green, which is consistent with Harry’s and Lily’s eyes being green, if you consider Dobby as Harry’s disciple as has been discussed recently by others, I believe. Also, the letters from Hogwarts received each summer are written in green ink, the merpeople’s hair is dark green, Harry’s dress robes are bottle green, and Rita Skeeter’s robes and ink are acid green. I also seem to recall Harry using green ink in one of the early books but don’t have time now to go find the reference.

Green as the traditional symbol of hope makes a lot of sense in terms of the Harry Potter series and Harry’s eyes.

It seems to me that there is a dual nature to the color green. On the one hand there is the “bad” side of snakes, envy, and avarice/money which is consistent with the Slytherin reputation and the description of the Dark Mark. On the other hand, green is also the color of plants, leaves, and grass, which go through an annual cycle of death and rebirth. Hope would seem to spring from the verdant aspect of green. Red and green are the colors of Christmas, with green coming from the evergreen tree and wreaths. On JKR’s website is a family tree showing who a number of the characters marry and the names of their children. It shows Draco marrying a woman named Asteria Greengrass. This may be one way of showing Draco’s shift in focus from bad Slytherin towards a love of the good verdant side of Slytherin.

Hans raised the Quidditch World Cup, which I’ve been wanting to write about for a while, but hadn’t found a good posting to comment on where it would arguably be relevant. I don’t have time to write about it tonight as I would have liked, but I promise to bore you all in the morning with my thoughts!

And, briefly, if red symbolizes charity, and if charity could then be said to symbolize red, that gives new meaning to the murder of Charity Burbage at the beginning of DH. It underscores the apparent defeat of Gryffindor at the end of HBP when the hourglass of rubies broke.

“The emerald, which is colored green by trace amounts of chromium (a steely-gray, lustrous, hard metal that takes a high polish and has a high melting point…[it] was regarded with great interest due to its high corrosion resistance and hardness) and sometimes vanadium (the chemical element with the symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a soft, silvery grey).[15]

“Green is considered one of the additive primary colors, along with red and blue. In subtractive color mixtures, green is created by mixing yellow and blue pigments or dyes. On the HSV Color Wheel, the complement of green is magenta; that is, a color corresponding to an equal mixture of red and blue light…. On a traditional color wheel, based on subtractive color, the complementary color to green is considered to be red.[6]”

Some of the properties (qualities) above are certainly reflected in Lily’s and Harry’s character.