Friend of this blog Beatrice Groves, Research Fellow and Tutor at Trinity College, Oxford University, and author of Literary Allusion in Harry Potter, has been writing articles for Harry Potter fandom mega-sites MuggleNet.com and The-Leaky-Cauldron.org. MuggleNet has created a home for her posts on everything from Shakespeare allusions in the Hogwarts Saga to Cratylic Names in Cormoran Strike, a dedicated page called ‘Bathilda’s Notebook.’
Prof Groves writes less frequently for Leaky (see her three part discussion there from July about the 2005 JKR-Lev Grossman interview) but has just finished a five-part survey of Rowling’s use of traditional plant lore in the Harry Potter novels. My favorite is the fifth and concluding part in which she reveals the alchemical side of plants (and makes a great catch, a first I think, of the hermetic items for sale in Diagon Alley), but all five have Groves’ characteristic wit and insight.
Who knew Culpeper’s Complete Herbal was so important to Rowling’s potions work and alchemical drama? “Not I,” says the Dean. I include links to the five posts below for your convenience in finding and reading all five. Enjoy!
“Harry Potter: A History of Magic” and Plant Lore:
- Part One: J.K. Rowling and Culpeper’s Complete Herbal
- Part Two: Bubotuber Pus and the Doctrine of Signatures
- Part Three: Plants and J.K. Rowling’s Cratylic naming
- Part Four: ‘We can talk, if there is anyone worth talking to:’ The Language of Flowers
- Part Five: Apothecaries, Alchemists and the Hogwarts houses
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