Did Jesus Visit St Mawes in Cornwall?

April 8, 2023 by 1 Comment

The Daily Mail presents the case for the legend of Jesus having traveled to Cornwall with Joseph of Arimethea, a maternal uncle, on a business trip to buy tin, a necessary component for bronze-making: ‘Did Jesus visit Cornwall? It sounds beyond belief. But according to local folklore, he sailed here as a teenager with his tin merchant uncle.’ I wonder if Dave Polworth was aware of this legend and if they weren’t connected to the mysterious caves he and his new friend were about to explore before Leda intervened. Surely Aunt Joan would have told her nephew about the Jesus Well, the Druids, and the tin connection?

That’s as close as I want to get to an ‘Easter piece’ here at HogwartsProfessor. I hope your celebrations of Western Easter are joyous!

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Hog Pro Notes

Rowling, Dylan Thomas, and the I Ching: Three Thoughts on Strike7’s Epigraphs

April 5, 2023 by 4 Comments

We learned yesterday that all of the epigraphs in The Running Grave will be from the I Ching: Rowling Reveals Running Grave Epigraphs will All be from the I Ching. This was not a total surprise because of a previous twitter homepage header that featured the hexagrams and the manuscript’s cover page and its I Ching epigraph, but it was a break with the customary link of title author and book epigraphs that we have had in five of the six Strike novels. Chris Calderon responded to my post on this subject with an excellent review of articles written here and at StrikeFans about the relationship of Dylan Thomas with the Galbraithian themes of ‘morality and mortality’ as well as a possible link between the poet and the Book of Changes. I had three thoughts inspired by Mr Calderon’s notes which I share after the jump. See you there! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike

Rowling Reveals Running Grave Epigraphs will All be from the I Ching

April 4, 2023 by 4 Comments

In a post early this morning, Rowling tweeted out an anniversary message and thank you:

In a remarkably chatty and enthusiastic comment thread, Rowling shared this remarkable tidbit about The Running Grave’s epigraph source:

 

Rowling had hinted at this in her previous twitter header that featured the I Ching and we knew already that the book’s opening epigraph would be from this divinatory classic via the sleuthing of The Rowling Library.

 

You can read Beatrice Groves’ first thoughts on this subject, ‘The Running Grave: Strike 7, the I Ching and the Yarrow Stalks,’ one she wrote in anticipation of the news announced today. Indeed, we are back to the single source mother-lode of epigraphs, a la Lethal White and Rosmersholm as well as Troubled Blood and The Faerie Queene. 

I think this is a first, namely, Rowling revealing her sole source for epigraphs prior to publication. Will you be reading the I Ching and practicing the divinatory and reflective arts with stalks and coins in the run-up to The Running Grave?

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike

Three Broomsticks Podcast

April 3, 2023 by Leave a Comment

It is no secret that I am a bit of a podcast junkie, listening to over fifty different ones regularly, and for me this has largely replaced live radio. The launch of a new podcast centred around one of my passions and led by the insightful Irvin Khaytman was therefore a cause for celebration in the Jeffery household this February. Irvin is the author of Dumbledore: The Life and Lies and has writes under the name “hpboy13” in the Three Broomsticks column covering not just Harry Potter but also Strike, The Christmas Pig and The Ickabog. The Three Broomsticks podcast bills itself as:

A Harry Potter podcast that dives deeply into the seven books and the wider Wizarding World to find new insight and discuss the tiniest of details.

Irvin was a host of the Alohomora! podcast from 2019 to 2022, a fun and slightly anarchic look at the Harry Potter books. Generally one chapter at a time, and featuring many Mugglenet contributors. I had hoped that The Three Broomsticks would follow Irvin’s interest in the post Potter, and so I was delighted when along with Dr Beatrice Groves and Mugglenet contributions editor Sophia Jenkins, I was asked to participate in episode five, looking at the parallels between the villains in Half Blood Prince and The Ink Black Heart. Irvin had previously written on this very subject and more generally and of course Beatrice has also published The Ink Black Prince in The Rowling Library magazine and Ink Black Vampires in Bathilda’s Notebook. These formed the basis of what was a very fun discussion, which at over two hours form, with Alohomora, the longest podcasts that I subscribe to. Talking with Irvin, Sophia and Beatrice was such a pleasure it certainly didn’t seem that long when we were recording.

In this episode:

  • Draco parallels ALL the characters!
  • Why Death Eaters never wear t-shirts
  • Peaches are dumb. So, so dumb.
  • Will Charlotte be redeemed? You heard it here first!
  • Do we like Madeline or no?
  • Is Harry actually a villain?
  • RIP the Farting Sofa

You can listen to the episode here, or subscribe on Apple, Google or Spotify. Let me know what you think in the comments below!

 

Filed Under: Beatrice Groves, Cormoran Strike, Nick Jeffery

Beatrice Groves – The Lion’s Mouth

April 2, 2023 by 3 Comments

On the 30th March J. K. Rowling changed her Twitter header to give us another clue about the upcoming Strike instalment The Running Grave, cleverly identified by @CormStrikeFan as Lion’s Mouth Aylmerton. Beatrice Groves, Research Lecturer and tutor at Trinity College, Oxford, and author of  Literary Allusion in Harry Potter, has written a Hogwarts Professor Guest Post: ‘Save me from the lion’s mouth’: Rowling’s new header and the Norfolk location of The Running Grave. Join Prof Groves as she looks at the historic and literary parallels in this quiet corner of Norfolk, after the jump:

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Beatrice Groves, Cormoran Strike