Deathly Hallows Tenth Anniversary (2) Looking Back and Looking Forward

July 26, 2017 by Leave a Comment

From the HogwartsProfessor.com Deep Vaults, a half-hour’s ride with Griphook into the bowels of Gringotts!

As I explain (sort of!) in the video above, in the run-up to the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ten years ago , I made a prediction each day for seven days. How did I do? I’ll let you be the judge.

The Seven Predictions

The day after the finale was published, I started posting discussion threads. In a week or so we were up to thirty. For a taste of that ‘day of release’ excitement, these conversations are a convenient short-cut.

The Thirty ‘Deathly Hallows’ Threads

And then there were the longer posts about what made Deathly Hallows great. I made lists of some of those posts much later in 2007 as a poor man’s ‘Year in Review.’

The 2007 HogPro Greatest Hits List ; Alternative: Top ‘Potter Stories’ in 2007 List

To loop this back to the beginning above, how about some silly speculation? In March, 2007, we learned the title of the last book and we saw its Scholastic cover for the first time. For laughs, check out the best guesses of the best thinking from the best Potter Pundits with respect to what the title and covers were about…

March 2007: ‘The Meaning of the title Deathly Hallows’

March 2007: Thoughts about the Deathly Hallows Book Cover

And don’t forget the video’s message! If you want to receive weekly VLOGS or information about next month’s four free Potter Pundit online classes, you have to sign up for email notification. Sign up for the pdf in the ever recurring Pop Up box (now just as you exit) or head over to PotterPundits.com and share your email address today.

Happy Anniversary, All-Pros! Thanks for liking this post and sharing your thoughts in the comment boxes below!

Filed Under: Deathly Hallows Discussion Points, Deathly Hallows Lectures, Hog Pro Notes

Good Friday Mailbag: A Trip to King’s Cross with Harry

April 6, 2012 by 8 Comments

In observance of Catholic and Reformed Christian ‘Good Friday,’ I thought a trip to King’s Cross was in order. I know I speak for the HogwartsProfessor staff in wishing those believers observing the Christian holidays in their various denominations an edifying experience of the Lord’s sacrifice and a joyous celebration of His Resurrection.

This question comes from a student at Augustana College who attended a retreat at Stronghold Castle where I spoke last weekend on the subject of Ring Composition in Harry Potter:

Hi, I have a couple of questions for John Granger that I did not get to ask him at the retreat.

My first question it that if the idea of rings is so prevalent in so many books, than why isn’t it taught at schools? I just think that it is weird that this idea could be in so many different books but not be taught.

The other thing is, we were having a discussion on Voldemort either being the embodiment of pure evil in the series or is Voldemort Harry’s shadow that he has to overcome in himself? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Deathly Hallows Lectures, Hog Pro Notes

Mailbag: King’s Cross Gaffe in Deathly Hallows Lectures

September 5, 2011 by 3 Comments

It would hurt to learn what a doofus I am if readers were not so wonderfully kind in presenting my mistakes in their letters to me. I give you this note from Bill Davis about my Harry Potter’s Bookshelf and Deathly Hallows Lectures as a case in point. He wrote (and I share this with his permission):

John,

I just read “The Deathly Hallow’s Lectures” and “Harry Potter’s Bookshelf”.  I found them to be quite interesting.   However, in both books (and I suspect some of your other Harry Potter books),  there are frequent references to King’s Cross tube station.   You stress the significance of this being an underground location.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Deathly Hallows Lectures, Hog Pro Notes

Let ‘The Deathly Hallows Speaking Tour’ Begin! Ring Composition Book Now Available Online

October 18, 2010 by 12 Comments

In celebration of the release of the first Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movie on 19 November, I begin my Deathly Hallows Speaking Tour today. With stops as far west as Moline, Illinois, north as Milwaukee, Wisconsin, east as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and south as Columbia, South Carolina, the next four weeks promise great fun that will literally be all over the map!

I’m excited about this trip because of the number and variety of venues, of course, but also because I’ll be sharing for the first time with a larger audience the mind-blowing discovery that Ms. Rowling, as her name suggests, is a Ring Writer. Not only is her series a seven book cycle conforming to the four traditional markers of Ring Composition that we find in ancient, biblical, medieval, and modern works, but all seven books, to include every one of the 198 chapters and epilogue, are shaped by ring formula.

Below the jump you’ll find a list of the twenty stops I’ll be making in the next four weeks and the several topics I’ll be addressing. I hope to see you at one or more! If you cannot make it, say, because you live well west of the Mississippi, I have put together a Harry Potter as Ring Composition and Ring Cycle special limited edition book for this tour that is available either as a paperback book or pdf file to download. It’s an expanded version of my talk to TGTSNBN earlier this month and it will only be available until the much longer version is published early next year. It’s not as much fun as a talk — but it does have all the diagrams and charts detailing Ms. Rowling’s remarkable ring artistry.

Read on for details about The Deathly Hallows Speaking Tour and a brand new Potter pundits publication!

Filed Under: Deathly Hallows Lectures, Hog Pro Notes, Ring Composition, Twilight

The Three Final ‘Deathly Hallows’ Chapters Begin With Harry Potter “Lying Face Down.” So What?

April 17, 2010 by 5 Comments

I am just back from a wonderful speaking tour during which I gave talks at a C. S. Lewis Conference in Oklahoma City, an Anglican church outside St. Louis, a Community Center in Sikeston, Missouri, and at Augustana College. The topics ranged from Lewis’ Space Trilogy and its alchemical relevance in understanding Michael Ward’s astrological Planet Narnia thesis to ‘Why We Love or Despise Stephenie Meyers’ Twilight Books’ with a few stops to unlock Harry Potter and unpack his Christian content. I had a lot of fun, sold a few books, and made a bunch of friends and reconnected with others. Many, many thanks to Messrs Aaron and Steven Taylor in Oklahoma City, Eighth Day Books’ Joshua, Fr. Matthew Mayes and Dr. and Mrs. David Stroud in Missouri (and Sara!), and Pastor Richard Priggie, English Education Elly, and Dental  Stephanie at Augustana for making the trip as enjoyable and edifying as it was for me.

I spoke with Pastor Priggie’s ‘Postmodernism and Harry Potter’ class on Wednesday and then again that night over pizza about the last chapters and epilogue of Deathly Hallows. The class I spoke with last year showed up for the evening discussion (or was it the pizza?) and the discussion largely turned on an observation by Amanda Rodriguez of a story point that had escaped me entirely. She noted that the last three chapters of Deathly Hallows begin with Harry lying face down.

Perhaps you noticed that and have discussed it at length at other Potter fan sites. Forgive me if you caught that as Amanda did and if you think its meaning is straight forward or has been beaten to death. I certainly didn’t make this catch until Miss Rodriguez brought it to my attention and am unaware of discussion of the point because I don’t surf even the better Potter sites (Hog’s Head excepted, of course). And, as comprehensive as The Deathly Hallows Lectures is, this isn’t mentioned in that valuable resource. I think it is worth discussing what this face-first posture means in itself, in relation to the last three chapters, and how they work together. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Deathly Hallows Lectures