I gave a talk to students at the University of Louisville last week in which, almost as an aside, I asserted that the pivotal chapter of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, ‘The Silver Doe,’ was the best and most important chapter in the Hogwarts Saga. The Arthurian, alchemical, and Estecean Christian symbolism make it a one-stop introduction to everything brilliant in the series; that it is the story-turn in the series finale’s meaning-laden ring structure is just an ‘extra.’

My favorite part of the chapter is Ron Weasley’s description of how Dumbledore’s Deluminator enabled him to find Harry and Hermione on the run. The combination of light, heart, Christmas, and name tokens here and their deployment as set-up to Ron’s victory over the two-eyed Locket Horcrux (and his own transformed vision, cf. Matthew 6:21-23) reveals Rowling as a traditional allegorist in the tradition of Spenser, Shakespeare, Bunyan, Coleridge, and the Inklings.

I suspect, though, that others think of Harry’s descent into the pool to get the Sword of Gryffindor, the Locket’s attempt to strangle him, and Ron the Baptist appearing ex machina to raise the Boy Who Lived from a near-certain death by drowning as ‘The Silver Doe’s defining moment. (Did I mention the albedo-photismos qualities of this chapter?) I get that choice. High drama, plenty of action, a real Big Screen life-saving sequence. The Lady in the Lake sword-deliverer story in a snow-scape. This chapter has it all.

That being said, I want to share a passage from a 2003 novel that was a very big hit in the UK, one I think it more than credible that Rowling read at the time of its publication. If you don’t see the parallels with ‘The Silver Doe’ chapter’s sword in the frozen pond scene, I think you’ll need to read it again. It’s nothing like plagiarism or theft but a brilliant re-invention and re-purposing of another writer’s work, even perhaps a hat-tip to a like-minded author. The book is C. J. Sansom’s Dissolution, the connection with Rowling is through P. D. James, and the parallel scene and compare-and-contrast discussion with Deathly Hallows’ pivotal chapter are all to be found after the jump! [Read more…]

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

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