For fans of J. K. Rowling and her literary artistry, podcasts with and online articles by Oxford’s Beatrice Groves are always an event — and we are in the midst of a veritable flood of new material from this sage Potter Pundit. I had to update the author of Literary Allusion in Harry Potter‘s Pillar Post page at HogwartsProfessor this morning in the wake of her latest Cormoran Strike detective work — and had to make twelve new entries!
For the literary alchemists in the reading audience, there are links to her podcast on Alchemical Weddings and her three posts inspired by Rowling’s ‘Solve et Coagula’ tattoo.
For Ickabog readers, she wrote two articles about the meanings and allusions in the names of her political fairy tale’s characters.
And for Cormoran Strike fans waiting impatiently for the release of Troubled Blood, there is a podcast about The Faerie Queene as well as articles sharing her reflections on Tom Burke and Aleister Crowley, her discovery of a Walt Whitman poem embedded obliquely in Cuckoo’s Calling, and her exegesis of the Rosmersholm epigraphs in Lethal White for understanding the relationship of Cormoran and Robin.
If that weren’t enough, I have read she is writing up her predictions for Troubled Blood, two posts that should go up 9 and 10 September.
I list below the articles and podcast added to the Groves Pillar Post this morning. Enjoy this feast of new material from a premiere Potter Pundit!
At HogwartsProfessor.com:
February 2020: Reading, Writing, Rowling: Draco!
April 2020: Reading, Writing, Rowling: Troubled Blood — Spencer, Manson, More!
August 2020: Reading, Writing, Rowling: Alchemical Weddings in Harry Potter and Beyond!
August 2020: Blood Relations and Troubled Blood — A Hint from Tom Burke
At MuggleNet.com:
MARCH, 2020: “The Faerie Queene” and the Fifth “Strike” Novel: “Troubled Blood” On March 20, 2020, J.K. Rowling changed her Twitter header to an image taken from “The Faerie Queene”, an epic poem containing the phrase “troubled blood,” the title of the forthcoming “Comoran Strike” novel. What relevance, beyond inspiring its title, will “The Faerie Queene” have on “Troubled Blood”?
MAY, 2020: Three Posts on Literary Alchemy and ‘Solve et Coagula’
**Solve et Coagula: Part 1 – Rowling’s Alchemical Tattoo (May 23, 2020) – Last year, J.K. Rowling got a tattoo of the alchemical Latin phrase “solve et coagula.” Read about how the phrase has an intimate connection with everything she writes.
**Solve et Coagula: Part 2 – The Ripley Scrolls, Nicolas Flamel, and Ben Jonson’s Alchemist (May 24, 2020) – Dr. Beatrice Groves looks further into the origins of the phrase “solve et coagula” and the way in which it encapsulates Rowling’s own metaphors for her “process.”
**Solve et Coagula: Part 3 – Literary Alchemy (May 25, 2020) – In Part 3 of her “solve et coagula” analysis, Dr. Beatrice Groves explains how literary alchemy influences J.K. Rowling’s writing process.
JULY, 2020: Two Posts on ‘The Names of The Ickabog‘
**The Names of “The Ickabog” – Part 1 (July 22, 2020) – Dr. Beatrice Groves reveals the meaning behind the names of “The Ickabog” and explains how this newest fairy tale connects not only to the “Harry Potter” series and “Casual Vacancy” but also to such diverse artists as Shakespeare, Keats, and Monty Python.
**The Names of “The Ickabog” – Part 2: Ichabod (July 23, 2020) – Dr. Beatrice Groves uncovers how “The Ickabog” alludes to not just the name “Ichabod” but also the themes, plot, and narration of Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
AUGUST, 2020: Handfasting in “The Cuckoo’s Calling” and “Harry Potter”: A Discovery of a Walt Whitman Poem? (August 29, 2020) – Dr. Beatrice Groves argues that the unnamed poem Lula Landry recites in “The Cuckoo’s Calling” is Walt Whitman’s “Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances” – a poem that connects to the theme of handfasting in both “The Cuckoo’s Calling” and “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”.
AUGUST, 2020: The Epigraphs of “Lethal White”: Shipping Strike & Robin (August 30, 2020) – Dr. Beatrice Groves explores how the “Rosmersholm” epigraphs in “Lethal White” reveal not only the importance of the white horse motif but also the passionate partnership at the forefront of both stories.
Thank you Prof. Granger for posting this essential guide to Prof. Groves fantastically informed and insightful posts on JK Rowling’s Strike series! (I’ve read all her posts and I’m eagerly awaiting the next two in the queue.)
I am always enlightened after reading these posts to see new narrative layers within the books that I had missed, even after repeated readings. Having Prof. Groves and your own posts (along with all the other posts on the site) does make re-reading the series an even more enjoyable and rewarding exercise (“of the little grey cells”).
Thank you Joanne! That is really kind and really great to hear. And writing these posts, of course, makes the re-read more enjoyable too!
Before the 15th Sept, in addition to the two blogs coming out at Mugglenet, I am also planning to have two coming out at Leaky Cauldron and three here at Hogwarts Professor. The last of these will be a direct response to your brilliant spot – that you made to my Catullus post https://www.mugglenet.com/2018/08/odi-et-amo-rowling-strike-and-roman-poetry/ – in which you pointed out that Charlotte uses the e-mail address ‘Clodia2.’
This is also very grateful for those of us whose paths through the thickets of the Internet regularly lead us here, but not as often further afield!
What food for thought – and stirring hunger for more – in the three ‘Solve et Coagula’ posts! How disappointing the English Wikipedia “Nicolas Flamel” article compared to the Dutch one – which seems clearly indebted to the French one – and alas that I am not literate in French! I can only puzzle over the nice Google Books scan of Voyage du Sieur Paul Lucas, fait par ordre du roy dans la Grece, l’Asie Mineure, la Macedoine et l’Afrique : Contenant la description de la Natolie, de la Caramanie, & de la Macedoine (1712), pages 105-12 with his account of meeting someone who claimed to have meet Flamel recently in India – and that his wife was alive, too! I wonder how much reading of French Flamel sources and scholarship JKR may have done?
What do we know – or what may we still look forward to learning – of earlier evil wizarding attempts to get the Philosopher’s Stone from the Flamels (including their son? – all seen together at the opera in 1761 according to another French source) during the 573 years from his supposed death to the events of HP1?
And, how poorly detailed a sense I have of the history of ‘Solve et Coagula’ where ‘political alchemy’ (so to put it) is concerned? Are Grindelwald and Riddle consciously pursuing that, as well as the Stone as ‘neutral’ instrument – and in any case, how are Stone and de facto ‘political alchemy’ interrelated?
A quick addition to the Ignatius thread: Isn’t one of the three original Peverell brothers named Ignotus? That thought just popped out of my head when I read the name. Is this another Deathly Hallows correspondence?