It’s a long-standing custom at Hogwarts Professor to put up posts for Serious Readers to share their finds on specific topics in the week following a new Rowling book’s publication. This Quiet week of little posting — because most folks are trying to find time to finish a ginormous tome while working a day job or studying for papers and exams and are staying away from online discussion of the books — merits an alternative outlet for those who read straight-through and want to share their first thoughts.
I have put up ten posts on the day of publication with specific subjects of interest to our global audience and an index post for easy access to each of those subjects. None have spoiler alerts because the comment threads of every one will be loaded with Hallmarked Man content and conversation. Caveat Lector.
Nick Jeffery in our Kanreki conversations in July mentioned in his Lethal White Lake exegesis that Rowling more than once had inserted a vignette or literary sketch of her home life as a young woman in Tutshill, her home through the Wyedean Comprehensive years. A family with two children, an absent mother, a cruel father, and a small home on the estate of a manor? It’s the Gaunt family in Harry Potter, the Price family in Casual Vacancy, and the Knight family in Lethal White.
These are what I call ‘Lake Shadows’ in Rowling’s work and they reflect how her childhood and family issues remain unresolved and a significant part of the inspiration of her work.
Other examples? In Career of Evil, Donny Laing’s Scottish girlfriend wins her over, she has a miscarriage, they marry, they move to a foreign country where she has a baby, and the mad husband then abuses her so badly that she is forced to divorce him and return to her home country where she lives in fear of his finding her. That’s a dream reflection of Rowling’s experiences in Portugal and return to Scotland after leaving her husband. Gloria Conti’s experiences in Troubled Blood are another fun-house mirror image of Rowling’s experience in Portugal or perhaps of her broken relationship with Michael that caused her to go to Porto.
Will we see a similar Lake Shadow in Hallmarked Man? Only if we’re looking for it! Let me know if you spot any!
I honestly don’t know if this is the appropriate place to post this particular observation. But I couldn’t find one that was an actual fit. So I thought I would go ahead and put it here. As I read the Cormoran Strike novels, I will often stop and look up a location from the book to see what it actually looks like and what more I can learn about it. For instance, there were a lot of interesting pubs with unique histories in this book. But I was very interested in looking up the London Silver Vaults. On the website for the vaults, you can read about their history. They list a number of well known clients, including J.K. Rowling. There are 30 individual shops listed in the vaults. And I found the name of one of them to be particularly interesting. It is Olliver Vanders. It made me wonder if this name provided any inspiration for the famous wand maker of the Harry Potter series.
Susan, I was thinking about the silver vaults in relation to Gringotts when Pamela said the vaults were about the most secure building in the world. It reminded me of Hagrid claiming Gringotts was thesafest place to keep something apart from Hogwarts. Maybe Rowling got her inspiration for Gringotts from the silver vaults. She did have a love for London and lived there for a while so maybe was familiar with the facility even pre Harry Potter fame.
It’s such a close hit to Ollivanders, Susan, that only one question prevents me from celebrating ‘Olliver Vanders’ as a great find.
When did the store open with that name? I couldn’t find a company start date on their website or their page on the London Silver Vaults site.
If that date is prior to Potter Mania — and it seems to me very likely that it is — then the near perfect assonance and the unusual spelling of the name Oliver with two ‘l’s is more than compelling.
If the date is after, say, 2000, the same similarities would make it as likely that the name was taken from the wand shop in Diagon Alley rather than the reverse.
I hope our English sleuths among the HogPro All Pros can hunt this information down to confirm your great find. The Harry Potter Lexicon page for Ollivander’s, not to mention Steve Vander Ark’s book on real world places reflected in the Hogwarts Saga, In Search of Harry Potter, will have to be updated when or if we get this confirmation.
It seems more than likely that this is a branch of the 19th century C. J. Vander silver dynasty. https://www.silvercollection.it/ENGLAVANDER.html
I tried to send an email directly to Olliver Vanders from the email listed on their website, in order to try and verify when they begin doing business. Unfortunately, the email bounced back to me as unable to deliver. So I am not sure what I could do to try and verify this fact. Perhaps there is someone in London, or at least much closer than I am in East Tennessee, who could do that. I did find Nick‘s comment interesting. It appears that this silversmith, C.J. Vanders is an old name in that field. And it appears that many family members have continued in that business. But I did not see any direct listing of Olliver Vanders connected with C.J. Vanders. However I am now really interested and would love to be able to verify this detail if possible. I’m also looking forward to listening to, and reading further discussion about The Hallmarked Man. I really enjoyed the book and where it took our main characters, especially knowing there is more to come with their story. I love all the implied use of mythology, which I have learned about directly from The Hogwart’s Professor. I had hoped for a little bit more Masonic aspects as part of the mystery.
I read once the The Hallmarked Man and when the bracelet present was given immediately remembered this interview of Rowling from 2013 about her own bracelets:
“On the day that the seventh Harry Potter book was to be released [in July 2007], my editor Emma and the head of Bloomsbury children’s books, Sarah, met me in London and gave me a small package. Inside was what would become (aside from my wedding ring) my most treasured piece of jewelry: a bracelet covered in gold and silver charms from the books. There was a tiny Golden Snitch, a silver Ford Anglia, a Pensieve, and a stag Patronus. There was even a Philosopher’s Stone in the form of an uncut garnet.”
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a1251/this-is-a-story-of-three-charm-bracelets/
Read the all article and it is very relevance to the book.
Great catch, Amnon! That ‘Harper’s Bazaar’ 2013 article is not an interview but an essay by Rowling to promote the auction of a ‘Harry Potter’ themed charm bracelet for her Lumos charity, one that sold for £20,000, the Lumos Maxima charm bracelet “handcrafted by Edinburgh jeweller Hamilton & Inches.” Read more about that bracelet here and here (pictures).
She was planning the Strike series at this time so I think you’ve nailed the Lake references with respect to the first, stolen bracelet she owned, the second one she was given as a gift in 2007 by her Bloomsbury editor and head of children’s books as was Robin by Cormoran in ‘Hallmarked Man,’ and the third that was auctioned for charity in 2013.
I wonder if the treasured bracelet from Strike will be stolen (by an angry Murphy?) in Strike 9?
Do you think the Mulholland editor and staff will feel the pressure of precedent to gift Rowling with a silver charm bracelet carrying ten Strike book charms at series end? If so, I hope they put a charm bracelet charm on it to represent ‘Hallmarked Man’!
Again, great find, Amnon! Thank you for sharing.
Thanks, John!
I couldn’t find photos of the original charm bracelet Rowling received as a gift (with the Ford Anglia, stag Patronus, Pensieve, etc.). Have you found any?
It seems the bracelet may play an important role, and your idea that it’s stolen fits well. Is the “G” charm in the photo connected to the Masons? (https://pottermoreowl.wordpress.com/2013/12/11/j-k-rowling-on-the-healing-powers-of-jewelry-in-harpers-bazaar-uk/
)
P.S. Not specific to Strike 8 / Lake & Shade, but I found this 1999 interview where Rowling mentions working as a temp secretary at a surveillance-equipment company. You probably know it already, but just in case:
“Before your success with the Harry Potter series, what was the worst job you ever had? The worst job I ever had was working as a temporary secretary in a company that made surveillance equipment. Bugs, infrared binoculars…industrial espionage. I spent the whole time reading the catalogue. They were very creepy people. The products were very interesting, but the people were quite horrible.” http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/1999/0999-barnesnoble-staff.htm
Thanks John and really aprriciate your Lake&Shade episodes with Nick Jeffery!