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.
In late 2023 I wrote a Hallmarked Man prediction post which argued that Robin Ellacott was effectively sterile. My argument was built on the mythological templates Rowling has used in this series, especially the Artemis piece we gained in Running Grave, Rowling’s friends and family members who are childless women, and the Mad Mother Wanna-Bes of the Strike series thus far. The story clue was her having been given chlamydia by her rapist, an STD which if not treated properly can become PID and cause ectopic pregnancies. Read about that in ‘Strike8: Robin Ellacott is Sterile’ and listen to the Rowling Studies conversation I had with Nick Jeffery on this subject, again, way back in 2023.
Share your thoughts below about the Hallmarked Man‘s revelations about Robin and her ability to have children!
As soon as I read chapter 3 of The Hallmarked Man, I immediately emailed John. Even though we know he has moved past predictions as purely point scoring exercises, I had to congratulate him on this prediction.
I then remembered my comment on the Robin Ellacott is Sterile article. I reminded John in Lethal White that Strike was worried Robin was having IVF and thought this could be very important to Rowling’s ring structure in the Robin and Strike story as we thought Lethal White was going to be the turn in her ring. This allusion to IVF and now learning Robin will need IVF if she wants a baby in the future was definitely Rowlingesque!
Hmmmm…maybe I scored some prediction points on that one.
Hats off to you, John. I thought you were a genuine nutter when I first read this idea. To be clear – I reserve the right to think you are a nutter, and I am grateful for that fact, as only a complete Gateshead could have considered, much less published, all your ideas about seriously analyzing a popular children’s fantasy series whom all the experts agreed had no literary merit. Seriously, I am dumbfounded by the details of this prediction being fulfilled.
Ring a ding ding!
Not just a direct hit on this one, but a terminated pregnancy, i.e. a lost childn and possibly (I’ve only read part one) a reverse pregnancy trap from Murphy.