St. George's "Holey" Ear

... and More Subtle Religious References in Deathly Hallows

(Forenote -- I had originally planned to post this during Holy Week, when I thought it would be appropriate.  But, alas, my work schedule was so hectic then that I could not do the research and work which I thought this post deserved.)

Throughout the Harry Potter series, JKR alluded to religious themes and imagery so subtly that many fans didn't even recognize she'd done so. I remember clearly reading an argument on a chat loop before the release of Deathly Hallows where a couple of fans were arguing over whether the DH cover had Harry in a Christ-like pose. One fan insisted it could not be because the Potter series was devoid of religious references, which was why he found it so appealing.

I knew that fan was in for a surprise, or a disappointment depending on his POV, because from the beginning, it had seemed to me, JKR had consistently woven in religious ideas and symbols, just in such a subtle way as to be largely unobtrusive and definitely non-preachy. Of course, it helps too that she drew from a wide range of religious ideas, not just Christian, and thus people tended to focus on her Greek, Roman and Norse mythological references (while I preferred the Egyptian). Any resemblance to Christian overtones could have been seen merely because these religions share some common beliefs.

It was obvious, however, that JKR followed the hero's journey with each book and even had an overarching hero's journey for the whole series. Harry's death and resurrection experiences had grown more intense as the series progressed, and nothing but the ultimate death and resurrection would do for the final installment. Once JKR committed this self-sacrifice to Harry, it would instantly be recognizable as Christ-like, even though there are other death and resurrections of other mythological heroes as well.

What makes Harry's death and resurrection more Christ-like in Deathly Hallows is that it is not the only subtextual allusion to Jesus. If you look through the story, you will find numerous references to other Christ-like images (particularly some pertaining to his last few days of life). Starting with a big one -- Harry being the "Chosen One."

But there are others, some quite interesting. Here are some links I've found to show how JKR subtly wove in references from the Christ story to enhance and deepen her own work.

1) St, George and His Holy Ear:

One thing I've noticed with JKR's work is that sometimes upon a first reading, some setting, action, or characterization comes across to me as a bit odd, somewhat forced or strained. Usually, in these cases, when I examine it deeper, I find that it's because she's drawing upon a mythological, literary or historical reference that she wants to use in a new way. George's ear is a perfect example. Maybe it's just me, but having George's ear cursed off seemed a bit odd to me. Usually a writer would go more for something like the loss of a hand, arm or possibly a leg, but an ear? Why?

Well, it turns out that when Jesus was arrested, one of his companions, seeking to offer protection, drew his sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest. Coincidence? Maybe. But considering that even George himself felt "holey" and "saintlike," I tend to think the link is deliberate. It's like she's teasing us, giving us a deliberate early nod in the direction she wants us to go with that "saintlike" and "holey."  She's setting the rules of the game saying, "Now, see how many more of these religious Easter Eggs you can find." She knew her fans well.


2) Pouring Out the Loot of the Money Changers in Gringotts:

We met these goblin money-changers from Harry's first entry into the wizarding world. Viewed with distrust and uncertainty by many witches and wizards, the goblins, like those who exchanged money in the Jewish temples or collected taxes like Zacchaeus, lived on the edge of two worlds.



When Harry, Ron and Hermione enter Gringotts to retrieve the Hufflepuff cup, they must fight their way out of a rising mound of burning treasure that pours out of the room when opened, and their exit causes tremendous destruction. As with Jesus' visit to the temple, he "poured out the changers' money" (John 2:15) and generally set about wrecking the place -- though he didn't have a dragon to help as Harry did.


3) Upstairs at Aberforth's and the Upper Room:

The room in which Aberforth hides the trio and offers them bread and mead is upstairs in his pub. An Upper Room. Need I say more?

I guess I better -- Jesus ate his last meal with his disciples in an upper room in a home in Jerusalem, sharing with them bread and wine.


4) Welcomed with Palms and then Threatened with Betrayal:

Harry goes from being welcomed with open arms into the Room of Requirement when he first returns to Hogwarts, to, after Voldemort issues his ultimatum, having Pansy Parkinson scream to find him and hand him over. In fact, when Harry first enters the RoR, it seems to him like a tree house -- a palm tree maybe? Seamus even said that it "sprouted a pretty good bathroom once girls started turning up." (p. 465) Odd choice of word, sprouted, isn't it?


5) The Garden of Gethsemane and The Dark Forest:

Harry meets the Death Eaters and Voldemort in the Dark Forest. Jesus is betrayed and arrested by the High Priest's guards in the Garden of Gethsemane.


6) Narcissa Malfoy and Mary Magdalene:

Now, this point is probably going to seem like the oddest link to you, and I admit I may be totally off, but I find a detail extremely intriguing in the image of Narcissa bending over Harry's body to verify his death for Voldemort.  Her hands "softer than he had been expecting" crept from his face to touch his chest and feel his heart beating. And notice this one revealing detail, "her long hair tickled his face." (p. 581, Bloomsbury edition)

Where in the Jesus narrative have we seen a woman bending over Jesus, touching him with her long hair? Mary of Bethany (also believed to be Mary Magdalene) pours an expensive perfume over Jesus' feet and then wipes it with her hair, anointing him the Messiah, the Saviour. By lying for Harry, Narcissa not only seeks to save the life of her son, but ensures that Harry can save the entire wizarding world.

While it may seem odd that JKR would use Narcissa Malfoy to portray Mary Magdalene, we should remember that for many centuries Mary Magdalene was seen as an outcast and a prostitute.


7) King's Cross and Jesus' Crucifixion:

Let's examine the intriguing scene in King's Cross. First, look at the name -- King's Cross. Jesus was labeled a king as he died on a cross. King's Cross is where Harry experiences his final and most fatal death.

And he's not alone. Two other beings are there with him at King's Cross, just as Jesus is surrounded by two other people being crucified. One hurls insults at Jesus and torments him with not being able to save himself from death while the other reaches out to Jesus in friendship and belief.

Harry, too, is accompanied into King's Cross with one who is decidedly antagonistic -- the portion of Voldemort's soul which had been lodged in Harry for so long, and Dumbledore -- next to Dobby, Harry's greatest fan.


8) Sunrise over the Great Hall and Resurrection:

I don't think it's coincidence that the final defeat of Voldemort happens as the sun is rising in the Hogwarts Hall. The women found Jesus' tomb empty at sunrise. The empty tomb, and the Great Hall with Slytherins and Gryffindor's comforting each other in the wake of Voldemort's death, are both symbols of restored hope.

**^**

It seems to me that one critical element is missing in this comparison. You may well ask, where is Judas in Harry Potter?

Snape, of course. Except the way JKR molds her Judas, not only is Snape truly remorseful, he was always on Harry's side. In the end, Snape and Judas meet death as a result of their action.  Nagini's magical cage encases Snape's head as she delivers her deathly bite into his neck. According to Matthew, Judas hangs himself (a neck wound), and the 30 pieces of silver he returned in remorse to the chief priests used to buy the potter's field.

In studying the way JKR crafted these references to lie below the surface but still make their point, we can better learn how to weave in analogies and metaphors into our work as well, without beating the reader over the head with our message.  In the end, while JKR subtly uses Christian imagery, she does not use it exclusively, which is what truly gives her work broad appeal and which enabled that prior-mentioned fan able to read, and feel comfortable, with a story he considered not religious.

I know I've missed many references in trying to keep this post (relatively) short. Can you point out any more?


Want to learn more great craft techniques from JK Rowling? Check out my workshop.

A Riddle for You

Sorry for the long silence. Things got really hectic around here and I was unable to blog for a while.

But, I have a riddle for you. Here's a curious passage regarding a riddle from Deathly Hallows:

"She ain't answering, you old besom! You open it! Garn! Do it, now!"

"Certainly, if you wish it," said Professor McGonagall, with awful coldness.

There was a gentle tap of the knocker and the musical voice asked again.
"Where do Vanished objects go?"

"Into nonbeing, which is to say, everything." replied Professor McGonagall.

"Nicely phrased," replied the eagle door knocker, and the door swung open.

What do you think JKR meant with McGonagall's answer? What exactly is she trying to hint at with Vanished object, and how can it go into everything?

I've got a theory on what she's trying to say here, and I think it directly relates to the theme of the book: death.

If any of you have read His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman (who JKR has commented on), I think she's drawing from a haunting image Pullman gives his reader near the end of his last book, The Amber Spyglass. Lyra and Will travel through the world of the dead, and when Will cuts an opening with his knife into another world, the ghosts step through into the new realm and dissipate into nothingness, the last thing visible their smile.

I think, with very few words, JKR hinted at the exact same imagery and maybe even gave a tip-of-the-hat to Pullman.

At the point where Harry overhears the above exchange with McGonagall, he is very close to facing death. He knows it. The reader knows it.

Throughout the series, JKR has tackled some of the deepest, most difficult issues surrounding death: our fear of it, our avoidance of it, the finality of it. Here's she tackles one of the most difficult aspects of all: the mystery of it all.

Where do we go when we finally die? According to Pullman, it's not locked away somewhere in a realm where we exist as ghost-like corporal beings, but rather our atoms are broken down and reabsorbed into the life around us. Into everything.

So, as the Ravenclaw knocker asks, "Where do Vanished objects go?" JKR gives her reader an extremely subtle clue as to her own view regarding, where do the dead go? Our spirits?

Her answer: Back into the life that surrounds you. Into everything.

Once again, I may be reading too much into JKR's words, but this time, I truly don't believe so. As a writer, I'm amazed by her ability to hint at so much with so few words. Of course, she's had a huge series to build up her themes and subtext to the point where she CAN use so few words to say so much.

But a passage like this is a strong example, when it comes to message, of "Show, Don't Tell." I know in some of my earlier work, I've felt the need to beat the reader over the head with "what it's all about," not trusting my reader to catch onto subtle clues and hints. Honestly, I tended to get preachy.

It takes a lot of time and learning to write in such a way that weaves your message subtly through the fabric of the story, hinting with imagery and action, and perhaps the occasional riddle, at the deeper messages you wish to convey. And too, some styles of story call for more subtle weaving while other styles are blunt, in-your-face.

Who would look for the mystery of death to be camouflaged behind a riddle password to a secret door? Perhaps the same readers who found voices whispering beyond an ancient arch in the basement of a government building.

Death. We can't see them, but we can hear their subtle whispers in the air around us, because those we love never truly leave us. They live on in our hearts and minds and the world that surrounds us. In everything.

JKR quoted on Pullman
Ravenclaw image source

That Deathly Hallows Symbol

In celebration of Deathly Hallows' release, I'm going to do something I don't usually do on this blog. I'm going to indulge myself in a post that is truly more fan speculation rather than writer analysis. What can I say? I came to Harry Potter as a fan first and foremost!

Back in the summer of 2007, after the cover for Deathly Hallows had been revealed, but before the book had been released, I, like many other HP fanatics, was caught up in exploring and speculating on every aspect of the cover for possible clues toward the forthcoming story. I was especially fascinated with that mysterious, geometric symbol on the spine of the Bloomsbury UK cover.

Having already spent a good deal of time analyzing and presenting workshops on the alchemical and Egyptian mythological underpinning of the series, I of course looked there for an understanding of the symbol. I completed an editorial analyzing it as the last segment of a 3-part essay on Egyptian mythology in Harry Potter that was published on Mugglenet.com.

Unfortunately, the editors at Mugglenet were so busy posting an onslaught of last minute theories before the final revelation, that they didn't get the last two parts of my series posted until the comment section had been shut down ahead of DH's release to prevent spoilers. So, I never got feedback on my, of course, brilliant theories! ;-)

But now that I have a blog of my own, I can subject you all to this last, lost speculation! So, if you're ready to revisit those long-gone wonderful times of plastering the Internet with wild theories before the next Harry Potter release, then sit back and grab something good to drink, because when I dip into fan speculation, I tend to get long-winded.

Harry's Sacred Egyptian Triangle
In the introduction to the essay linked above, I said:

And now for what I consider the most exciting part of this three-part editorial -- that symbol on the spine of the Bloomsbury children's cover, the one that has inspired much discussion, sparked such controversy, and appeared as the key into the last round of W.O.M.B.A.T. questions. That sign, in my opinion, is a decidedly Egyptian symbol with some mixed-in alchemical and Masonic esoteric meaning. Essentially, I think it is a composite sign of JKR’s own creation -- an Egyptian Triangle with the Eye of Horus and Tree of Life layered on top.

(My editorial is very long, but if you're interested, it will give you greater insight to the theories below).


My argument was thus:

1) the triangle represented the sacred Egyptian Triangle or Golden Triangle, a symbol of the goddess Isis, her deceased husband Osiris, and their child Horus. These three together were the sacred, holy family and thus symbolized eternal love and the new life that is born of that love. (Through earlier parts of my editorial, I'd already analyzed how Isis = Lily, Osiris = James, and Horus = Harry).

2) the circle inside the triangle represented the Eye of Horus, a symbol of Divine protection and restoration, and ancestor of the Eye of Providence watching out from afar, giving guidance.

3) the line bisecting both triangle and circle from top to bottom represented the Tree of Life, a symbol of life, obviously, but also of a central pillar that had roots in the underworld, a trunk in our world, and branches into the realms of the gods.

Now, as it's been over three years since Deathly Hallows has been released, read, reread, and digested, I can look back on this speculation and see how my original theory fit in with the reality of the book (or at least my opinion of it!).

How JKR used this Egyptian symbolism in her created Hallows:

1) The invisibility cloak was the one Hallow handed down from father and son through the generations.  It represented love and protection and for Harry was almost always shared among his only living family -- his friends Ron and Hermione.  Notice that it was quite frequently the three of them under that cloak, Harry's own golden triangle of friendship and love.

2) The Resurrection Stone had the ability to bring the dead back, just not to real life.  For Cadmus, it drove him crazy to be with a love he could never truly possess again.  But for Harry, who sought not to possess but to be counseled, the stone brought him the comfort from the guidance of those who had gone before him.  Lily, James, Lupin, and Sirius truly gave him divine loving guidance and protection on his walk to meet Death.  And of course, we must not forget Dumbledore, who through the blue eyes of his brother Aberforth in the fragment of a mirror, still watched out for Harry throughout this last book.

3) If you look at that line on the Bloomsbury cover representing the wand, you'll see that it's actually a spear, with a pointed tip at its head.  As the most powerful wand created, the Elder Wand had the ability to pierce the Veil of Death by both sending its master's adversaries across the veil, and supposedly preventing its master from making the trip himself.  Of course, it failed to do the latter.  However, the elder wand, this stick from a tree, is an ironic symbol of the Tree of Life in its human-mangled transformation into a Death Stick.

Even back in 2007, I never believed that JKR in her actual text would use any of these words: Egyptian Triangle, Eye of Horus, Tree of Life, but rather that these meaning were subtextual, hidden below the surface, to provide an extra layer of depth and meaning to her rabid readers.  Of course, all this is conjecture on my part, and I may be totally off the mark in the meaning and images she was drawing upon when she created her Hallows.

But there is one thing I am sure of...when dealing with an author of JK Rowling's caliber, she most definitely had carefully, thought-out meaning and well-researched imagery behind each of those symbols.  And when she finally issues the Harry Potter Encyclopedia, I'm hoping we'll find out these final secrets!

PS: I have more to say on this and will probably add a few more thoughts into the comments as they go.  But this post is already very long and not sure how into this stuff anyone else but myself will be!

Gathering Your Wits

Remember back in high school literature class when your teacher would point out all the analogies, metaphors, themes, and innuendo in the classics you were forced to read? If you were like me, you probably rolled your eyes and asked how she could be sure the writer intended all that crap.

I've presented my workshop, A Writer's Guide to Harry Potter, numerous times at both writer and fan conferences, and invariably I get this question from one of the participants. My answer is always "yes," ... probably.

Of course, fans and analysts can get carried away and see subtext where JKR did not intend. But the fact is that Ms. Rowling deliberately played a game with her readers, planting clues and real-life analogies for her witted fans. She's openly acknowledged this in interviews. "I want you to be able to guess if you’ve got your wits about you."

Where we fanatics tend to get off track and see more than is intended by JKR is truly due to the author's own masterly craft. JKR dipped her quill into a very deep mythological well, one from which many other storytellers throughout time have dipped into also. Thus, it's only natural that alert readers can weave a web of connections between all these foretold stories and JKR's Potter, even if the author did not intend the links herself.