The First Seven Strike Novels Paralleled Their Seven Harry Potter Equivalents; What Rowling Work Did The Hallmarked Man Parallel?
Rowling Studies The Hogwarts Professor PodcastShow Notes
Last week Ed Shardlow posted his thoughts about The Hallmarked Man being written in playful but meaningful parallel with Rowling’s “political fairy tale,” ‘The Hallmarked Man Meets The Ickabog.’ Nick Jeffery and John Granger called him up both to congratulate him on Arsenal winning the Premier League Cup — Go, Gunners! — and to learn as much as they could about the parallels he noted. After acknowledging the correspondences with Casual Vacancy, the trio explored Ed’s argument about the Ickabog echoing just beneath the surface of Hallmarked Man, straight up and in inversion. The Ten Questions, Links, and Helpful Notes 1. Nick, can you provide some context for this conversation? How did we get to the point that we expected Hallmarked Man to echo in characters, plot points, and themes either Casual Vacancy or The Ickabog? No one thought that was in the cards when Rowling-Galbraith and her publishers locked down the series at ten books. * ‘Parallels Series Idea’ Pillar Post * Evan Willis’ Tetractys Theory: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 2. Open subject for the triumvirate to discuss here: there are a bunch of Casual Vacancy parallels in Strike 8 that have to be acknowledged. Name your favorites; I’ll start this ball Rowling… * Ironbridge and Pagford seemed to be sister cities * each book ‘begins’ with the sudden and tragic death of a man who haunts the rest of the novel, Barry Obama Fairbrother and Tyler Powell * The peanut allergy that Tyler and Andrew Price have; and * The incest secret in the Longcaster and Wall families 3. Having noted those, Ed, why are you so sure that it’s The Ickabog which is the parallel text with Hallmarked Man? Is the quantity of the parallels you and others have found, their quality, or the overarching feel of the works? * Ed’s Post: ‘The Hallmarked Man Meets The Ickabog’ 4. I was surprised by your sheep parallel. I know my Ickabog memories are not fresh, but were there a lot of lambs and ewes in Strike 8? * Ed’s Post: ‘The Hallmarked Man Meets The Ickabog’ 5. And the fish? * Ed’s Post: ‘The Hallmarked Man Meets The Ickabog’ 6. Is there something akin to the Freemasonry of Hallmarked Man in The Ickabog? * Inversion of ‘Political Fairy Tale’ with modern touches and gritty detective novel and Medieval coloration via Freemasonry symbolism and ritual 7. Sandy Hope, our partner in the Group Adventure of charting Hallmarked Man, had a bunch of parallels that she shared in the comment thread to your post: * One of my favorite parallels you mention is the Old Forge and the Ickabog’s cave, in which both Robin and the Ickabog tell tragic stories of birth. The Old Forge also reminds me of the transformation of the dungeon once Mrs. Beamish gets a stove installed and starts baking and feeding the prisoners. Mr. Dovetail’s broken mind is restored by Mrs. Beamish helping him remember better times, and Robin’s own brokenness is soothed by Strike’s transformation from a self-serving, manipulative jerk to a selfless, compassionate listener and genuine friend. In both stories the fire is warm and purifying. Comment Url * One of my favorite parallels was “sticking to the game plan,” the ill-fated idea shared by Strike via Uncle Ted and also Lord Spittleworth. RFM reminds me of Ma Grunter, trying to appear sober when they’re actually drinking on the sly. Dangerous Dick de Lion is not unlike King Fred the Fearless, who both have to learn about being contrite. Robin’s bracelet is rather like Daisy’s bandalore: both gifts are initially a hit but end up secretly hidden or stolen. Comment Url 8. My favorite parallels were between the incest and ectopic pregnancy in Hallmarked Man and the Ickabog’s manner of conceiving children and birthing them. Did you laugh out loud when you figured that out? I did when I read your post -- but it bears some explaining -- * Ed’s Post: ‘The Hallmarked Man Meets The Ickabog’ 9. Let’s go around the table again and talk about the connection between the two books we haven’t talked about yet -- * Avenging
More from Rowling Studies The Hogwarts Professor Podcast
This is the third of three posts about the Lost Mother Golden Thread in the work of J. K. Rowling. The first, Anne Rowling and the Lost Mother Golden Thread in the Works of J. K. Rowling, reviewed Rowling-Galbraith’s regrets at the death of her mother Anne in December 1990 with a listing with brief discussion of the many Lost Mothers in her twenty-three published books. In the second, The Lost Mother Golden Thread and a Key Reason We are Moved by J. K. Rowling’s Stories, John joined the Lost Mother meme to the Ghosts and Mother’s Love Golden Threads to get at the metaphysical ground and beating heart of Rowling’s work. In the video podcast above, Nick and John discuss reader feedback to the Hidden Hold of Horrors Golden Thread conversation, John’s two Lost Mother posts, the implications of his findings for the Strike series’ last two novels, and the work being done on interactive Hogwarts Professor talks and online classes. Please share all the Lost Mother characters, mother and child, in Rowling stories that they missed in the comment boxes below, as well as your thoughts about John’s idea that the “Defining Idea and Power of Rowling’s Work is in the Intersection of the Lost Mother, Ghosts, and Mother’s Love Golden Threads Running Through Everything She Writes.” Before we forget, here are the three things Nick and John promised would be posted ‘Down Below’ in the conversation above: * A Key to Maternal Love in Harry Potter? Mum Crouch’s Sacrifice in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: The meaning in the middle of the Harry Potter series, the murder of Barty Crouch by Junior, a son saved by his mother’s love, incorporates the key symbolism of Rowling’s work with respect to sin and death as well as virtue, love, and the victory over death in one family. Conversation with Wayne Stauffer, Beatrice Groves, and Louise Freeman with implications for the understanding of the Hogwarts Saga, Cormoran Strike, and The Christmas Pig. * Death of Eric Wardle’s Mum is first mentioned in Hallmarked Man, Chapter 70: Wardle drank more lager before answering. ‘I dunno,’ he said. ‘My mum’s just died.’ ‘S**t,’ said Strike, who’d had no idea of this. ‘I’m sorry.’ ‘Yeah. Last month. She was never right, after my brother,’ said Wardle. ‘Broke her heart.’ His words were coming as though each adhered to his throat, and needed to be pulled up, with effort. ‘She chose not to go for a second round of chemo… raised us both as a single mum. We were her life. Terry dying half-killed her, and then April left me, and she didn’t see nearly as much of Liam any more.’ ‘Liam?’ ‘My son,’ said Wardle, with a faint smile. ‘The kid you just saw me put to bed.’ ‘Oh, yeah, of course.’ ‘Anyway… Mum left a lot more money than I expected. She came into an inheritance herself, right before she died… never got to enjoy it. Before she went, I kept telling myself I’d be mad not to hang on at work for the pension, but with what she left, I could still see Liam right.’ * Percival Proudfoot "Plug" Plugsley, Cartoon Character: Hogwarts Professor is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This video podcast is the third in a series of three posts about the Hidden Hold of Horrors Golden Thread in the work of author Rowling-Galbraith. A Golden Thread is a plot point, scene, or character type that recurs repeatedly through an author’s stories, a commonality that is evident only when looking at the writer’s writings viewed as a whole. The ‘Hidden Hold of Horrors’ repeated scene is of a location underground, be it a cave, a cellar, a tunnel, a tomb, or a basement pool, in which a frightening confrontation, a Near Death Experience, flat out murder, or transformative revelation occurs. The first post in this series was Nick Jeffery’s exploration and explanation of Rowling’s Church Cottage childhood home in Tutshill and its remarkable cellar beneath a covered access port, what has been mistakenly referred to as a “trapdoor.” In The Hidden Cellar Beneath J. K. Rowling’s Childhood Home, Nick shares why a building in West England on the border with Wales from the mid 19th Century that was built as a Church of England school would have a substantial brick and cement vaulted basement and what this room, originally a cistern to prevent cholera outbreaks, was probably like during Rowling’s childhood. [Golden Thread Image: Wovex.com; Ladder to Cellar Under Access Port: Pinterest] The second post was one I sent out yesterday in which I shared Nick’s and my off-the-top-of-our-heads catalog of everything subterranean, frightening, and damp in Rowling’s oeuvre, that is, her seven Harry Potter novels, eight Cormoran Strike mysteries, the Cursed Child ‘collaborative’ play script, her Beedle the Bard fairy tale collection and Ickabog “political fairy tale,” the three Fantastic Beasts screenplays, her border-line autobiographical Casual Vacancy, and the Dante-meets-Dickens Christmas Pig classic. Rowling Golden Thread: The Hidden ‘Hold of Horrors Downstairs, Beneath the Trap Door Hogwarts Professor is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Nick Jeffery and John Granger met on Wednesday this week to talk about John’s epic ‘Index to the First Year of Reading Hallmarked Man’ that was posted a week ago. Both were delighted (and a little surprised?) by the range and depths of the work done here and elsewhere to unpack the eighth Strellacott mystery, easily the most carefully planned and unique of the Strike series. Below are the ten questions Nick and John asked one another, brief versions of their answers, and links to points they made for listeners wanting to read more about the subjects and previous work mentioned. The conversation ended with a big THANK YOU to the Hogwarts Professor subscribers and the announcement of an announcement (!) coming next week of Real Time conversation with those supporters. Enjoy this conversation and the links below to highlights from the previous year - and stand by for some exciting news about the coming year’s work at Hogwarts Professor! Hogwarts Professor is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Nick and John get together to discuss three HogwartsProfessor posts about the All New Hogwarts House Emblems and Rowling’s commentary via three emojis about the recent trailer for the Bronte Studios adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. You can read those posts via these links: The HBO+ Potter Trailer: The Meaning of Rowling’s Heart, Owl, and Lightning Bolt HBO’s Harry Potter and the Alchemical Symbols The New Hogwarts House Emblems and Their Alchemical and Plant Symbolism Or you can just jump right into the conversation via the questions, notes and links below! Hogwarts Professor is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Nick Jeffery and freshly Shorn & Clean Shaven John Granger sit down to discuss John’s two posts about the symbolism of the Letter ‘G’ in Strike 8. Part One of the series did the necessary work of demonstrating that, yes, the letter ‘G’ is all over Hallmarked Man, from the online guess that the murderer carved that initial into ‘William Wright’s back to the Witness G echoing with Green-jacked Gorilla-bearing man and a bit of calligraphic terrorism on the Agency door at street-level. The first also covered the accepted Masonic interpretations of why the ‘G’ is featured in the Compass and Square symbolism of their fraternity. Part Two was a deep dive into more esoteric meanings given to the ‘G’ by Freemasons and by Rene Guenon, notable Perennialist, and into what associations Rowling-Galbraith tried to make between the seventh letter and the key hallmark of the book. It concluded with three answers to “So What?” including some fun speculation about a possible shape for the series, a shape highlighted in Strike 8, and with a discussion of whether Rowling-Galbraith’s subliminal artistry with ‘G’ worked or failed. Perhaps the biggest take-away of this series of posts was to introduce subliminal coloration as the common denominator of Rowling-Galbraith’s signature seven Shed tools. Nick and John open their conversation about the letter ‘G’ with that subject and everything they discuss in the end folds back into that covert artistry. As always, the Dynamic Duo covet your comments and feedback as the best follow-up to their conversation. Please jump right in! Hogwarts Professor is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.