Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)

[Imran Siddiqui]

Quiet you!

I liked them . Though I think your enjoyment of HBP depends mostly on how much you liked the pensieve trips. If you enjoyed them (as I did), you really liked the book. If you didn't and thought they were boring (as people I heretofore don't like anymore ) then you didn't really like it so much.

[Dinner]

I'll buy this book.

[TCO]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


The pensieve trips were an essential part of the backstory, my friend. I found them to be the most interesting part of HBP. A background to Voldemort before the end begins (with Dumbledore's death at the hand of Snape)

Backstory is boring and a good writer would do less of it or bring it in more artfully. It's like reading sci fi and in the middle of the action having two characters "decide" to have a conversation that justifies all the technology.

[TCO]

And I was laughing when Dumbledore died.

[TCO]

Originally posted by TCO


Backstory is boring and a good writer would do less of it or bring it in more artfully. It's like reading sci fi and in the middle of the action having two characters "decide" to have a conversation that justifies all the technology.

A ****ing loooong conversation.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yeah, like a whole book's worth . It was by far the most interesting part of the book, IMO. Slughorn and the HBP was fun, but I found myself wanting more of Voldy's past while reading that stuff... giving his motivations and finding ways through his armor.

Backstory is essential for a great ending . It's the calm before the (real) storm book.

[Makahlua]

Originally posted by Locutus
Hmmm, some further research revealed that there are 4 Grail Hallows: the Cup, Sword, Stone, and Spear (just google "Grail Hallows", plenty of hits).

We know there are a Sword of Griffindor and Hufflepuff's Cup, and Slytherin's locket contains something heavy but we don't know what, that could quite possibly be a (precious) stone... There are no known objects for Ravenclaw. So the title could refer to house artifacts. I don't think the horcruxes and hallows will refer to the exact same things, though of course some horcruxes could be hallows (we know that Slytherin's locket and possibly Hufflepuff's cup are).

It's a bit reaching maybe since Rowling so far hasn't really mixed any Christian elements into her stories, but since this comes from Arthurian legend it kind of makes sense...

Actually, I believe they go back yet even farther to pagan Celtic mythology, where the 'Four Treasures' were brought by the invading Tuatha Dé Danann and used in battles conquering Ireland (though they themselves got conquered later too, heh). The old Celtic names are:

Stone: Lia Fáil (Stone of Destiny) that was supposed to 'sing' or cry out when the true King of Ireland stepped (or sat) upon it. IIRC that's modernly the Stone of Scone, but no one knows if that's the real thing either, or if it's still sitting on a hill near Tara somewhere

Sword: Claíomh Solais (Sword of Light) aka Sword of Nuada, wielded by the named king that was supposedly irresistable and could cleave people in half. I don't recall anything about it being handed out by a tart in a lake, though

Cup: Coire Anseasc (undry cauldron) or the Dagda's Cauldron, which was basically a cornucopia (unending food supply), though I also recall a fiction book potraying it as a pool of healing that even raised the dead

Spear: Spear Lúin (flaming spear) forged by the god Lugh to defeat Balor of the Evil Eye, which with a command word would unerringly strike any target and return to it's wielder, and had to be stored with it's tip in a cauldron of water as to not burn down the place where it was stored

{/mythology geekiness}

Originally posted by Sandman
The cup, locket, sword and spear are also the forerunners for the modern suites in a pack of cards. Ten to one Ravenclaw's artifact is a 'spear' (wand) of some sort. And it's probably in the possession of Ollivander.

They're the basis also of the Tarot suits as well, and also had elemental associations: Cauldron/Cup = water, Spear/Wand = fire, Stone = earth, Sword = air. Perhaps there will be something with guardians of those elements?

Deadly Hallows makes me think either the originals might've been corrupted by V, or prehaps he made his own eeeevill counterparts..

[Kuciwalker]

I'm getting flashbacks to some terrible Diane Duane books I read when I was younger

[TCO]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Yeah, like a whole book's worth . It was by far the most interesting part of the book, IMO. Slughorn and the HBP was fun, but I found myself wanting more of Voldy's past while reading that stuff... giving his motivations and finding ways through his armor.

Backstory is essential for a great ending . It's the calm before the (real) storm book.

Narnia backstory was fun. Not boring penseive trip but an adventure in and of itself. TLOTR did not have to break for backstory right before the climax. Prydain series did not have to have a backstory volume 4 (with filler) before the climax novel 5.

[TCO]

Here are some of the things that remain puzzling to me:

1. Wormtail's role and will Harry get the benefit of having spared him.
2. Snape: good or bad, likes Harry or not
3. Trelawney prophecies
4. Voldy/Harry denoument
5. The dumb horcrux hunt
6. What is Aunt Petunia hiding, her role?
7. What is the rest of Harry's family? (grandparents either side, other aunts, uncles, etc?) Is it just the Dursleys?
8. What is inside Harry (the parselmouthing, the Slytherin leanings, is he a horcrux)?
8.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by TCO
Narnia backstory was fun. Not boring penseive trip but an adventure in and of itself. TLOTR did not have to break for backstory right before the climax. Prydain series did not have to have a backstory volume 4 (with filler) before the climax novel 5.

LotR had backstory linked to the story from the beginning. Rowling had a problem that the first few books were written without much backstory woven into them (probably because she had no idea how popular they'd be with adults) and Voldemort has been a kind of evil mysterious figure who hasn't been all that fleshed out at all, and the fleshing out of the final enemy seems very important in the HP books as opposed to the other series you've listed. In LOTR there was no reason to flesh out Sauron because the quest was to throw the ring into the fire. In CoN there really wasn't a series arching enemy.

How else would you have added the backstory necessary to set up the final battle other than the way she did? And you can't go back and edit the first 5 novels to do it.

Though I really enjoyed the Gaunts' story in the pensieve .

And as stated in wiki:

This view is in part countered in statements made by J.K. Rowling, in which she has stated that book six is very much to be regarded as the first half of a two-volume work, with book seven rounding up the story.

[civman2000]

One thing that's bothered me about HP is that so many questions are still unanswered. I kept expecting the 5th and 6th books to answer a lot of the questions I had, but most of the questions are still open. And it doesn't seem like there's enough room to answer them all in one book, at least not if it's supposed to be a good book.

[Kuciwalker]

Hopefully the solution won't be a bunch more monologues/pensieve trips.

[aneeshm]

While writing an essay about Harry Potter's world (which I will publish on my blog and here, on these forums), the spell-checker suggested that I substitute "Democrat" for "Voldemort".

[Imran Siddiqui]

Do you use a FoxNews word processor?