Hallowed be thy name

I’m back to my favorite topic – Harry Potter.

Half of you might have guessed what I’ll be talking about from the title and first sentence.
Yes. It is about the disclosure of the title of the 7th book – “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”

If you still don’t know, the door in www.jkrowling.com opened once again yesterday to reveal a hangman game which gave the name.

It was like Wow! Jo is bloody brilliant! That was the thought that struck me, because I was reading Order of the Phoenix for the nth time of late.

If you remember the battle at the ministry between DA and death eaters, Harry instructs others to shatter the prophecy balls so they can escape. And we hear snippets of 2 seemingly trivial prophecies…

“… at the solstice will come a new…” said the figure of an old, bearded man…
“…and none will come after…” said the figure of a young woman.

But Jo never writes trivial statements. Yesterday was December 21st – Winter solstice. At the solstice came a new (title)…Indeed.
The last one….None will come after.

Jo is so clever to put the easter eggs right inside her book. 🙂

Now, the name is interesting. Why “Deathly Hallows”?

Deathly
adj.

  1. Of, resembling, or characteristic of death: a deathly silence.
  2. Causing death; fatal.

adv.

  1. In the manner of death.
  2. Extremely; very: The night was deathly cold.

Hallow
noun.

  1. In pl[ural = hallows] applied to the shrines or relics of saints; the gods of the heathen or their shrines. In the phrase ‘to seek hallows’ [means] to visit the shrines or relics of saints.

verb.

  1. To make holy; sanctify; consecrate. “to hallow the name of the Lord.”
  2. To honor as holy; consider sacred; venerate. “to hallow a battlefield.”

We are pretty sure that “deathly” is an adjective and “Hallows” is a noun.
Does that mean that there are some relics of saints (or revered wizards) which are deathly/fatal?

(The following theory is Courtesy: Anu)
The Hallows across most legends are seen to represent the royal regalia carried by the King, or the objects sought by someone such as a ‘Grail Quester’.
The sacred vessels, or ‘Hallows of Ireland’ were believed to have been brought by the ‘Tuatha de Danaan’ (This is the Celtic name for Hallows).

The four hallows of the Tuatha de Danaan were developed in later traditions to be:

  1. The Pole of Combat
  2. The Sword of Light
  3. The Cauldron of Cure
  4. The Stone of Destiny

Now notice the connection.

  1. The Sword of Light – Gryffindor Sword
  2. The Cauldron of Cure – Hufflepuff cup
  3. The Stone of Destiny – Slytherin ring/locket
  4. Pole of Combat – Ravenclaw wand(?)

Deathly Hallows.. why so? Are they all Horcruxes?
A million theories erupt in my mind.
Let them erupt from you people also. Do Comment!!!

Later.

15 thoughts on “Hallowed be thy name

  1. 🙂 .. wow nice observation..

    and the theories do sound plausible..

    well, we will see, won’t we? 🙂

  2. yes yes…brilliant explanation. but really, seems a bit farfetched, no?
    I can’t wait to read it….
    Harry New Year to you!

  3. @Max: We’ll see… To add more, in book 6, it is mentioned that Voldemort was very interested in the “relics” of the four founders. (The word “relics” is mentioned)

    @Sanjuz: I got a few Christmas presents through owl post. Lots of HP fans as friends out there. 😉

    @Amal: We’ll see. I see you had a blast in West Coast. 🙂

    @Mihika: Can you explain more? Where did it look farfetched? I’d really like to get inputs.

    Harry new year to you too.

  4. Man..Awesome observations…Been not visiting your blog for a long time…Guess I missed lotsa stuff…

    Great insight into the new book.Continue with your observations…

  5. Man…. excellent theory. Let’s see what happens!!!
    You da man, dude… would never have thought of all this… 😀

    Been goin thru ur tech blog also… good stuff! 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *