Nick is joined by John Granger and special guest star Guido in their temporary headquarters as they await the move to Granger Towers. We discuss the revelation that J. K. Rowling has an inherited blood clotting disorder, and speculate that this could be von Willebrand Disease, and discuss what this could mean for a Golden Thread that John first explored more than five years ago. Nick surveys the instances of blood in all her published work, and John identifies a theme that Nick has missed - the Eucharist. Could this be the key to understanding the final narrative arch of the Strike series?
Links Discussed in this Episode:
The revelation of J. K. Rowling’s condition:
https://www.hogwartsprofessor.com/j-k-rowling-and-the-roy-phipps-connection/
John discusses the Golden Thread on the Reading Writing Rowling Podcast in 2020.
https://audioboom.com/posts/7566531-episode-37-troubled-blood-and-the-faerie-queene-strike-5
John Granger’s book How Harry Cast his Spell exploring the Christian content and meaning in Harry Potter.
https://www.amazon.com/How-Harry-Cast-His-Spell/dp/1414321880
John’s visit to Denmark Street and St Giles-in-the-Fields in 2016.
https://web.archive.org/web/20171130161236/https://www.hogwartsprofessor.com/visiting-cormoran-strikes-pub-and-denmark-street-premises-in-london/
Victor Turner - Colour Classification in Ndembu Ritual (1966)
https://gwern.net/doc/psychology/vision/1966-turner.pdf
The Blood Survey:
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
The word “Blood” appears 33 times.
dragon’s blood
The Bloody Baron
Harry thought Flint looked as if he had some troll blood in him.
One book had a dark stain on it that looked horribly like blood.
That’s unicorn blood.
It put its hand into its pocket and pulled out a blood-red stone.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
The word “Blood” appears 46 times.
not a drop of magical blood in their veins
‘Wizard blood is counting for less everywhere –’
No Malfoy’s worth listenin’ ter. Bad blood, that’s what it is.
‘No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood,’ he spat.
who think they’re better than everyone else because they’re what people call pure-blood.
Most wizards these days are half-blood anyway.
‘… I smell blood … I SMELL BLOOD!’
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
The word “Blood” appears 21 times.
‘It all comes down to blood, as I was saying the other day. Bad blood will out. Now, I’m saying nothing against your family, Petunia’
Ron and Hermione were standing underneath it, examining a tray of blood-flavoured lollipops.
‘BLOOD!’ Ron yelled into the stunned silence. ‘HE’S GONE! AND YOU KNOW WHAT WAS ON THE FLOOR?’
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The word “Blood” appears 37 times.
Now that they had removed their furs, the Durmstrang students were revealed to be wearing robes of a deep, blood red.
‘B-blood of the enemy … forcibly taken … you will … resurrect your foe.’
I wanted Harry Potter’s blood. I wanted the blood of the one who had stripped me of power thirteen years ago, for the lingering protection his mother once gave him, would then reside in my veins, too …
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
The word “Blood” appears 85 times.
‘Yoooou!’ she howled, her eyes popping at the sight of the man. ‘Blood traitor, abomination, shame of my flesh!’
‘Because I hated the whole lot of them: my parents, with their pure-blood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you practically royal
‘The pure-blood families are all interrelated,’ said Sirius. ‘If you’re only going to let your sons and daughters marry pure-bloods your choice is very limited; there are hardly any of us left.
‘Terrified? I hope I, Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, have never been guilty of cowardice in my life! The noble blood that runs in my veins –’
Again and again Harry wrote the words on the parchment in what he soon came to realise was not ink, but his own blood.
‘It seems there was some rather unusual kind of poison in that snake’s fangs that keeps wounds open. They’re sure they’ll find an antidote, though; they say they’ve had much worse cases than mine, and in the meantime I just have to keep taking a Blood-Replenishing Potion every hour.
‘While you can still call home the place where your mother’s blood dwells, there you cannot be touched or harmed by Voldemort. He shed her blood, but it lives on in you and her sister. Her blood became your refuge
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The word “Blood” appears 105 times.
‘If I had murdered Harry Potter, the Dark Lord could not have used his blood to regenerate, making him invincible –’
Harry had never hated Malfoy more than as he lay there, like an absurd turtle on its back, blood dripping sickeningly into his open mouth.
‘My daughter – pure-blooded descendant of Salazar Slytherin – hankering after a filthy, dirt-veined Muggle?’
It was as though something large and scaly erupted into life in Harry’s stomach, clawing at his insides: hot blood seemed to flood his brain
I’ve learned more from the Half-Blood Prince than Snape or Slughorn have taught me in –’
‘Harry, I’d like you to meet Eldred Worple, an old student of mine, author of Blood Brothers: My Life Amongst the Vampires – and, of course, his friend Sanguini.’
Blood spurted from Malfoy’s face and chest as though he had been slashed with an invisible sword. He staggered backwards and collapsed on to the waterlogged floor with a great splash, his wand falling from his limp right hand.
‘Payment?’ said Harry. ‘You’ve got to give the door something?’ ‘Yes,’ said Dumbledore. ‘Blood, if I am not much mistaken.’ ‘Blood?’
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The word “Blood” appears 125 times.
As I reveal in chapter sixteen, Ivor Dillonsby claims he had already discovered eight uses of dragon’s blood when Dumbledore “borrowed” his papers.’
MUDBLOODS and the Dangers They Pose to a Peaceful Pure-Blood Society
‘Splinched,’ said Hermione, her fingers already busy at Ron’s sleeve, where the blood was wettest and darkest.
Was it his own blood pulsing through his veins that he could feel, or was it something beating inside the locket, like a tiny metal heart?
‘Drop your wands,’ she whispered. ‘Drop them, or we’ll see exactly how filthy her blood is!’
Every drop of magical blood spilled is a loss and a waste.
‘Precisely!’ said Dumbledore. ‘He took your blood and rebuilt his living body with it! Your blood in his veins, Harry, Lily’s protection inside both of you! He tethered you to life while he lives!’
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
The word “Blood” appears 11 times.
The Kappa feeds on human blood but may be persuaded not to harm a person if it is thrown a cucumber with that person’s name carved into it.
Re’em blood gives the drinker immense strength, though the difficulty in procuring it means that supplies are negligible
Salamander blood has powerful curative and restorative properties.
Quidditch Through the Ages
The word “Blood” appears 6 times.
The first Bludgers (or ‘Blooders’) were, as we have seen, flying rocks
The Tales of Beedle the Bard
The word “Blood” appears 5 times.
There is not a witch or wizard in existence whose blood has not mingled with that of Muggles
Casual Vacancy
The word “Blood” appears 97 times.
Then pain such as he had never experienced sliced through his brain like a demolition ball. He barely noticed the smarting of his knees as they smacked onto the cold tarmac; his skull was awash with fire and blood; the agony was excruciating beyond endurance, except that endure it he must, for oblivion was still a minute away.
All they could get out of her at first was, ‘The Fields, the bloody, bloody Fields …’
‘Mrs Weedon’s new pills are upsetting her stomach,’ said Parminder calmly. ‘So we’re doing your bloods today, aren’t we?’
Sharp, hot pain and the blood came at once; when she had cut herself right up to her elbow she pressed the wad of tissues onto the long wound, making sure nothing leaked onto her nightshirt or the carpet.
Some of her self-hatred had oozed out with the blood.
Pagford, bloody Pagford. Samantha had never meant to live here.
That morning, at breakfast, she had tested her blood sugar with the glucometer for the first time, then taken out the prefilled needle and inserted it into her own belly. It had hurt much more than when deft Parminder did it.
Did she find it easier to accept him as a separate individual than if he had been made from her flesh and blood? Her glucose-heavy, tainted blood …
The Cuckoo’s Calling
The word “Blood” appears 64 times.
Her accidental assailant was massive; his height, his general hairiness, coupled with a gently expanding belly, suggested a grizzly bear. One of his eyes was puffy and bruised, the skin just below the eyebrow cut. Congealing blood sat in raised white-edged nail tracks on his left cheek and the right side of his thick neck, revealed by the crumpled open collar of his shirt.
Perhaps a knife would plunge between his shoulder blades as he walked through the front door of her flat; perhaps he would walk into the bedroom to discover her corpse, wrists slit, lying in a puddle of congealing blood in front of the fireplace.
‘Pushing someone over a balcony’s a spur-of-the-moment thing,’ said Strike, as though he had felt her inner wince. ‘Hot blood. Blind temper.’
When Lucy’s lips were pursed she bore a strong resemblance to their Aunt Joan, who was no blood relation to either of them.
You’re a cold-blooded b*****d, aren’t you? No f*****g wonder old Jonny’s not keen on you.’
Strike, however, knew Charlotte as intimately as a germ that had lingered in his blood for fifteen years
Sergeant Gary Topley lying in the blood-spattered dust of that Afghanistan road, his face unscathed, but with no body below the upper ribs.
The Silkworm
The word “Blood” appears 140 times.
Message after message, stuck out on the bloody cliffs at Gwithian trying to get reception—
Strike had never taken the time to consider, although Polworth, a man of many pithy theories, took the view that such women (‘nervy, overbred’) were subconsciously looking for what he called ‘carthorse blood’.
‘—and she says he won’t let them sell. There was bad blood between Fancourt and Quine.’
Strike would have advised any friend to leave and not look back, but he had come to see her like a virus in his blood that he doubted he would ever eradicate
‘So much for love being a mirage and a chimera,’ sighed Mrs Ellacott as she tossed down her pen. ‘This is no good. I wanted blood and guts, Michael. Blood and guts.’
Career of Evil
The word “Blood” appears 115 times.
He had not managed to scrub off all her blood. A dark line like a parenthesis lay under the middle fingernail of his left hand.
He was good at reading people. He had read and charmed the girl who had died yesterday among the blood-soaked peach towels.
“He doesn’t like talking about personal stuff. Blood out of a stone.”
On a high metal table sat a pillow in a plastic evidence bag; it was covered in dark brown bloodstains. A cardboard box next to it contained bottles of spirits. Where there was bloodshed, there was always alcohol.
Strike remembered the wide patch of blood on the sheets, the excoriated skin on her wrist where Rhona had tried to free herself.
Nevertheless, those long hours of driving through the darkness when he had known an encounter with the police might be fatal, when he had feared a request to turn out his pockets or a shrewd-eyed passenger noticing dried blood on him had taught him a powerful lesson.
He was wearing a yellow T-shirt and on his right forearm was the rose tattoo, which had undergone a modification: a dagger now ran through it, and drops of blood fell out of the flower towards the wrist.
If they’d been five minutes later she’d’ve been a goner. It took two blood transfusions to keep her alive.
Lethal White
The word “Blood” appears 143 times.
He had been left with a deep dislike of being driven by anybody else and, to this day, with dreams of blood and agony that sometimes woke him, bathed in sweat.
She could imagine Raphael bloody at the steering wheel, and the broken figure of the young mother on the road, and the police cars and the incident tape and the gawpers in passing cars.
“Last night, when he was stoned. He said he knew a government minister who had blood on his hands.”
“Would you mind waiting outside the curtain? We need to take bloods, change his drips and his catheter.”
Strike could taste blood, but, from what he could see, the splintered and torn remnants of Jimmy’s placard had been scattered by the mêlée.
There was a piece of thick cream writing paper headed with a red Tudor rose, like a drop of blood, and the printed address of the house in which Robin stood.
The old knife wound on her arm had been gaping open and it was the trail of her spurting blood that her pursuers were following, and she knew she would never make it to the place where Strike was waiting for the bag of bugs . . .
‘She come into the yard, seen what had happened, ran towards Mr Chiswell, grabbed the hammer and just swung for him. Blood everywhere. It was horrible,’
Troubled Blood
The word “Blood” appears 171 times.
“Yeah, well, blood and soil’s never been my—”
She’d heard stories that Ilsa gave titles like cheap thrillers: the Night of the Bread Knife, the Incident of the Black Lace Dress and the Blood-Stained Note.
She believed, I think, like Suhrawardy, that ‘bloodshed and disorder are not necessarily evil in themselves, if resorted to for a noble cause.’”
And even in the seventies, before DNA testing, the police did pretty well with fingerprints, blood groups and so forth.
“Anyway, one of the things she told Lawson was that she’d sponged blood off the spare-room carpet the day Margot disappeared.
“According to Roy, the age difference and the blood relationship ought to have constituted a total prohibition on the relationship in the minds of all decent people. But as we know, he managed to overcome those qualms seven years later.
In the second week of November, Joan’s chemotherapy caused her white blood cell count to plummet dangerously, and she was admitted to hospital.
She’d only once in her life had to face the possibility that she might be pregnant, and could still remember the relief that had flooded her when it became clear that she wasn’t, and wouldn’t have to face still more contact with strangers, and another intimate procedure, more blood, more pain.
“But there was something bloodless about the man. Not wet exactly, but—” Oonagh gave a sudden laugh. “‘Bloodless’—you’ll know about his bleeding problem?”
The demon he “saw” was carrying a cup of blood and a sword.
‘She – never seemed – to remember – that I couldn’t – protect her – couldn’t – do anything – if somebody tried – to hurt – because I’m a useless – bleeder … useless … bloody … bleeder … ’
A few pages inside was a brown smear. Strike halted the cascade of pages to examine it more closely. It was, he suspected, dried blood, and had been wiped across a few lines of writing.
This I will say more, to wit, that those who walk in their sleep, do, by no other guide than the spirit of the blood, that is, of the outward man, walk up and down, perform business, climb walls and manage things that are otherwise impossible to those that are awake.
She’d taken the full force of Strike’s elbow between her eyebrows, and she realised her nose was bleeding only when she accidentally sprayed blood onto the kind American’s white shirt front.
‘It – was – a – f*****g – joke,’ said Morris, examining the blood smeared on his hands. ‘I only meant to make you jump – f**k’s sake—’
The Ink Black Heart
The word “Blood” appears 214 times.
There was bad blood between Strike and Mitch Patterson, the boss of the agency in question, which dated back to the time Patterson had put Strike himself under surveillance.
‘Thanks – I ripped off a nail opening the last one. Yeah, so she was banging on about blood diamonds, and I…’
Having explained the Christian symbolism of the pelican, which was feeding her chicks with her own blood, Groomer wondered aloud whether Legs was ready for a coffee
‘Second letter of the alphabet, eighth letter: BH. Stands for blood and honour. Blood and Honour are a neo-Nazi skinhead group.’
Might still be a bit of Edie’s blood on the grass. You could frame it. Sell it on eBay.
Vilepechora: I fkn love a redhead. Proper Viking blood
Strike parked, then used the old man’s handkerchief and his own saliva to remove from his face all traces of blood, of which there was a surprising amount.
Red Soles lay where he’d been deposited on the platform, blood trickling from his inner ear.
They fort there was a vampire in the real cemetery, in the seventies. Edie fort it was corny, ’avin’ a vampire, but I drew ’im so she could see what I was finking. I wanted ’im to be inept, like, tryna kill tourists but never gettin’ enough blood to live on, so ’e was, like, weak an’ feeble…’
‘Julius Evola. Far-right philosopher. Ludicrous racial theories. A rather determinedly eccentric classmate of mine at Radley was partial to him. Used to carry The Myth of the Blood around and read it ostentatiously at meal times.
It was impossible to know whether Ross had turned pale, because the man had always looked as though antifreeze ran in his veins rather than blood, but he’d certainly become unnaturally still.
Robin stamped hard on his bare foot before both slipped in another puddle of Inigo’s blood.
As the door shuddered, Robin saw, by the dim glow from a skylight, Katya slumped on the floor beside the bath, blood all over the hands she was pressing against her stomach.
The Running Grave
The word “Blood” appears 194 times.
It’s important to say that my mother – I was raised to call her Louise, because the UHC forbids naming blood relationships – isn’t stupid.
It’ll have been used for chopping wood, but Oisin was convinced it had blood on it. We couldn’t get it out, though. We couldn’t reach.
I don’t know what’s normal for a birth but she seemed to lose a huge amount of blood. I was present when the baby was actually born because one of the birthing team couldn’t cope any more and I volunteered to take her place.
Strike’s imagination insisted on showing him a vivid picture of Charlotte submerged in her own blood, her black hair floating on the clotted surface.
There was a puddle of blood seeping from under one of the toilet cubicle doors. She could see Lin’s bloodstained legs, which weren’t moving.
They committed nine murders in all, one of them of a pregnant actress, and those young women were right in the thick of the action, ignoring the victims’ pleas for mercy, dipping their fingers in the victims’ blood to scrawl – Jesus,’ said Strike, with a startled laugh, as he remembered a detail he’d forgotten, ‘they wrote “pigs” on the wall as well. In blood.’
The Hallmarked Man
The word “Blood” appears 246 times.
Some might have considered her flat tone insensitive, given Charlotte’s recent death in a blood-filled bathtub, but as Strike was more than happy to dispense with prurient questions or faux sympathy
The body was blood group A positive – that’s the same.
‘The splash patterns from the blood were un-fakeable, according to forensics. There was also a partial footprint that had clearly been made while the blood was still liquid.’
The back wall broke the monotony of the sea of silver, because it displayed many antique aprons and sashes embroidered in gold, and Robin’s eye lingered on an apron embroidered with a bloody severed head, held up by a single hand.
‘Yeah, somefing like… an’ ’e dropped ’is doob tube, remember, Daz? An’ ’e told you it was a f****n’ blood sample, like you was gonna nick it off ’im.’
Previously a Conservative MP, he now headed various charitable and political organisations and committees, was ever-ready with a quote for the papers, sprinkled his conversation with Latin tags and capitalised to the full on the English public’s weakness for a toff who seemed ready to laugh at himself, having a fondness for appearing on political quiz shows, where he played to the hilt the part of genial, bumbling blue-blood.
Blood must’ve started pooling in the lower part of the body before they started to mutilate it. Maybe that was deliberate. Maybe they didn’t want blood seeping out under the vault door.’
As Strike watched, life and blood started to drain from the brindle, its legs twitching ever more feebly as blood flooded from its jugular.
Robin took the turn into the road at speed, then looked sideways at Strike, one of whose hands was pressed to his inner thigh, blood seeping through his fingers.
The bodies of Jim Todd and a woman Strike assumed to be his mother, Nancy, were lying on the dirty carpet in a foul miasma encouraged by the gas fire that continued to blaze. Todd, who was fully dressed, had been stabbed multiple times. His now black blood had soaked his shirt and the floor beneath him
Blood now gushing from his head wound, Strike succeeded in grabbing the wrist of Griffiths’ knife-holding hand, then slammed it down on the rough concrete floor,
He could feel a weird coldness, as though flesh that had never been exposed to fresh air was meeting it for the first time, and this contrasted unpleasantly with the continuing flow of warm blood.
Possibly combining heavy blood loss and neat whisky hadn’t been the very best idea, Strike was prepared to concede that now, but he had to keep talking, because he wanted the man to know he knew.
The Ickabog
The word “Blood” appears 11 times.
‘If Beamish was half-eaten, why wasn’t there more blood?’ asked the second.
soldiers who’d been sent back to the marsh to find out what happened to Private Nobby Buttons had discovered nothing but his bloodstained shoes, a single horseshoe, and a few well-gnawed bones.
Finally, the same man cut off the head of one of the hens and made sure plenty of blood and feathers was spread around, before breaking down the side of the coop to allow the rest of the chickens to escape.
In hundreds, Ickabogs were slain, Our blood poured on the land like rain, Our ancestors like trees were felled And still men came to fight us.
The Christmas Pig
The word “Blood” appears 2 times.
They all seemed to be bits of humans. Some were mouths: one was loudly chewing gum and others smoking stinking cigarettes, which made the glowing red dots and the nasty smell. There were noses, ears, a single finger, its nail chewed to a bloody stub, several oozing spots which were so disgusting Jack could barely look at them, and a couple of fists, which were pounding the ground in a menacing fashion as though they couldn’t wait to start hitting someone.
The Cursed Child
The word “Blood” appears 22 times.
ALBUS (with power and strength) No, you need to listen to me, you said it yourself – how much blood is on my father’s hands. Let me help you change that. Let me help correct one of his mistakes. Trust me.
POLLY CHAPMAN The Blood Ball of course – who you – the Scorpion King, are taking to the Blood Ball.
POLLY CHAPMAN Mudbloods of course. In the dungeons. Your idea, wasn’t it? What’s going on with you? Oh Potter, I’ve got blood on my shoes again . . .
DRACO We were capable of having children, but Astoria was frail. A blood malediction, a serious one. An ancestor was cursed . . . it showed up in her. You know how these things can resurface after generations . . .
Fantastic Beasts (Screenplay)
The word “Blood” appears 2 times.
Fantastic Beasts and the Crimes of Grindelwald
The word “Blood” appears 20 times.
A baby Chupacabra—part lizard, part homunculus, a blood-sucking creature of the Americas—is chained to GRINDELWALD’S chair.
SKENDER Once trapped in the jungles of Indonesia, she is the carrier of a blood curse. Such Underbeings are destined, through the course of their lives, to turn permanently into beasts.
We see TEENAGE DUMBLEDORE and TEENAGE GRINDELWALD facing each other in a barn. Both score their palms with their wands. Now bleeding, they interlace their hands . . .
DUMBLEDORE turns his head away, fighting the impulse to cover the glass again. Bracing himself, he looks up.
From their bloody palms rise two glowing drops of blood, which mingle and merge to create one. A metal shape begins to form around the droplet, becoming more defined and intricate. It is GRINDELWALD’S vial.
NEWT It’s a blood pact, isn’t it? You swore not to fight each other.
Fantastic Beasts and the Secrets of Dumbledore
Dumbledore stares at him, then slowly brings a hand into view and reveals: the BLOOD TROTH. As he cradles it, its chain slowly slithers between Dumbledore’s fingers, as if alive.
Theseus nods, eyeing the troth, watching as the DROPLETS OF BLOOD circle one another like weights in a clock.
The blood troth flashes red and flies free, caroming off the floor and to the wall. As he draws his wand, taking aim, the troth’s chain, still tethered to his arm, constricts, burrowing deep into his flesh.
CREDENCE I’m a Dumbledore. You abandoned me. The same blood that runs my veins runs yours.
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