Rowling Studies The Hogwarts Professor Podcast

In yesterday’s Hallmarked Man Notes: The Christmas Charm Bracelet Decoded, Tod Jameson and the Ectopic Pregnancy, and Venetian Blinds, Ed Shardlow explained three sub-texts within Strike 8 that, though invisible on first and second reading, pop up during structural analysis and in light of other Rowling-Galbraith notes.

* The Christmas gift charm bracelet that Strike gives to Robin, for example, appears to be a ring and a key to Hallmarked Man, a meaning that occurred to Ed in light of Rowling’s own bracelet gift to fandom last year as a key to Sleep Tight, Evangeline;

* John Granger’s posts about Strike 8’s cryptonyms similarly encouraged Ed to think about the meaning of ‘Todd Jameson’ and how the “egg-shaped” man had several names and seemed to be stuck on the Tube; and

* Ed’s efforts to finish his charting of each Part of Hallmarked Man brought up the theme of Robin’s blindness and mental struggles in Part Three’s chapter correspondences.

In conversation with Nick and John explore these ideas as well as the potential importance of A. H. Murdoch, a historical figure that Rowling-Galbraith invented whole-cloth, the meaning of his name (‘Alexander Hughson’), and the passages from his book, Secrets of the Craft, which of course are also Rowling-written.

Below are relevant links to the subjects the trio discuss and copies of the ten questions John and Nick asked Ed. Enjoy!

Links to Conversation Subjects

* Hallmarked Man Notes: The Christmas Charm Bracelet Decoded, Tod Jameson and the Ectopic Pregnancy, and Venetian Blinds

Charm Bracelets

* The Christmas Charm Bracelet of Strike 9 Clues (Part One)

* The Christmas Charm Bracelet of Strike 9 Clues (Part Two)

* 'Sleep Tight, Evangeline,' Miniature Psalters, and the Head of Persephone: A Conversation with Dimitra Fimi

Cryptonyms of Hallmarked Man

* The Allegorical Cryptonyms of The Hallmarked Man, Part One

* What do Tyler Powell, Rupert Fleetwood, Jolanda Lindvall, and Lady Jensen Have in Common?

* The Allegorical Cryptonyms of The Hallmarked Man, Part Two

* Wet Squibs, Islamic Cub Names, the Seven Strike Series Structure Theories, and How a Human Being Reads a Story

* The Lost Child Golden Thread in the Work of J. K. Rowling (Kanreki)

* The Pre Natal Infanticide Theory Explaining the Lost Child Golden Thread (Kanreki)

Rowling as Sacred Artist: A Perennialist Reading

* Ray Livingston's 'The Traditional Theory of Literature' (Chapter 1: Preface and Prologue)

* Ray Livingston's 'The Traditional Theory of Literature' (Chapter 2: Man, Society, Art )

* Ray Livingston's 'The Traditional Theory of Literature' (Chapter 3: The Creative Process)

* Martin Lings’ The Sacred Art of Shakespeare

* J. K. Rowling’s ‘G-Spot’ and ‘Triple Play:’ The Lake & Shed Secret of Her Success

The Ring Readings of Rowling’s Hallmarked Man Chapter Sets

* Index to the Group Adventure of Charting Hallmarked Man (scroll to bottom)

* Ed Shardlow’s ring notes for Part Three

A. H. Murdoch’s Secrets of the Craft Excerpt in Hallmarked Man:

[Strike skim read the entry under Degree Thirty Two.]

The Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret becomes with the degree’s endowment none other than a Christian Knight, the spiritual and legitimate successor of the Knights Templar…

When she elevates and illuminates, a pure and chaste woman is as silver, or the moon. The […] Freemason is sure never to mistake base lead for the nobler metal, else he may find himself forever entombed in the dungeons of lust and lasciviousness. (ch 53, pp 400-401)

The parenthetic ellipsis is in text, presumably there because “Murdoch’s book hadn’t been properly formatted, but scanned into digital form, so that the occasional word was illegible.”

The Ten Questions

1. We have a special guest today, Ed Shardlow, the author of a commissioned post that went up this week, one we begged him to write up. It’s a weird post erven for a site that embraces the exotic, weird in the sense that it’s actually three posts rolled into one. What’s up with that, Ed?

2. So the three topics are:

* The charms on the Christmas gift bracelet Strike gives to Robin;

* The meaning of Todd Jameson’s name; and

* Robin’s sight and memory issues, ‘Venetian Blinds’

Is there a thread running through these ideas?

3. Tell us your charm bracelet idea and the meaning you think each charm has --

4. And it’s a ring, right? What a hoot. --

5. I loved the charm bracelet piece, not only because you read it as a ring and showed that the charms together and separately act as something of a cipher for the book, but because you linked it with Rowling’s Strike 9 charm bracelet. Do you think per Shanker’s advice that Rowling-Galbraith is giving us jewelry as a gift, one that acts as a key to the work in Hallmarked and before Evangeline, because she wants to make up with us for the hardship readers are having with the book?

6. True confession, though I was laughing out loud and delighted with your breaking the Todd Jameson cryptonym, I was also pretty disappointed; that name was number 1 on my not-yet-written third cryptonym post. What consoles me is that I doubt I would have picked up on what you saw, which is mind-blowing. Tell us how you figured it out as well as what you found --

7. Now this is a new variant of Rowling-Galbraith inserting a text within the text. This ectopic sub-story isn’t a written text, a fairy tale, an epigraph, a song playing in the background, an illustration based on a mad detective’s Tarot card throws, or the story the bad guy is selling that we have to unwind and re-write; we’ve seen those books-inside-the-book before. This is Rowling concealing a narrative inside the narrative with really only the name to act as the cipher for the coded message. Hence her talking up the importance of names in this book (e.g. Jolanda -- violets)?

8. You make a fascinating connection with Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, and Todd Jameson, the Son Who Killed His Mother (?). Do you think she finally wrote in a Chosen One echo in the Strike series via Jameson?

9. I want to leave the board here because I know you have to run -- thank you for joining us on such short notice! -- and talk about something you’ve been sharing on the Moderator’s Back Channels, namely, A. H. Murdock. His Secrets of the Craft is another text within a text, right? Have you thought about his name or why Rowling gave his book that title?

10. When will you be done with The Ickabog project? Inquiring minds want to know!

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Nick Jeffery and John Granger sat down last weekend to discuss John’s post, The Literary Alchemy of Hallmarked Man: What Do the Structural Models Tell Us? They’d talked about this subject briefly before John had written it up and he came to rather different conclusions in the process of writing and preparing slides for the post, all of which are rolled out in this inquisition.

The questions Nick asked are below after the links in the post in case you want to follow up on what is said above about literary alchemy, the sequence of colors and symbols, and about the structural models for understanding the Strike series, especially Extended Play and Tetractys Theory.

Enjoy!

Links for Follow-Up and Easy Reference: Strike Alchemy

* Literary Alchemy – A Primer for Those Interested in J. K. Rowling’s Artistry

* ‘Literary Alchemy’ Pillar Post

* Metallurgical, Literary, and Psychological Alchemy: Is Jung a Good Guide for Understanding J. K. Rowling’s Artistry and Meaning?

* The Literary Alchemy of Hallmarked Man: What Do the Structural Models Tell Us?

* , ‘The Connection of Ring Composition and Literary Alchemy in the Layout of the Seven Book Harry Potter Series.’ (William Sprague)

* ‘Parallel Series Idea’ Pillar Post

* Robin Ellacott and Reverse Alchemy: Transformation Through the First Three Strike Texts (Louise Freeman)

* ‘Troubled Blood: Strike’s Transformation’

* ‘Water, water everywhere: Baptism, baths, rivers, rain and showers as unifying themes in The Running Grave’ (Louise Freeman)

Seven Structural Theories for Strike Ten Book Series

* (1) straight up Decalogy, no structural connection between books;

* (2) Big Ring Composition, Double Wedding Band (Louise Freeman);

* (3) Seven book series with Trilogy finale (Nick Jeffery, John Granger);

* (4) Extended Play theory (John Granger per ‘Kathleen’),

* (5) Sonnet Corona Form (Robyn Gomillion);

* (6) Tetractys theory (Evan Willis with back-up explanations here, follow-up from Evan here); and

* (7) Celtic Cross (John Granger) scroll down to bottom).

Tetractys Theory in Depth:

* Alastair Fowler’s Triumphal Forms

* Why the Cormoran Strike Novels are a Ten Book Series: Mythological Clues and Tetractys Parallelism with a Touch of Tarot Reveal the Strike Series Structural Echoes with Rowling’s First Ten Book Set [Evan Willis, 10 July 2023]

* Is Tetractys Theory the Best Explanation of Why the Cormoran Strike Series is Ten Books in Length? First Thoughts on Evan Willis’ Numerological Exegesis of Rowling’s Two Ten Novel Series and the Meaning of This Structure [John Granger, 18 July 2023]

* Evan Willis: Running Grave Review In which the Tetractis theory is revisited in light of Strike 7 and the Theory is Updated [Evan Willis, 30 September 2023]

* See The Literary Alchemy of Hallmarked Man: What Do the Structural Models Tell Us? for excerpts from and discussion of each.

* The Tetraktys Tarot Card Spread!

The Charts!

The Ten Questions and John’s Answers (notes!)

1. So, John, you finally got the alchemy post you promised an age ago; what was the hold-up?

· Tried to put too much into the posts…

· Changed my mind several times as I was writing them!

· had to relearn Tetractys ideas!

2. You start off this Alchemy of Hallmarked Man discussion with a review of the literary alchemy of the first three Harry Potter novels; why did you have to reach that far back?

· Because of the Parallel Series Idea, not alchemy at all, oddly enough.

· Rowling seems to be writing Strike decalogy in parallel with Potter to include its alchemical sequences so I reviewed the ‘Reverse Alchemy’ theory, how that worked for Strikes 1-3 but broke down at 6 and 7

· To get Hallmarked Man‘s alchemical stage right, I wanted to figure out why Ink Black Heart and Running Grave weren’t the alchemical stages we’d expect

3. Some of our listeners may not have the literary alchemy three stages firmly in mind; can you go over what they are and why they’re important in Rowling Studies?

· Black, White, Red stages: what each represents in metallurgical and literary alchemy;

· Rowling’s one interview comment about alchemy, her PotterMore notes about colors;

· Rowling’s use in Harry Potter‘s last three books, fourth book, and first three books;

· Galbraith’s use in Strike series’ first three books, fifth book, and six and seven;

· Ward on astrology in CSL’s Narniad (’Donegality’); similar use of alchemy in Rowling-Galbraith

4. So the alchemical parallelism seemed to stop at Ink Black Heart but the other correspondences continued?

· That’s right, the first seven books paralleled their Harry Potter apposite numbers in structure, plot points, and some symbolism but the last two broke from the alchemical pattern;

· I decided that the best place to look for a way that the new pattern could be explained would be looking at the seven theories about the Strike-Ellacott series structure;

· If a specific structure had a very clear idea about the alchemical stage sequencing in the books, then I’d have a real head-start in what to look for in Hallmarked Man.

5. The Seven theories -- last time we talked it was six! Remind me what they are and what each says about the alchemy...

· No structure, Big Ring/Double Wedding Band, Septology and trilogy combo, Extended Play, Corona Sonnet, Tetractys, and Celtic Cross (see links above!);

· Only Extended Play and Tetractys theories had clear theories about the alchemy; and

· Oddly enough, they both explained why Hallmarked Man had to be considered an albedo or white novel even though they disagreed about what Ink Black Heart and Running Grave were...

6. We’ve got slides here that help make what seems hopelessly nerdy something you can see. We’ll start way back with the ring structure of The Harry Potter series and work our way toward Evan Willis’ Tetractys ideas.

· Harry Potter series, Sprague/Thacker ‘Reverse Alchemy:’ Slides 1 and 2 (see above)

7. And via the Parallel Series Idea we should see those same relationships that were found in the Potter books in the Strike series?

· Extended Play idea: Slides 3 and 4 (see above)

· Where it breaks down -- Running Grave like Troubled Blood an “aquatic Nigredo“

8. And you think the Tetractys idea is better. We really need to have Evan on the show to talk about where he learned about this figure, its use in English literature prior to Rowling, and why he thinks Rowling is writing her second ten book series. Can you summarize his two Hogwarts Professor posts on this subject and why Rowling Readers will benefit from learning about this ancient ten point peg board model?

· See Tetractys pyramid slides above;

· Four levels: meaning of monad, dyad, triad, quaternity symbolism; (first Evan Willis post above)

· Pyramid to climb, something akin to four levels of reading and knowledge; [Fowler, Triumphal Forms]

· Benefit to Rowling Readers: Willis thinks the second Quaternion parallels Rowling’s first -- and the differences explain the alchemical stage of Running Grave;

· It also was used to predict three things about Hallmarked Man: it was all about silver, it would be an albedo or White stage novel, and it would parallel The Ickabog

9. Three bullseyes with a special merit badge for figuring out the silver part before the title was announced. Let’s go to the Tetractys slides for the Potter and Strike series:

· All above!

10. Both the Extended Play and Tetractys theories, then, have Hallmarked Man as an albedo. How will that influence your examination of Strike 8 for its alchemical symbols and sequences as well as your interpretation of them?

· I’ll be looking for the alchemical signatures of the second stage, leukosis or the ‘whitening,’

· I’ll be looking for evidence that contradicts the albedo dyad idea, and

· I’ll be researching if alchemical ideas, as in, say, incest, ‘Jason and the Medea,’ and ‘dog and b***h,’ are best read as white stage tokens

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Nick Jeffery and John Granger sat down to discuss four Hogwarts Professor posts. Here are links to those posts with an excerpt from each and the most relevant urls embedded in them. Enjoy!

What is a Squib, Really? And Where Would Rowling Have Met the Word? (John Granger, 27 April 2026)

I confess that I assumed the word for barely magical witches and wizards born into magical families in J. K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, the folk she calls ‘Squibs,’ were given that name because of its onomatopoeic source in fireworks; per the Harry Potter Lexicon invaluable online resource, a squib is English idiom for “a dud firework that will not ignite properly.” It sounds like its meaning (as does “dud”) and a reader can feel in it the disappointment of magical parents when their child turns out not to have the gift that will make them full members of their community.

I learned this morning, however, that a squib is not a dud firework, or wasn’t originally though it may have that meaning today, and that it is mentioned more than once in one of Rowling’s known literary influences.

* ‘Squibbing’ at the Bridgewater Carnival Fireworks Festival (YouTube video)

* Toyohashi Tengu: Japanese Quidditch Team (Harry Potter Lexicon)

* Tengu — Japanese Fantastic Beast not in Newt Scamander’s textbook (Wikipedia)

* Toyohashi Tezutsu fireworks 2022 (Tezutsu-hanabi — Wikipedia)

* Dimitra Fimi’s ‘A Kind of Elvish Craft’ Substack site

* The Fireworks of Gandalf: in which ‘squibs’ are discussed (not duds!)

* ‘The Slow Lord of the Rings Re-Read’ Prof Fimi’s Tolkien Reading Day Introduction

* Reading Rowling as Myth Maker and Myth Re-Writer: A Conversation with Dr Dimitra Fimi

* ‘Sleep Tight, Evangeline,’ Miniature Psalters, and the Head of Persephone: A Conversation with Dimitra Fimi

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Ray Livingston's 'The Traditional Theory of Literature:’ Chapter 2: Man, Society, Art (John Granger, 30 April 2026)

In brief, the Perennialist reading of literature begins with a different idea of what a human being is, which reflects the social environment or society and culture that best fosters his achievement of his end or telos, which reflects what role art in general and story specifically plays in his best life. The human being as primarily spiritual, his end as profound communion with what is most Real, and story as non-liturgical sacred art (not necessarily or even usually ‘religious’) which supports him in his vocation to that end are the premises of the traditional or theocentric understanding of man, society, and art.

Which is the title of Livingston’s second chapter and a description of its organization as well as of its contents. It’s not easy reading; the subject matter is quite dense and he covers an enormous amount of ground relatively quickly so he can get to the ‘literature’ in the remaining chapters of the work. Without setting out the premises of the Perennialist understanding with respect to what it means to be human, how a community is designed to make a fully human life possible, and how the art of everyday objects as well as set pieces for appreciation or entertainment — there being no meaningful difference in the value of practical and fine arts here — bring that polity to fruition, discussion of literature from the traditional view would be a waste of time.

The Allegorical Cryptonyms of Hallmarked Man, Part 2: Ten More Cratylic Character Names and Best Guesses about their Embedded Meanings (John Granger, 1 May 2026)

This is the second part of at least a three part series of articles with supplementary video discussion in which I take a long look at Rowling-Galbraith’s choices for character names in the eighth Strike-Ellacott novel, The Hallmarked Man. For the first posts in this series, in which I explain why this is a worthwhile effort, one critical to Rowling’s intentional artistry and complementary to her other Shed tools, see ‘The Allegorical Cryptonyms of The Hallmarked Man, Part One’ and my conversation with Nick Jeffery about it ‘What do Tyler Powell, Rupert Fleetwood, Jolanda Lindvall, and Lady Jensen Have in Common?’

Almost half of today’s ten posts are about characters named ‘Lion’ or variants on the leonine theme. I think the number of lions prowling through Hallmarked Man, not to mention the dogs from Hell and the bears benign and grizzly, deserve their own post, especially to contrast it with the predominant swan symbolism of the first seven books. Or are they conjoined in Jonny Rokeby, whose middle name is the lionesque ‘Leonard’ and who plays the part of a Jovian swan in the Leda mating that produced Cormoran Strike (we think?). [Be sure to check out Ed Shardlow’s full catalogue of the lions afoot in the pages of Hallmarked Man!]

* ‘I’m an Essex Girl’ (YouTube video)

The Literary Alchemy of Hallmarked Man: What Do the Structural Models Tell Us? Seeking Pointers to the Hermetic Meaning of Strike 8 within (a) the Extended Play and Tetractys Ten Book Series Pictures and (b) the Parallel Series and Reverse Alchemy Ideas (John Granger, 8 May 2026)

There are currently seven theories that I have read about of how best to think of the Strike-Ellacott series structure:

* (1) straight up Decalogy, no structural connection between books;

* (2) Big Ring Composition, Double Wedding Band (Louise Freeman);

* (3) Seven book series with Trilogy finale (Nick Jeffery, John Granger);

* (4) Extended Play theory (John Granger per ‘Kathleen’),

* (5) Sonnet Corona Form (Robyn Gomillion);

* (6) Tetractys theory (Evan Willis with back-up explanations here, follow-up from Evan here); and

* (7) Celtic Cross (John Granger) scroll down to bottom).

The first idea is that there isn’t a series structure worth noting, which is the default position of the great majority of readers. They (we?) enjoy each book and appreciate the over-arching story parts and conflicts without wondering about the author’s intentional narrative scaffolding. Rowling has repeatedly said that special sauce secret of her success is structure but as story organization artistry is very rarely discussed today in English classrooms even Literature wonks neglect it. The other six ideas have their advocates and rather than review each I’ve embedded links above to these proponents’ online arguments in favor of their best guesses.

All of these structure theories have advantages and support from previous work we and others have done in the field of Rowling Studies; all of it, however, it must be remembered is laughably speculative guesswork – we’re not going to grasp the series structure with any certainty until it’s done or Rowling actually answers questions about it or shares the information gratis (neither of which is likely given her history). Those of us who give any time to this, not to name those who are pre-occupied with it, are hunting phantom fandom garlands (as well as having a lot of fun).

There actually is, however, a reason beyond personal insecurities and a search for redemption for thinking about how the ten book series is organized before all the books are out. If you’re trying to figure out the alchemical quality or stage of a book already in print, understanding the sequence of books should theoretically reveal the sequence of stages (and vice versa). As explained above, Rowling seems to be writing the Strike series in parallel with her Harry Potter seven books. Until we got to the sixth book in Robin and Cormoran’s adventures, those parallels included the alchemical coloration or stage the Potter numerical equivalent had. Other correspondences between the series continued, most notably, the seven book ring structure and playful plot point parallels (see my conclusions post Running Grave here, here, and here). The alchemy did not.

In terms of alchemy, the most compelling ideas I think are Extended Play (EP) and Evan Willis’ four-three-two-one pyramid, the Tetractys figure of the ancients, the ‘Great Quaternion.’ Let’s look at each.

* Why the Cormoran Strike Novels are a Ten Book Series: Mythological Clues and Tetractys Parallelism with a Touch of Tarot Reveal the Strike Series Structural Echoes with Rowling’s First Ten Book Set [Evan Willis, 10 July 2023]

* Is Tetractys Theory the Best Explanation of Why the Cormoran Strike Series is Ten Books in Length? First Thoughts on Evan Willis’ Numerological Exegesis of Rowling’s Two Ten Novel Series and the Meaning of This Structure [John Granger, 18 July 2023]

* Evan Willis: Running Grave Review In which the Tetractis theory is revisited in light of Strike 7 and the Theory is Updated [Evan Willis, 30 September 2023]

* Literary Alchemy – A Primer for Those Interested in J. K. Rowling’s Artistry

* Metallurgical, Literary, and Psychological Alchemy: Is Jung a Good Guide for Understanding J. K. Rowling’s Artistry and Meaning?

The Ten Questions!

Introduction: It’s been a busy week, John, with posts on traditional reading, cryptonyms, and literary alchemy. I’ve got a bunch of questions about each subject so let’s jump right in -- with some thoughts about Squibs in Bridgewater and Toyohashi, Japan!

1. Ray Livingston: You’re sending out a chapter of The Traditional Theory of Literature every week to our Paid Subscribers which I think everyone has access to, at least for one or two chapters. It’s no small effort to type up this public domain book that isn’t available anywhere on the internet, especially with the embedded links to the obscure references in the footnotes; why are you bothering?

2. Ray Livingston: The first chapter you sent out went to everyone and included the glossary of terms as well as the Table of Contents, preface, and prologue (chapter one). I’m guessing this is more than throat-clearing and publisher’s data; why does a literary theory text, for example, need a glossary?

3. Ray Livingston: The second chapter, ‘Man Society, and Art,’ was a dense read, I confess. Am I right in thinking this was Livingston’s attempt to introduce the Perennialist ‘Theory of Everything’ in one short chapter to lay the foundation for the literature chapters?

4. Cryptonyms 2: It’s been a minute since Part One of the Cryptonyms series, why the hold-up?

5. Cryptonyms 2: [John] And part of my cryptonym-hesitancy was how much of this post was UK specific, as in the Branfoot = Branson idea and the Essex Girl bit, all of which was new to me. As a Brit living in Wales, should I have resisted the urge to speculate on those subjects? And is the anti-Semitism part of my Hafsa Mohamed interpretation just looking backward from current events?

6. Cryptonyms 2: Do we have a Cryptonyms, Part 3, in queue?

[Ottolie, ‘Jim Todd’ (‘Jim Philpott,’ Todd Jameson), Calvin ‘Oz’ Osgood, Sofia Medina, Gretchen Schiff, Sapphire Neagle, Susan Iverson, Kim Cochran, Trevik Nancarrow, Peggy (Margaret ‘Leda’) Nancarrow,, Carmen Ellacott (Dirk Ellacott, Barnaby Ellacott), Ralph Lawrence/ John Auclair – Open Invitation to readers to make name-deciphering requests in the comments; there are more than 150 names in Hallmarked Man so tell me the ones you want to hear more about]

7. Alchemy (Series) We’ve been writing and talking about ‘how to understand literary alchemy best,’ i.e., by taking a Jungian or a Perennialist perspective on how Rowling uses it, but this latest piece on the Literary Alchemy of Hallmarked Man is much more straight-reading or interpretation, no? And it starts out with how to understand Strike 8 in light of the series sequence of alchemical stages; what’s the struggle with this kind of reading that we’re only getting to this six months after the book came out?

8. Alchemy (Hallmarked): How does your reading of specific alchemical images in Hallmarked Man differ from how you read them in, say, Troubled Blood?

9. Alchemy (Hallmarked): There were quite a few finds in the ten images you found in Abraham’s Dictionary that resonated with subjects we’ve been talking about -- the mythological backdrop to the story, to incest, to Lions and Masonry. What are we to make of this? Do you think it’s a coincidence that Rowling-Galbraith’s plot points and other artistry reflects these alchemical glyphs or is the hermetic symbolism driving the other elements?

10. Coming Week: So what can we expect in the coming week, John?

Lots and lots! Please send in your cryptonym deciphering requests — and your ideas for Hogwarts Professor merchandise (AI generated logo designs welcome)!

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Golden Threads

Last July, Nick Jeffery and I put together a month long review of Rowling’s work in celebration of her 60th birthday, a Kanreki party. Every day we posted conversations about each of Rowling’s works with Nick discussing a ‘Lake’ point, something biographical or bibliographical, and me talking about a ‘Shed’ quality of the work, the author’s traditional tools, artistry, and meaning.

That worked great for about twenty days. Then we ran out of books. What to do for the remaining days of the month?

We decided to talk about Golden Threads, the plot points, themes, and twists that run through everything Rowling has written. We started out with a survey of the fifteen-plus already identified by Rowling Re-readers and Fourth Generation types (see here and here) and then with more in depth looks at the ones that were controversial or more difficult to see. We closed off the month with the ‘Lost Child’ Golden Thread and the possibility that Rowling’s inspiration for the Harry Potter series was the trauma of pre-natal infanticide (‘abortion’).

As disturbing as that Golden Thread was to many Rowling fans and Feminist Gate Keepers, there was another third-rail string we didn’t discuss, namely, the plot point of incest that readers encounter again and again in the Potter and Strike series as well as the stand-alone stories.

Incest as Golden Thread

Nick and I discuss the Incest Golden Thread on the fly in the conversation above about Strike-Ellacott fandom theories about Sleep Tight, Evangeline and the series finale. Here are some written references if you want to review them by looking at the books in question on your shelf.

* Harry Potter

The foundation crime of the Hogwarts Saga is the abuse of Merope Gaunt by her father Marvolo and her brother Morfin. The abuse in question in this children’s book series is not explicitly sexual. As with the abuse of Ariana Dumbledore by the Muggle boys, however, that Merope’s father and brother violated her is there between the lines; her trauma is so great that she loses her capacity for magic (as she does after her Riddle lover leaves her) and the family does not send her to Hogwarts lest their shameful secret be revealed.

No broken Merope, no Lord Voldemort, no Potter family murder and orphan Harry — no series. Though the Saga’s foundation crime, the Gaunt family’s abuse of its only young woman, is not revealed until Order of the Phoenix, it is the tragedy on which all the core conflicts of the septology are built.

* Casual Vacancy

Stuart ‘Fats’ Wall is the adopted son of Tessa and Colin Wall. A teenager in Vacancy, he and Krystall Wheedon are the star-crossed lovers around whose choices and behaviors the ensemble drama largely turn. Fats at the end of the book claims responsibility for all the Ghost of Barry Fairbrother posts by means of which the secrets of Padford citizens are spilled.

In the climax of the Wall family drama after Robbie’s drowning and Krystall’s suicide, Tessa reveals to Fats his personal history. His biological mother was only fourteen when he was born, an age that sadly means it is possible-to-likely that he is the fruit of incest. Tessa, a diabetic woman unlikely to carry a baby to term successfully, compelled her unwilling husband to agree to the adoption despite his mental fragility. Again, the foundation crime of this very involved story is incest, the abuse of a young woman by her family.

* Lethal White

In the first of only two Rowling books in which every epigraph was taken from a single work, the fourth Strike novel takes all of its headings from Henrik Ibsen’s Rosmersholm, a play in which suicide and incest go hand in hand, especially in the White Horse finale. The novel parallels its epigraph source in astonishing ways.

The Chiswell family has its secrets. The Minister of Culture hires Strike’s agency to find ‘dirt’ on Jimmy Knight and Geraint Winn that can used as counter “bargaining chips” to end their capacity to blackmail him. He shares neither what information they have that they are holding over his head to extort money and revenge nor what Billy Knight witnessed years ago. If Jasper or Izzy Chiswell had told Strike this information in the beginning, it is likely the pater familias would not have been murdered. The biggest secrets, of course, are about the sexual relationship between Raphael and his step-mother and the step-son’s plans to murder father and eventually Kinvarra in order to be free to spend the millions he’ll make from sale of the Stubbs. Not quite incest, a step-mother in bed with her step-son, but something like it.

Rosmersholm‘s family secrets are if anything more disturbing. Kroll reveals to Rebecca that Dr. West, her adoptive father, was very likely her biological father as well. It is implied heavily that after her mother’s death Rebecca’s relationship with Dr. West changed from filial to sexual; Kroll’s revelation about this is something of an Oedipus Rex moment. Rebecca realizes that she had been sleeping with her father and the incest taboo crushes her ability to accept Rosmer’s overdue marriage proposal, a proposal for which she had convinced the ailing Mrs Rosmer to commit suicide.

* Troubled Blood

The psychopathic murderer and torturer of children that the police and public believe killed Margot Bamborough is Dennis Creed. We learn in chapter 8 of Strike 5 via the Peg-Legged PI reading The Demon of Paradise Park that Creed was the incestuous rape off-spring of Agnes Waite and her step-father Awdry, a man who wanted to kill the child at birth but which the mother prevented (to her eventual regret). Awdry abused the boy all through his childhood, especially after Agnes’ escape as a young woman (reminiscent of Peggy Nancarrow’s flight from St Mawes). Troubled Blood is haunted by the victims of Creed’s madness, all of whose deaths can be traced back to Awdry’s violent sexual violation of his step-daughter.

* Hallmarked Man

The mystery Cormoran Strike agrees with no little hesitation to try to solve is ‘What happened to Rupert Fleetwood?’ Decima Longcaster Mullins, mother of Fleetwood’s son Lion, believes her baby-daddy was the unidentifiable murdered man in the Ramsey Silver Vault. We learn before that victim’s identity is revealed that Fleetwood fled the UK after he learned that the woman he loved was his half-sister and his son the product of unwitting incest. Rowling-Galbraith reveals only in the epilogue that Ian Griffiths murdered Tyler Powell because the young man was determined to rescue the young woman living with Griffith as his daughter who was pregnant with his child. Once again, the foundation crimes of a Rowling work turn on the intentional sexual abuse of a girl by a father-figure, here compounded by an Oedipus Rex like incest-in-ignorance episode.

Incest Notes

* Fantastic Beasts

As in the Harry Potter novels, there are no explicitly incestuous relationships in the Fantastic Beasts screenplays. The conception of Leta Lestrange, however, checks the ‘rape,’ ‘power abuse,’ and ‘inter-family’ boxes of father-daughter incest nightmare.

Her mother, Laurena Kama, was desired by Corvus Lestrange III even though she was married to Mustafa and the mother of Yusof. Corvus compelled her by the Imperius Curse to join him and, while she was under his control, which is to say ‘unable to consent or resist his will,’ conceived Leta, who took his name as if her mother had been his wife. Leta unknowingly avenges the Kama family by her switching her younger half-brother Corvus IV with the Dumbledore baby that results in his death by drowning.

* Ickabog

Nick Jeffery points out in our conversation that there can be no more incestuous means of conceiving a child than the Ickabog species’ parthenogenic reproduction. If one accepts that as incest, the Ickabog’s death after delivery and the imprinted character of the Ickaboggle by its first contact post partum have to be read allegorically.

* Cuckoo’s Calling

There is no mention made in the first Strike novel of John Bristow’s having sexually abused his younger also-adopted sibling-sister, Lula Landry. I’m going to include it in these ‘Incest Notes’ because I think it possible that the man who killed his brother Charlie and envied his sister Lula ‘played’ with her cruelly, which fostered her mental instability. I think this is more than imaginative free association head-canon because of Lula’s successful search for and planned meeting her real sibling brother Jonah Agyeman the night of her death. Bristow-Agyeman, the false and true brothers, are figures of erotic and anterotic love in her life, so much that I don’t think incest is a stretch for John Bristow, the unloved chick in the nest.

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So what?

There has been a real up-tick in speculation about how the Strike series will finish in its last two books with the guess work largely turning on how the Big Unresolved Mysteries will play out. The reason I’ve written up these thumbnail etchings of incest occurrences through Rowling’s work is because several of the theories Nick and I are seeing in the comment boxes here and on the YouTube HogwartsProfessor channel are incest driven.

To get that, a Serious Striker, beyond grasping that incest is a ‘thing’ to expect in a Rowling piece like Bad Dad, Divine Mother, Violence Against Women, and at least one Lost Child, has to have in sight at all times three ideas that act as premises:

* Closing Trilogy Theory: Hallmarked Man the first of a three book finale which introduces the main characters;

There’s a real split in Strike fandom about what to think of Hallmarked Man. The great mass of readers on Reddit I’m told and at least one Substack Sage believe it is “the worst book of the series,” a real stinker. Nick and I — and most of the Hogwarts Professor readers who comment on our posts and conversations — in contrast think it is a brilliant book, one that may eventually be considered one of the best in the Strellacott decalogy.

The difference is that the one group reads Strike 8 as if it were just like the first seven books in the series, i.e., a stand alone mystery whose cast of characters will in large part disappear from the stage before the next book begins. That working assumption makes the extraordinarily large cast of players in Hallmarked Man and the five different story-lines just with respect to whom the silver vault corpse might be, not to mention the Strike-Ellacott romance and over arching mysteries clues seem a confusing pile-up of plot points and people, few of which made this book fun-to-read. The author seems like she just lost control of the story and threw everything that occurred to her into the story and cut none of it out.

Our working theory disagrees with that Just-Like-All-the-Others assumption and finds the possibility that Rowling has just lost her way very unlikely. Having just finished charting each of Strike 8’s chapter sets or ‘Parts’ and found that each is an intricate ring, as well as those Parts working as a ring, too, believing that the author is asleep at the wheel seems borderline preposterous.

We think that the first seven books, each written playfully on the model of its Harry Potter numeric counterpart, are a closed set — and that the last three books in the ten book series are being written as a trilogy in which the Great Mysteries introduced in the first seven will be resolved.

Hallmarked Man, as the first book in this three part series, is burdened with introducing all the principal players of this extended finale inside a book whose mystery allows their appearance and character reveal without pointing too obviously to their part in the upcoming drama. Hence Tara, Dino, Valentine, Ralph Lawrence, Sacha, and at long last Rokeby playing the roles they do in this book.

* Trilogy will resolve at last the Leda Margaret, Charlotte, and Strike/Ellacott story line mysteries;

The end of Strike 10 seems to be a hard stop according to Rowling. She is obliged, consequently, in the next two books to give her readers satisfaction on the many hanging threads in the series, most notably:

* The story of Strike’s conception, the IED explosion, and his SIB medal;

* Peggy Nancarrow, a.k.a., Leda Strike, why she left St Mawes as she did, why she raised her children as she did, and all the circumstances of her seeming suicide (Where’s Switch?); and

* Charlotte Campbell-Ross, sometimes referred to as the Honorable Milady Bezerko, and the baby she claims to have conceived with Strike, her backstage efforts to upend Strike’s relationship with Robin, her break-up with the hotelier billionaire, her suicide note, and, echoing Leda, the circumstances of her seeming suicide.

That’s the shortest of lists obviously with nothing about Murphy or Robin or the host of other key players in the series. Given the ending of Hallmarked Man, I’m very much inclined to think that Sleep Tight, Evangeline’s mystery will turn on where Robin went after Strike’s proposal on the stairs which will necessarily involve Murphy, and, forgive me, many of the players from Strike 8 as Rowling-Galbraith begins rolling out the stunning twists hidden beneath the surface of Strike 8. All those fun confrontations with Charlotte’s bizarro family, from Emilia at the end of Grave to Tara, Dino, Valentine, and Sacha? My bet is we’ll learn in the next books how much Strike and Ellacott missed in their meetings with each.

* Serious Strikers think incest is at the heart of the Strike, Nancarrow, and Campbell mysteries.

Leda’s Conception

* Ted’s Daughter with an Unknown Women

A real stretch, I know, but Ted, per the invaluable Cormoran Strike Timeline, was fourteen years older than his younger sister Peggy. If you think it inconceivable that Ted was Leda’s father, you either imagine that just-barely-teenage boys cannot sire children (see George Hamilton’s life for his sexcapades at age twelve with his stepmother) or you make nothing of the fact that Trevik gave up his daughter for his mother’s upbringing when his wife died.

Perhaps the cause of the Nancarrow house nightmare and Ted’s departure for the Army “lest murder be done” was because, a la Hamilton, Leda’s mother was not a young lass with whom Ted met outside The Victory but Trevik’s abused wife, Ted’s own mother. Which is to say he was both Leda’s brother and biological father. Hence the otherwise almost inexplicable relationship of Ted, his barren wife, and Peggy-Leda. Just sayin’!

Strike’s conception:

* Son of Leda and Ted;

Leda is 23, give or take a year, at Strike’s conception early in 1974 and her older brother is 37 and married to Joan who cannot have children. It’s possible that Ted is Cormoran’s dad, just as Joan is delighted to hear Strike say he is in Troubled Blood, the only barrier being our being told repeatedly that Ted was a “proper man.” Perhaps that repeated telling is a marker that he wasn’t always that proper but did his best to set his sister (daughter?) up well with the Rokeby paternity evidence. See ‘Uncle Ted It’ for more speculation along these lines.

* Son of Leda and Trevik Nancarrow;

I’m thinking that if Rowling is pointing to an incest relationship in the Nancarrow family it isn’t with “proper man” Ted, the long-suffering and ever vigilant older brother but to the “pure terror” and “hard-drinking” man despised by sister and brother. You’ll forgive for thinking that anything to which Rowling-Galbraith is clearly hopeful her readers will believe is not the surprise ending of her ten book series.

* Rokeby deception

If Strike’s or Leda’s conception was incestuous, especially if Ted was the father of either, then Rokeby was deceived about his parentage, I presume with Ted’s SIB-driven assistance. The best motivation I have read about why Leda was murdered and her death staged as a seeming suicide, beyond even the Mad Guillespie theories, is that she tired of this deception, hence her refusal to accept Rokeby’s child support, and intended to tell Cormoran who his father really was. So Ted killed her.

Charlotte Conception and Abuse by Father, Relations with Half-Brother:

* Tara and Dino’s Daughter

Fiona wrote to me privately to share her theory that Dino is not only the father of Valentine, Cosima, Decima, and Rupert, but also of Charlotte:

In response to a post by Cheryl Rose Orrocks on 17 Feb 2026, my current theory is that Dino Longcaster is Charlotte’s father and that his son, Valentine Longcaster, will be revealed as her abuser and the possible biological father of Charlotte’s children. Hence the 2nd incest storyline will also involve the Longcaster family. This could be why Charlotte’s mother, Tara, despised Charlotte so much.

If Jago Ross is somehow linked to the matter of the DNA test involving Bijou and Strike, it may be because he had Charlotte’s birth children DNA tested to confirm parentage. Maybe Jago discovers he is not the biological father and assumes Strike is, hence the reason he wants to obtain Strike’s DNA results.

This would need a whole longish post to unfurl but the high points of Fiona’s idea is that, just as with the Fleetwoods, Dino impregnated Campbell’s wife Tara unknown to the father. When the Campbells divorced (he doesn’t seem to have found out?), Dino then became Charlotte’s stepfather in addition to being her biological father.

And maybe even the father of her children that she claimed were Cormoran’s and Jago’s? Whew.

* Dino’s Sexual Abuse

Rubes posted her theory on a thread here on 3 March that Dino Longcaster abused Charlotte his step-daughter after his marriage to her then mother, Tara Campbell Longcaster:

I think Charlotte got involved with Dino as a teenager (whether willingly or not). That is why she ran away and attempted to kill herself. She told her mother who disbelieved her or knew and it is the source of their conflict. Dino was also maybe the stepfather that tried to have her committed.

Dino and his daughter [Cosima] gave me Ivanka and Donald Trump vibes. Maybe he sublimated that incestuous desire with young Charlotte. He is also obsessed with looks and perfection and we know Charlotte as Venus is the epitome of beauty

I think Charlotte either extorted him all these years or else continued the on-and-off affair so he would help support her lifestyle.

He might even be the father of the twins. It would support both the false paternity and incest themes in THM. We also have multiple examples of (step)fathers grooming/abusing their stepdaughters throughout the series.

* Valentine or Sacha relations; Strike child, Ross twins

Both the ‘Dino Did Her’ theories suggest in turn that, a la the Brockbank twins Noel and Holly, the Longcaster and Legard half-siblings Valentine and Sacha had sexual relationships with their beloved swinging sis Charlotte. Either man could be the father of the mystery baby she told Strike was theirs and either one could also be the baby daddy of Jago Ross’ supposed twins.

As Fiona suggests, if the results of Bijou’s DNA testing of Strike winds up in Ross’ hands — perhaps Rowling makes the whole effort Ross-inspired after he discovers the twins are not his? — he is the one who reveals to Strike that neither of them was the father of Charlotte’s only children. If so, I look forward to reading how Rowling has Strike or Robin connect the dots with the incestuous Campbell-Legard-Longcaster family love-pit.

Conclusions

Does incest tie up all the loose threads in this series? No way. I suppose incest or at least cousin-marriage is a way of life in Afghanistan but I don’t see how incest explains for us all the questions surrounding the IED blast.

But with respect to the several conception questions we’ve been straddled with, incest definitely throws up some fascinating possibilities (and ‘throws up’ reflects the nausea inducing aspects of this viscerally felt taboo). If you accept the Finishing Trilogy Idea and its corollary that all the mysteries will be resolved in the last three books and that Hallmarked Man has given us our cast of characters, then the possibility that the soft-incest of Decima and Rupert with its sort of happy ending in Strike 8 was an introit to an inbreeding heavy finish in the last two books.

Please share your thoughts in the comment boxes below about these theories and about my conversation with Nick in the video above!

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[Apologies but the recording is quite poor at the start, but improves. Please bear with it - Nick]

John Granger shared privately with Nick Jeffery that he thought it would be a good idea to read C. S. Lewis’ Till We Have Faces, a re-telling of the Cupid and Psyche myth, to get a better grip on Rowling-Galbraith’s re-imagining of the same myth in her Cormoran Strike series.

Nick, as is his wont, promptly read the book, wrote up the possible connections between the chapters of Till We Have Faces and the books in the Strike series — C. S. Lewis’ ‘Till We Have Faces’ and Rowling-Galbraith’s Cormoran Strike Series (Part One) — which ‘Part One’ constituted a challenge to John to write up his contrarian notes as ‘Part Two,’ which he did yesterday.

Today? They talk about CSL’s Till We Have Faces, what it tells us (and doesn’t tell us) about JKR’s Strike series, and the reasons why a Serious Striker or ‘every thoughtful reader’ really should read Lewis’ last novel, one he and Tolkien thought was his best.

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Links to everything they discuss can be found in their respective write-ups: C. S. Lewis’ ‘Till We Have Faces’ and Rowling-Galbraith’s Cormoran Strike Series (Part One) by Nick and C. S. Lewis’ ‘Till We Have Faces’ and Rowling-Galbraith’s Cormoran Strike Series (Part Two) from John.

Here is a copy of the ten questions that kept their conversation — for the most part! — between the guard rails. Enjoy!

CSL and JKR Tackle ‘Cupid and Psyche:’ The Ten Questions

1. (Nick) So, why, John, are we talking about a book Rowling has never mentioned, in a genre she has never attempted, by an author from whom she has tried to distance herself, and which has no obvious connection to what Rowling is writing today?

[See the first paragraphs of John’s Part Two.]

2. (John) Can you give our listeners a quick review of the book’s history, Nick, that is, the story behind the story?

[Nick discusses information here not in either of their posts!]

3. (Nick) Which is all very interesting from the Lake side of the reading, but it’s the story itself that is the connection to Rowling. Give us the plot points, structure highlights, and spoil the ending, too, won’t you, John?

[John reads Nick’s plot summary from his Part One (below). Another summary can be found on the Faces wikipedia page.]

Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C.S. Lewis is a first-person retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth, narrated by Orual, the eldest daughter of the King of Glome (a fictional barbarian kingdom). Orual frames Part One as a bitter complaint or accusation against the gods, particularly Ungit (a cruel fertility goddess akin to Aphrodite/Venus, represented by a black stone) and her son, the god of the Grey Mountain (the “Shadowbrute” or Brute). She writes in old age as queen, claiming the gods have wronged her, especially by taking her beloved half-sister Istra (whom she calls Psyche). The novel is divided into two parts. Part One (the bulk of the book, spanning 21 chapters) recounts events from Orual’s perspective as she experiences them, portraying her actions as justified love and the gods as unjust. Part Two (a short addendum of about 4 chapter) is written later, as Orual nears death. Here, she gains new insight through dreams, visions, and self-reflection, realizing how her “love” was often possessive, jealous, and devouring—much like Ungit’s. The veil she wears becomes a central symbol: initially to hide her ugliness, later as a barrier to truth and self-knowledge. “Till we have faces” suggests that true self-revelation and honest relationship (with gods or others) require facing reality without masks or illusions.

4. (John) We know for sure that CSL was re-telling the Cupid and Psyche myth here; Lewis and the text make that undeniable. I argued from the text five years ago that Rowling-Galbraith was doing something similar and she suggested strongly by tweet this was the case. In your post, Nick, you swung for the fences to explore the possibility that Till We Have Faces was a model of sorts for the Strike series. Did you establish or eliminate that possibility -- and what were the most interesting connections you found?

[See Part One!]

5. (Nick) You’ve recently re-read this, too, John; were you struck by story echoes in Strike from Faces?

[John discusses CSL’s wonderful cryptonyms, several of which have alchemical notes, a point he didn’t write up in Part Two, and then talks about the allusion to Psyche as “Artemis and Aphrodite combined” in Faces, the importance of ‘The Real’ in Lewis and Rowling, and the importance of “the riddle” to Lewis and a “debate” to Rowling, all in Part Two.]

6. (John) The key connection, though, of course, is in the use of the myth and how the modern and postmodern authors parallel the original version and depart from it. Care to compare and contrast the two adaptations, Nick?

[Nick answers this with some references to Part One and John offers a Planet Narnia inspired opinion.]

7. (Nick) You brought up in our alchemy conversation earlier in the month, John, and in your Faces post that Rowling seems to want to foster a “debate” within and among her readers about how to best understand her work, specifically between a psychological or spiritual interpretation. That seems to be on Lewis’ agenda, too, no, in Faces?

[Part Two, Point #4]

8. (John) As fascinating as that parallel is, Nick, the structural one is better, I think. What do you make of Faces’ two Parts and our conversations about how the ten book series seems to be playing out?

[Part Two, Point #5]

9. (Nick) You’ve played with the names a bit, John; what do you think is the meaning of the title? There’s a specific passage in which Till We Have Faces is spoken as dialogue and we know Lewis’ preferred title was Bareface, but what do you think Lewis was after with the Faces idea -- and does it have any relevance to Strike?

[Part Two, Point #6]

10. (John) So, let’s do another tally of CSL/JKR correspondences. And what are the differences between Lewis and Rowling?

List: Ten Points of Correspondence

1. Christian symbolism,

2. kappa atmosphere artistry,

3. literary alchemy,

4. psychomachia,

5. ring composition,

6. the debate/riddle about God

7. Mythic retelling

8. Genre blending

9. Narrative misdirection, big twist

10. Most famous for magical world behind portal

Differences:

* Violence against women!

* Old White Man; Old White Woman

* [Fill In Your Best Contrast between CSL and JKR]

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This is the second of a series of posts about the literary alchemy of J. K. Rowling, a discussion jumpstarted by a post by ‘Iris’ at a Strike fan website, an article that championed a Jungian perspective on this subject. The first post in this series, Literary Alchemy – A Primer for Those Interested in J. K. Rowling’s Artistry, both explained what the ‘Iris’ post asserted and reviewed much of the critical literature that the brevity of the S&E Files article prevented her from discussing. See that post for links to this material.

The conversation between Nick Jeffery and John Granger above was recorded in the same spirit as the first post was written, namely, simultaneously a welcome to Strike fans and Rowling readers who have learned about literary alchemy only recently and an introduction to the work of the last twenty five years on this subject. Upcoming posts in the series will include a counter-point discussion in the debate Rowling is fostering about whether a psychological or spiritual perspective is better for understanding art and life and a review of the alchemical signatures that crowd Rowling-Galbraith’s Hallmarked Man.

This post is largely links to sources for points Nick and John discuss in their naturally enthusiastic and contrarian conversation, question by question. Enjoy!

1. Welcome to the Conversation! (Nick) I just sent out an article about literary alchemy, John, in response to an article written by ‘Iris’ and posted on the Strike-Ellacott Files website, a piece titled ‘What is Literary Alchemy? Spotting symbols that map Strike and Robin’s growth.’ What advice or guidance would you give to, say, Cormoran Strike readers who are brand new to the subject?

* There are three types of alchemy and it is important to understand the common ground they share and the differences between them;

* The first type is alchemy proper, which is to say ‘metallurgical alchemy,’ the sacred science of purifying metals and the adept’s soul via the creation of a Philosopher’s Stone that will transform lead to gold and exude an elixir of life, the drinking of which will bestow immortality;

* The second and third types of alchemy derive from interpretations of metallurgical alchemy’s aims and the symbolic texts detailing the work in the hermetic laboratory;

* Literary alchemy is the use of metallurgical alchemy’s language, colors, sequences, and symbols in plays, poetry, and story to foster an edifying and transformative experience in the artist’s theater or reading audience;

* Psychological alchemy is Carl Jung’s use of metallurgical alchemy’s texts during and after WWII to illustrate his ideas of the integration of the conscious and unconscious aspects of the human mind;

* Metallurgical alchemy was practiced in China, the Levant, India, and Europe within the revealed religious traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity until its degeneration in the late Medieval period and eventual evolution into the strictly materialist chemistry we know today;

* Literary alchemy has been a continuous stream in literature from Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and the Metaphysical poets through to Dickens, Yeats, the Inklings, Joyce, Nabokov, and J. K. Rowling;

* The academic study of “alchemy in literature” was the province of Baconian and allegorical readings of Shakespeare (cf., Beryl Pogson, Peter Dawkins, Martin Lings) until the late 20th Century and the advent of academic specialists in ‘Hermetic Studies,’ e.g., Stanton Linden, Lyndy Abraham, and Charles Nicholl (cf., Cauda Pavonis: A Journal of Hermetic Studies, 1982-2000).

* Jung and his followers used their psychological interpretations of metallurgical alchemy as allegories of the soul to interpret mythology (cf., Erich Neumann, Marie-Louise Von Franz, Robert Johnson);

* Jungian analysis of story using Jung’s ideas of subconscious archetypes within a collective unconscious was popularized by Joseph Campbell in his guides to Joyce’s Ulysses and his more well known works on mythology (e.g., The Hero With a Thousand Faces);

* ‘Isis’ in her S&E Files article, ‘What is Literary Alchemy?,’ suggests that Rowling-Galbraith is writing an allegory of soul transformation in the Cormoran Strike series using metallurgical alchemy’s symbols and sequences as understood by Carl Jung and his disciples rather than as used by English writers since the 13th Century;

* It’s a challenging theory, the depth of which is hard to grasp without an appreciation of the types of alchemy, what they have in common, and their differences in approach and subject matter.

2. The Lake: (John) What I found most fascinating in your post, Nick, was your best guesses about where Rowling would have learned about literary alchemy. She claimed in 1998 that she’d read a lot of alchemical texts from which she set the “magical parameters” of the Hogwarts Saga; if you had only three chances to name one of those books, what would you choose?

* Charles Nicholl’s The Chemical Theatre;

* Titus Burckhardt’s Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul (or Mirror of the Intellect: Essays on Traditional Acience and Sacred Art);

* Lyndy Abraham Summerhaze’s Marvell and Alchemy or her Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery;

* Martin Lings’ The Secret of Shakespeare

3. Carl Jung, Alchemy: (Nick) I see you’re chafing at the bit, John, with book titles I haven’t mentioned so let me name-drop the author not on my list because, as you pointed out, he wasn’t really a literary alchemist so much as a psychologist who discussed alchemy as a means of illustrating his own ideas about the ‘Great Work.’ You’ve written, though, that literary alchemy as with metallurgical alchemy is a subset of soul-allegories or Psychomachia. Don’t Jung’s ideas jibe with that?

* Yes and no!

* Jung’s ideas of the soul and archetypes (or archetypal forms) are based on late 19th Century Volkischer German ideas, which is to say, modern and materialist (some say ‘vitalist’) premises. His hostility to Christianity and Judaism was grounded in his acceptance of Darwinian evolution and derived philosophically from Nietzsche (see Richard Noll’s The Jung Cult and The Aryan Christ).

* He conflates the spiritual with the psychological, consequently, and embraces integrated individual psychological health as the telos of human existence, none of which is consistent with traditional metallurgical or literary alchemy (see Titus Burckhardt’s Mirror of the Intellect, Philip Sherrard’s ‘An Introduction to the Religious Thought of C. G. Jung,’ and Harry Oldmeadow’s ‘C.G. Jung & Mircea Eliade: ‘Priests without Surplices’? Reflections on the Place of Myth, Religion and Science in Their Work.’

* Psychological alchemy, insomuch as it is ‘Jungian,’ is well removed from the other two types of alchemy. Which is not to say that Rowling is not a Jungian and hence a Jungian psychological alchemist.

4. Back into the Lake: (John) You covered in your article, though, Nick, the several reasons to think it possible, even probable that the evidence from Rowling’s life suggests she is using Jungian ideas in her literary alchemy. Iris over at S&E Files obviously thinks that is the case. What are the for and against ideas with respect to Rowling being a Jungian?

There’s Plenty of Evidence That Rowling IS a Jungian Writer:

John Granger’s discussion in Troubled Blood: A Jungian Reading

* Robin’s name-dropping Jung in conversation about astrology;

* The Jungian notes sounded throughout Strike 5: Archetypes, Synchronicity, Persona;

* The connection between Jung’s illustrated ‘New Book’ and Talbot’s ‘True Book;’ and

* Pointers to Cupid-Psyche myth as understood by Jungians (see below)

The Advent of Prudence Dunleavy, Jungian Psychologist, in Ink Black Heart

* Hard to imagine a more sympathetic portrait of a Jungian than half-sister Prudence!

* She clearly was the genius behind the Rokeby reconciliation in Hallmarked Man

The Cupid and Psyche myth underpinning the Strike series

* A Mythological Key to Cormoran Strike? The Myth of Eros, Psyche, and Venus (note the discussion here of the Jungian understanding of this specific myth)

* Ink Black Heart: Strike as Zeus to Robin’s Leda and as Cupid to Mads’ Psyche

* ‘Rowling Points to Myth of Cupid and Psyche in order to Console Strike Fans Disappointed with Hallmarked Man‘

* The Hallmarked Man‘s Mythological Template (Nick Jeffery, John Granger)

Anything Else? Oh, yeah —

* Rowling studied mythology in her ‘Classical Studies’ program at UExeter and almost certainly encountered Jungian interpretation of myths there (e.g. the work of Neumann, Johnson, Campbell).

* Rowling told Val McDermid if she had not become a successful writer she would have sought training and certification as a psychologist.

* Her work reflects a broad reading in psychology (cf., Louise Freeman Davis’ ‘J. K. Rowling and the Phantoms in the Brain,’ ‘Cormoran Strike and the Itch that Cannot Be Scratched’) and it is likely that she has read her fair share of Jung and Jungian authors during her studies.

* Rowling benefited from psychological therapy and exercises herself when suffering from depression, the experience of and recovery from which she depicted in story via the Azkaban Dementors and Robin Ellacott’s treatment for PTSD in Lethal White.

And There is Plenty of Evidence That Rowling Is NOT a Jungian Writer:

* Rowling has never been asked or revealed how she learned about literary alchemy; this includes, of course, any reference to Carl Jung, whose work was not focused on literary alchemy per se but a psychological interpretation or explanation of metallurgical alchemy’s symbolism.

* All that Rowling has revealed about her experiences as a patient seeking help with depression are about Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), which treatment modality owes nothing to Jung or to Jung’s students.

* It is possible that Rowling encountered esoteric metallurgical alchemy, the precursor to literary alchemy, in her study of astrology, the complementary traditional sacred science to alchemy, a skill-set with which we know she was accomplished. That route to alchemy would have led her to Perennialist interpretations of alchemy, most notably Titus Burckhardt‘s Alchemy, Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul; the paperback cover of the Penguin Metaphysical Library edition of that book (1974) features an androgynous giant named REBIS standing on a dragon and a winged golden sphere (i.e., Rubeus, Norbert, Snitch).

* As mentioned above, it is more likely that she encountered literary alchemy in her study of Shakespeare. The year she was studying for her A Levels, she traveled to see a production of King Lear which has prompted the idea that it was on her list of texts to prepare for her tests. The most challenging interpretation of Lear then in print was Charles Nicholl’s The Chemical Theatre (1980), a book that explains almost every scene in perhaps Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy as a parallel step in the Great Work of alchemy. If the budding astrologer was fascinated by this allegorical interpretation of the Bard, the most popular work in print at that time that championed reading Shakespeare as the author of soul allegories was Perennialist Martin Lings‘ The Secret of Shakespeare (1984).

* Literary Alchemy is a tool set employed not only by Shakespeare but by a host of Rowling favorite authors to include Dickens, Nabokov, Lewis, and Tolkien. This view of alchemy, that is, as an allegorical depiction of the soul’s transformation that affects that same cathartic experience in its theater or reading audiences, is the one found in Rowling’s work, which is well removed from psychological alchemy, an analytic art which, though it springs from metallurgical alchemical texts, does not aim at the transformation at work in the sacred art or the science of traditional alchemy.

* Rowling’s use of chiastic structures and psychomachian allegory, tools that complement literary alchemy in spiritual perspective and aim, make a Jungian rather than a literary and Perennialist view of alchemy seem unlikely.

* Alchemy: Jung, Burckhardt, or Maclean? John Granger, April 2007

* Rowling’s Soul Triptych Psychomachia: Is It From Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’? John Granger, September 2024

5. The Debate at King’s Cross: (Nick) So, John, you’ve mentioned Jung quite a few times in your posts about the Mythological framework of the Strike series and even written about the Jungian ideas of animus and anima with respect to Cormoran and Robin’s relationship. You seem fairly confident, though, that Rowling is writing from the traditional esoteric ideas of alchemy a la Shakespeare rather than Jung’s. Why is that?

* Everything you just said!

* As noted, Jung’s ideas are modern and psychological while the stream of literary alchemy in English Literature is almost exclusively more Medieval and pointedly spiritual;

* The Most Notable Exception: Angela Carter’s The Passion of the New Eve (1977), that reads like a Jungian ‘Red Book’ slide-show (think Bombyx Mori) or a transgender Odyssey written for feminists. Rowling has never mentioned her to my knowledge but it would be surprising if she hadn’t read this book more than once. What Alana Bolton Cooke wrote about Carter’s Passion could be said about Rowling’s literary alchemy if she is a Jungian writer (or about Galbraith’s fictional Elizabeth Tassel?):

Angela Carter in The Passion of New Eve (1977) uses the exoteric phases of alchemy and Carl G. Jung's theory of esoteric alchemy as a means of demonstrating allegorically the idea ofrebirth and renewal. The purpose of this allegorical method is to produce an 'alchemical' change of thought in the reader about sexuality and gender associated with women's repression and liberation.

In the novel Carter develops themes and ideas explored in her essay, The Sadeian Woman: An Exercise in Cultural History (1979), an analysis of the Marquis de Sade's pornography and its affect on the roles of men and women in society. The clash of opposites involved in combining alchemical symbolism, feminism and pornography within the fiction can be seen as representative of the state of chaos present in alchemy before the beginning of change.

The circular narrative and alchemical structure of the fiction creates a literary version of the alchemical process as it brings together opposites involved in chaos, represented by events and characterisation that the protagonist, Evelyn/Eve, experiences, until, in the manner of alchemy, harmony is reached. The harmony created represents women's empowerment.

Carter uses Evelyn's individuation process to encourage growth within the reader by altering patterns of thought to bring about change through self-confrontation and self-knowledge. The structure of Carter's fiction, thus, corresponds to the process of esoteric alchemy contained within the structure, imagery and symbolism of exoteric alchemy. The fiction is designed to stimulate the unconscious of the reader and make conscious hitherto unknown and repressed thoughts about gender and sexuality to bring about change in the lives of men and women.

* I think what Rowling said she was trying to do with Harry Potter’s meeting with Dumbledore at the dream-like King’s Cross strongly suggests she is aware of the two approaches and wants readers to discuss them – but that she has made her own choice, however conflicted she may be.

* In her 2008 interview with Adeel Amini, Rowling said that her hope for Harry’s post-mortem conversation with Dumbledore at King’s Cross was to stimulate “a debate” among readers about whether it was a psychological moment, that is, a fantasy in which Harry understands what he’s been missing all along, or a spiritual event in which he is actually speaking with the late Headmaster:

Enough Potter-plot, I think. Moving on to a slightly more contentious issue, Rowling has categorically said that she does believe in a higher power, a statement reinforced by her childhood church-going (“Till I was 17,” she clarifies). It must be difficult to reconcile her religious beliefs with those that denounce Harry Potter as anti-Christian, I wonder aloud. Rowling’s expression does not change a fraction. “There was a Christian commentator who said, which I thought was very interesting, that Harry Potter had been the Christian church’s biggest missed opportunity. And I thought, there’s someone who actually has their eyes open.

“I think he said it before the publication of the seventh book, and with the publication of the seventh book I think that clarified a lot of people’s view on where I was standing. But I should emphasise that I am not pushing a specifically Christian agenda, and indeed till the very last moment in book seven, one can interpret what happens to Harry after he presents himself with death as him going into an unconscious state in which his subconscious reveals to him what he already knew.” I hum in faux-comprehension of what she’s referring to; luckily my clued-in companion is nodding wildly. Proceed.

“Any re-reading of Chapter 35 will show you that there’s nothing that the Dumbledore he sees tells him that he couldn’t have guessed for himself or already realised, and of course there’s a key piece of information that Dumbledore doesn’t articulate that Harry has realised. So you can deliberately interpret it that way, or you can say that he did go into a state of limbo beyond which there was another life, and that idea was expressed repeatedly, and most explicitly at the end of book five, Order of the Phoenix, where Harry understands that there is an ‘on’, that you do go on.

“I wanted there to be a debate there, so of my three main characters - when they come into the room which examines death at the Ministry of Magic - Hermione, the ultimate sceptic and a hyperrational person, hears nothing behind the veil and is scared of it. Ron is just uneasy; Ron is someone who does not grapple with anything deeper than beer, if he can avoid it. Harry’s drawn to it, and therein lies Harry’s slightly reckless, almost morbid streak, because Harry does have a hint of that dangerous adolescent trait which is the attraction to death.” Heavy.

Obviously with this ambiguity, you do get a fair degree of misinterpretation as well; there is a certain section that does dislike Harry Potter intensely. “Oh, vehemently,” says Rowling, before muttering under her breath “…and they send death threats.”

* I think that “debate” she’s trying to foster is between the psychological, call it ‘Jungian’ “just inside your head” subconscious perspective, and the authentically spiritual view of her work (well, of art and human existence, too, of course). And that this debate is one she has had for most of her life. Check out her comments about the “greatest missed opportunity” and explain to me how that doesn’t line up with her preferring the spiritual, albeit “not explicitly Christian,” to the psychological and humanist.

7. Jungian Readings of Rowling’s Work: (Nick) John, you’re familiar with what has been written by Potter Pundits because of your PhD critical literature surveys; what are the better ones about Rowling and Jungian psychology and what do they emphasize?

Here are seven off the top of my head (and Thesis ‘Works Cited’ drafts):

* Grynbaum, G.A. (2000). The Secrets of Harry Potter. The San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal: Reviews From a Jungian Perspective of Books, Films and Culture, [online] 19 (4) pp. 17-48

* Patrick, Christopher and Sarah (2007), ‘Exploring the Dark Side: Harry Potter and the Psychology of Evil,’ in Mulholland (ed.), The Psychology of Harry Potter, BenBella Books, pp 221-232

* Gerhold, C. (2011). The Hero’s Journey Through Adolescence: A Jungian Archetypal Analysis of “Harry Potter.” PsyD. The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

* Rectenwald, Bob (2019). ‘Carl Jung’s Impact on the Work of J. K. Rowling’

* Skipper, Alicia and Kate Fulton (2021) ‘Out from the Shadows into the Light: Persona and Shadow in Harry Potter‘ in Anne Mamary (ed.) The Alchemical Harry Potter: Essays on Transfiguration in J. K. Rowling’s Novels, McFarland, Jefferson, NC, 2021, pp 79-96

* The Unfolding Journey, Jung’s Shadow Self in Harry Potter: Confronting the Darkness Within (YouTube video)

* My own Troubled Blood: A Jungian Reading

Bob Rectenwald’s piece is the best of the six I didn’t write but it shares the several faults all the Jungian pieces make:

* the first failing of even the best Jungian readers is the assumption that Rowling is a Jungian, which is an open question;

* the next is that Jung’s ideas (and Joseph Campbell’s) are indisputably true; and

* the last is, when alchemy is mentioned, the critics do not clarify either the commonalities of or the differences between literary alchemy, psychological alchemy, and Jungian analytic psychology.

* Note, though, that Rowling, while aware of such Jungian tropes as the Hero’s Journey, tweeks it shamelessly, adding a symbol of Christ and resurrection scene in every Potter story (cf., How Harry Cast His Spell, ‘The Harry’s Journey,’ pp 21-28).

* Read her brief PotterMore piece on alchemy and note that it is written in such a way that it can be read as confirmation of either a psychological or spiritual perspective on alchemy and art:

One interpretation of the ‘instructions’ left by the alchemists is that they are symbolic of a spiritual journey, leading the alchemist from ignorance (base metal) to enlightenment (gold). There seems to have been a mystical element to the work the alchemist was engaged upon, which set it apart from chemistry (of which it was undoubtedly both an offshoot and forerunner).

This “original writing” by Rowling, especially the words “spiritual” and “mystical,” suggests that she is a Perennialist rather than a Jungian, at least with respect to her understanding of alchemy. But the debate is still possible with Jungians who read those words as cyphers for the subsconscious contact they hold we have with archetypes.

8. Back to the Alchemy: (John) I think the real question of whether Rowling’s literary alchemy is predominantly literary and spiritual or psychological in orientation comes down to the postmodern confusion about the immaterial aspects of the human person, which is to say, the soul (or mind, psyche) and the spirit. Rowling’s recent work may seem prosaic or secular to a casual reader who compares it to the relatively otherworldly and “obviously” symbolic Potter books, but she loads each Strike book with Shakespearean romance of soul and spirit, i.e., alchemical dramas, and hermetic tropes.

I’m writing a piece now about the lions, dogs, incest, and the red man and white woman in Hallmarked Man, each of which are touchstones of alchemy. I think, though, that your work with Rowling’s favorite books and her epigraph sources, Nick, point to a strong spiritual rather than psychological foundation in Rowling’s work —

* Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

* Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

* The Victorian Women Poets in Running Grave

* Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh

* Robert Browning, The Ring and the Book

* The Jungian love of the I Ching, Running Grave’s epigraph source

9. Jung in Running Grave: (Nick) Rowling’s favorite writers, from Shakespeare and Nabokov to C. S. Lewis and Victorian Women poets, all clearly believe in a world-transcending spiritual realm. Given the quantity of the Jungian scholarship in Rowling Studies that Iris referred to and you’ve mentioned, it’s curious -- if Rowling is aware of it and is resistant to it -- that she doesn’t push back against it explicitly in her work. Can you think of a character that seems something like Jung in the books, someone as bad as Prudence Dunleavey is good?

I can think of three:

* United Humanitarian Church’s guru Jonathan Wace in Running Grave: his “psychologizing of religion,” the comparative religion avenue to denial of any true faith, the psychological critical analysis of a patient using mythological tropes (”Artemis”), the cult leader, and the abuser of women and children -- he’s a ringer for Jung!

* Paul Satchwell, one-eyed serpent with a one-track mind, in Leamington Spa, a true Jungian artist working psycho-sexual motifs graphically on canvas:

Naked figures twisted and cavorted in scenes from Greek mythology. Persephone struggled in the arms of Hades as he carried her down into the underworld; Andromeda strained against chains binding her to rock as a dragonish creature rose from the waves to devour her; Leda lay supine in bulrushes as Zeus, in the form of a swan, impregnated her.

Two lines of Joni Mitchell floated back to Robin as she looked at the paintings: “When I first saw your gallery, I liked the ones of ladies…”

Except that Robin wasn’t sure she liked the paintings. The female figures were all black-haired, olive-skinned, heavy-breasted and partially or entirely naked. The paintings were accomplished, but Robin found them slightly lascivious. Each of the women wore a similar expression of vacant abandon, and Satchwell seemed to have a definite preference for those myths that featured bondage, rape or abduction. (Troubled Blood, 542)

* And then there are the Masons, kind of an old school Jungian cult in Hallmarked Man. Like the UHC and “harmless” fraternal and charitable group with Christian touches but which doesn’t change a man or human nature per Hardacre (and which harbors the rich and powerful like Lord Branfoot).

* Coupled with Prudence, the Front of Jungian Beliefs, we get the front and back of Jung in Rowling’s work, a characteristic touch of Rowling nuance as she did with Islam in Hallmarked Man.

10. Conclusion: (John) I’m obviously not a Jung fan and I don’t think Rowling is writing Jungian psychomachia in alchemical symbols a la Angela Carter, but I see how people would come to a contrary conclusion; Rowling’s ‘spiritual not religious’ public statements and political positions with respect to Same Sex Attraction and abortion line up much more easily with New Age and Jungian types than with any kind of orthodox Christianity.

The great thing about essays like Isis’ at S&E Files is that it brings more people into the conversation of what literary alchemy is and the various approaches to it. You’ve been reading about literary alchemy for several years now, Nick; what do you think the person whose first encounter with the subject was the S&E Files article do to hone their alchemy detection skills?

* “Read your books and online talks, John!”

* How Metallurgical Alchemy Worked and How it Became Literary Alchemy (from Deathly Hallows Lectures, Chapter 1):

Alchemy, in a nutshell, was the science for the perfection or sanctification of the alchemist’s soul. This heroic venture I need to say straight off is all but impossible today because the way we look at reality, at ‘things’ per se makes the Great Work itself almost an absurdity. Unlike the medieval alchemists, we moderns and postmoderns see things with a clear subject/object distinction, that is, we believe that you and I and that table are entirely different things and between them is there is no connection or relation. The knowing subject is one thing and the observed object is completely ‘other.’

To the alchemist that is not the case. His efforts in changing lead to gold are based on the premise that he as the subject will go through the same types of changes and purifications as the materials he is working with. In sympathy with these metallurgical transitions and resolutions of contraries, his soul will be purified in correspondence as long as he is working in a prayerful state within the Mysteries (sacraments) of his revealed tradition.

Now, historically there was an Arabic alchemy, a Chinese alchemy, a Kabbalistic, as well as a Christian alchemy; each differs superficially with respect to their spiritual traditions but in every one, the alchemist was working with a sacred natural science or physics to advance his spiritual purification. This was only possible because he looked at the metal he was working with as something with which he was not ‘other’ but with which he was in relationship, artifex and artifact in sacred art imitating and accelerating the work of the Creator creating a bridge, so that, as lead changes to gold or material perfection, his soul was going through similar transformations and purifications.

The common ground is the logos in every created thing, to include persons (cf. John 1:9), which are all continuous with the Logos fabric of reality. As much as the alchemist identifies with this metaphysical ground, purifying himself of the ‘old man’ or ego-driven individual and identifying himself with the spiritual Heart or light within him, that light will become his dominant quality, hence his “illumination” or “enlightenment”. And lead or solid darkness turning into gold, hard light.

How does this edifying magic become the scaffolding for Harry’s adventures? Largely through the genius of William Shakespeare. Hermetic wisdom and alchemical efforts were such commonplaces in Elizabethan England that Shakespeare and his contemporaries recognized, I think. that the magic of staged drama is essentially alchemical. If we groundlings are all watching what’s going on up on the stage and everything is working the way it’s supposed to, the subject-object distinction dissolves inasmuch as we identify with the characters and their agonies through our logos-imaginations. As they go through their changes, like the metals in a crucible, we identify with them and pass through the same cathartic moment.

As the great dramatists of that period realized, “if what we’re doing is alchemical, why don’t we use alchemical imagery and language, too?” And, voila, literary alchemy is born. This stream of English literature in which narrator or characters and the reader or audience in correspondence pass through the stages of the alchemical work, the black the white and the red (basically dissolution, purification, and then perfection) runs through the next five centuries of poetry, stage work, stories and novels. You may not have recognized it, but its a big part of things you have read.

* Literary Alchemy: Sacred Science, Sacred Art, and ‘The Alembic of Story’:A Perennialist Explanation of J. K. Rowling’s Signature Hermetic Symbolism

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Nick Jeffery and John Granger met up last Sunday — St David’s Day in Wales and the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy — to talk about John’s first Hallmarked Man names post, ‘The Allegorical Cryptonyms of The Hallmarked Man, Part One: Ten Cratylic Character Names and their Embedded Meanings.’ In addition to reviewing the high points of that post, Nick offered his insights about the first names John tried to decipher and John added context to the ‘Name Game’ Rowling Readers globally have been playing for 29 years now, Saturn return.

Seven high spots of their rollicking conversation:

* Nick shared his belief that Rowling creates the character names she does as much for herself as a writer as for her readers. If the character matches the name, as he sees it, then she has a constant reminder of what that imaginary man or woman does, says, or won’t do or say;

* John pushed back on that, first because we’ve been told she changed character names while writing them, but more because of what a name is, namely, an image or icon through which the reader experiences the archetypal reference to which Rowling is referring. He thought this was complementary to Rowling’s other Shed tools (alchemy, mythology, ring writing, Christian symbolism, etc.) and argued that, as with the other anagogical artistry, our work in consciously excavating the hidden meaning of names was in keeping with the Hogwarts Professor corrective mission (Eliot’s "We had the experience but missed the meaning" challenge in The Dry Salvages);

* Nick through light into John’s American blind spots with respect to Rupert (Army jargon! and a comic strip bear), Jensen (a posh car in the 60’s that had maintenance issues), and the Welsh undercurrents of Tyler, Griffiths, Ian (Ianto!), and Powell. And the River Fleet, a now invisible tributary channel flowing through the heart of London to the Thames!

* John supplemented what he wrote in the post about the mythological backdrop to the Lindvall, Powell, and Griffiths names with what he thinks now are Christian symbolism, too, especially with respect to the love Tyler shows to Jolanda/Chloe;

* John expanded, too, on Names being another Rowling method of “exteriorization,” a subject he covered at length in his ‘The Christmas Pig: A Quadrigal Reading’ in that epic post’s anagogical section, and the importance of that artistry in working the magic of transformation readers experience in her work;

* Nick put John’s mind at ease about ‘Ian Griffiths,’ the name of Hallmarked Man’s sex trafficking, short, psychopathic rape-murderer, being a cipher for ‘John Granger;’ and

* The two agree in conclusion, after an intense back and forth about the Peter-John Rule in Rowling Studies as applied to Strike 8, that the first ten names that John discussed in his post seem to confirm the Hogwarts Professor working-hypothesis that the last three books will be a trilogy involving many of the same characters to resolve unresolved questions and mysteries of the first seven book ring-set.

John and Nick both referenced the work of Professor Beatrice Groves: check out her exegetical work on the name of The Silkworm’s ‘Owen Quine’ here, her post about Rowling’s connections with the ‘Never Forget’ Campbell clan, and her chapter on Cratylic Names in Literary Allusion in Harry Potter.

Nick is working on another ‘Rowling Reading’ segment about a Hallmarked Man epigraph source, Matthew Arnold’s Merope: A Tragedy, John has more Strike 8 names in queue to decipher, most notably Danny DeLeon and Oliver Branfoot, John and Nick are both charting Part Nine of Hallmarked in which the meaning of names plays a critical role, and Nick is writing the itinerary for a bonus trip to Rowling’s home town that will be a bonus in the Hogwarts Professor online class in preparation.

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Nick Jeffery read Robert Browning’s The Ring and the Book, a Victorian epic poem about a murder mystery in 17th Century Italy, to test a theory. John Granger’s best guess after surveying the chapter headings of Hallmarked Man last September was that, of all 77 sources for the 139 epigraphs in Strike8, Browning’s poem was the most likely to hold a secret message or special meaning inside it. John had said something similar about another Browning poem and Ink Black Heart, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh, and Nick had confirmed that through his own reading and confirmation by Rowling herself. He thought John’s track record of spotting important epigraph sources merited a test reading

.He published his findings on Friday in a post titled ‘The Ring and The Book – A Rowling Reading.’ In brief, the murder in Browning’s poem is a point-to-point model for the Ironbridge murder mystery in Hallmarked Man with characters in Rowling-Galbraith’s book — most notably, Chloe Griffiths, Tyler Powell, and Ian Griffiths — having their astonishing equivalents in Ring. The less obvious but more important links between the two are in their implicit feminism and other messages:

Both works critique abusive relationships and patriarchal power: Guido’s control of Pompilia and Dino Longcaster’s control of Decima Mullins. The legal system (Books 8–9 especially) is satirized as formalistic, pedantic, and often blind to moral reality. True justice requires personal moral intuition beyond mere evidence or procedure. The Pope’s monologue (Book 10) weighs this tension most profoundly. In The Hallmarked Man the police are slow to act on new information gained by Strike and Robin and Farah Navabi manages to hoodwink the courts into escaping punishment for her part in Patterson’s crimes.

The Ring and The Book dramatizes the eternal struggle between good and evil. Pompilia embodies instinctive purity, sacrificial love, and spiritual insight despite her suffering. Guido represents sophisticated, calculating evil that twists morality to justify cruelty. Browning affirms that evil exists but that good can somehow arise from or shine through evil’s consequences. In The Hallmarked Man evil is real, monstrous, and often cloaked in normalcy or power structures, but it can be exposed and defeated through persistence, intuition, and moral courage.

Nick also discusses in this article the chiastic structure of Ring (!) and the ‘conversation’ he heard between Robert Browning in this poem with Aurora Leigh, the masterpiece by his late wife. His ‘Rowling Reading’ of Ring and the Book, consequently, will soon be a touchstone piece not only in Rowling Studies but Browning Studies as well (#ArmstrongBrowningLibraryAndMuseum @ Baylor).

As they have done before with Nick’s ‘Rowling Reading’ articles. the Hogwarts Professor team recorded their conversation about the piece (listen to their discussions of I Capture the Castle and Aurora Leigh). Seven High Points of that Ring and the Book epigraph conversation include:

* Nick’s review of why Serious Strikers and Rowling Readers should read The Ring and the Book along with the story of his immersion in it;

* John’s explanation of why he was so confident that Browning’s poem was a template of some kind for Hallmarked Man even though only six of Strike8’s 139 epigraphs were taken from it;

* Their survey of Rowling’s previous work with epigraphs — Deathly Hallows and Casual Vacancy all the way to Running Grave and Hallmarked Man — for works with similar embedded-in-the-epigraph texts and those without one (or in which it hasn’t yet been discovered);

* Nick’s discussion of Rowling’s previous comments about epigraphs and her answer to the question, ‘Which Came First, the Epigraph or the Story?’;

* John’s best guess pre-publication about the text that will be the epigraph source in Sleep Tight, Evangeline and which Strike text it will most resemble with its Whiskey Shambles title;

* Nick’s commitment to exploring Blue Oyster Cult epigraphs in Career of Evil to see if one of that band’s albums, all of which supposedly had sci-fi themes and story continuity, served as a text-within-the-text for Strike3; and

* John’s suggestion that the relationship of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning, a great love with a shared vocation, might be a point of reflection for Serious Strikers as a template for understanding the Strike-Ellacott partnership.

Nick and John will be recording their group charting of Hallmarked Man’s Part Eight this week with Sandy Hope and Ed Shardlow (and Presvytera Lois?), a survey of readers is in the works, and the long-awaited close look at the Strike series in light of the Cupid and Psyche myth draws ever nearer. Stay tuned!

The Ten Questions, Epigraph Charting, and Links to Previous Epigraph Discussions Here and Elsewhere:

The Ring and The Book – A Rowling Reading, Nick Jeffery, February 2026

Intro to Epigraphs 101, John Granger, September 2022

The Heart is Not About Emotions and Affection but the Human Spiritual Center, John Granger, October 2022

A Rowling Reading of Aurora Leigh, Nick Jeffery, November 2025

Beatrice Grove’s Pillar Post Page at HogwartsProfessor.com

* Scroll down for Prof Groves’ posts about epigraphs and literary allusion in Cuckoo’s Calling, The Silkworm, Troubled Blood, and Ink Black Heart

Lethal White: Ibsen’s ‘Rosmersholm’, John Granger, December 2018

Rowling, Dylan Thomas, and the I Ching: Three Thoughts on Strike7’s Epigraphs, John Granger, April 2023

‘Deathly Hallows’ and Penn’s ‘Fruits of Solitude,’ John Granger, October 2008

The Aeschylus Epigraph in ‘Deathly Hallows,’ John Granger, October 2008

Maid of the Silver Sea Epigraphs: Louise Freeman Davis’ Collected Posts, 2025

The Faerie Queene Epigraphs in Troubled Blood

* Scroll down the Troubled Blood Pillar Post for the Faerie Queene commentary by Beatrice Groves, Elizabeth Baird-Hardy and John Granger

Robert-Galbraith.com Posts about the Epigraphs in Each Book

* Hallmarked Man’s Epigraphs: The Poetry

* Hallmarked Man’s Epigraphs: The Prose

* Scroll Down the site’s ‘Features’ Page for all the other Epigraph Posts

Agents of Fortune: The Blue Oyster Cult Story, Martin Popoff, May 2016

Pompilia: A Feminist Reading Of Robert Browning’S The Ring And The Book, Anne Brady, May 1988

Roman Murder Mystery: The True Story of Pompilia, Derek Parker, January 2001

Sleep Tight, Evangeline: Nick Jeffery and John Granger talk with Dimitra Fimi

Hallmarked Man Epigraphs: The Tally Sheet

Matthew Arnold: 17 poems, 25 epigraphs, 6 from Merope: A Tragedy

* 3, 17, 52, 103, 108, 110 (Merope), 21, 33, 68, 38, 97, 41, 45, 59, 58, 69, 73, 76, 80, 86, 96, 106, 119, 122, 124

Robert Browning: 26 poems, 38 epigraphs including frontispiece, 6 from The Ring and the Book

* 44, 75, 62, 64, 102, 118 (Ring and Book), frontispiece, 2, 9, 11, 107, 13, 16, 20, 26, 28, 32, 35, 37, 114, 39, 42, 93, 44, 75, 47, 51, 62, 64, 67, 116, 71, 77, 79, 84, 87, 120, 90, 91, 100, 102, 109, 118, 126

A. E. Housman: 5 works, 25 poems, 28 epigraphs, 10 from Last Poems

* 1, 5, 7, 53, 19, 92, 56, 65, 74, 105 (Last Poems), 23, 30, 34, 36, 40, 43, 46, 49, 57, 63, 78, 82, 89, 94, 98, 112, 115, 125

John Oxenham: 1 work, 26 epigraphs

* Parts 1-10, Epilogue, 15, 18, 22, 25, 27, 55, 60, 66, 83, 85, 88, 95, 111, 113, 127 (Maid of the Silver Sea)

Albert Pike: 3 works (?), 22 epigraphs, 16 from Morals and Dogma

* 4, 16, 12, 121 (Liturgy), 8, 10, 14, 29, 31, 48, 50, 54, 61, 70, 81, 99, 101 (Morals and Dogma), 24, 72 (Ancient and Accepted Rite?)

Most epigraphs: Robert Browning

Frontispiece: Robert Browning

Most from one poem: Tie, Robert Browning 6 Ring and Book, Matthew Arnold 6 Merope: A Tragedy

Most from one novel: John Oxenham 26 Maid of the Silver Sea

Most from one didactic or discursive argument: Albert Pike 22 (24?) Morals and Dogma

Conclusions: Ring and Book your best bet as template, Re-read Maid of the Silver Sea, read Merope: A Tragedy

Tally Sheet of Epigraphs for Ink Black Heart:

Poet: epigraph numbers, (total)

* Christina Rossetti: 8, 14, 22, 24, 25, 35, 38, 50, 52, 54, 56, 84, 86, 90, 98, 103, 105, 107 (18)

* Elizabeth Barrett Browning: 12, 21, 33, 39, 42, 45, 47, 58, 67, 71, 72, 82, 96, 101, 102, 104 (16; all but #s 21 and 58 from ‘Aurora Leigh’)

* Mary Elizabeth Coleridge: Book, 1, 18, 20, 49, 79, 81, 91, 93, 94, 106 (11)

* Emily Dickinson: 11, 31, 53, 58, 59, 65, 70, 76, 99 (8)

* Charlotte Mew: 16, 17, 40, 55, 66, 92, 95 (7)

* Felicia Hemans: 6, 10, 15, 63, 100 (5)

* Amy Levy: 7, 23, 32, 80, 85 (5)

* Jean Ingelow: 9, 27, 29, 37, 64 (5)

* LEL!: 62, 68, 69, 83 (4); see also Rossetti 52 ‘LEL’)

* Mary Tighe: 36 (Psyche), 43, 60, 88 (4)

* Helen Hunt Jackson: 4, 87, 89 (3)

* Joanna Baillie: 13, 21, 34 (3)

* Augusta Webster: 44, 48, 51 (3)

* Emily Pfeiffer: 3, 75 (2)

* Charlotte Bronte: 19, 74 (2)

* Adah Isaacs Menken: 30, 57 (2)

* Constance Naden: 41, 46 (2)

* Mathilda Blind: 61, 97 (2)

* Mary Kendall: 73, 77 (2)

* Martha Jane Jewsbury: 2 (‘To My Own Heart’)

* Anne Evans: 28

* ‘Michael Field’ (Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper): 78

The Heart and Vision epigraphs in Ink Black Heart by chapter number:

* Heart: 20, 106 (MEC); 21, 67; 52, 107; 68, 85; 2; 63, 80, 85; 17, 40, 55, 95 (Mew); 19, 74; 27; 30; 36, 60; 87 (23)

* Vision: Frontispiece, 1, 49, 81 (MEC); 22, 25, 38, 90, 98 (CR); 59; 3; 34; 95; 57; 88; 48; 46 (17)

Tally Sheet of Epigraphs for Cuckoo’s Calling:

* Frontispiece: Rossetti -- A Dirge

* Prologue: Lucius Accius, Telephus

* Part One: Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy

* Part Two: Virgil, Aeneid

* Part Three: Virgil, Aeneid

* Part Four: Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis

* Part Five: Virgil, Georgics

* Epilogue: Horace, Odes

* [Closing Poem: Tennyson, Ulysses]

Brackets/Latch: 19th Century English poets (see Groves)

Most epigraphs: Virgil (3); no other author has more than one

Most frequently referenced work: Aeneid (2), shades in Ulysses

Center of Chiasmus: Aeneid (true if ring has 5, 8, or 9 parts)

Turtleback lines: Not evident in authors list, perhaps in meanings of specific epigraphs

Conclusions:

* Read Aeneid to look for Cuckoo’s parallels;

* Study epigraphs to look for parallels

Online Literature Review for ‘Epigraphs of Cuckoo’s Calling:‘

https://robert-galbraith.com/epigraphs-of-the-cuckoos-calling/

* 2025 connecting the dots between epigraphs and chapter set to follow (generic)

* No mention of Strike as Aeneas

https://strikefans.com/the-cuckoos-calling-epigraphs/

* Reprinting of epigraphs without commentary

* No mention of Strike as Aeneas

https://thesefilespod.com/blog/the-cuckoos-calling-epigraphs/

* Includes a very helpful link to The Rowling Library and an article there about the ‘real world’ crime serving as a template for the Landry murder

* No mention of Strike as Aeneas

https://mugglenet.wpenginepowered.com/2017/09/literary-allusion-cuckoos-calling-part-1-christina-rossettis-dirge/

* Brilliant discussion of the Rossetti poem but curiously without reference to resurrection meaning

* No mention of Strike as Aeneas

https://mugglenet.wpenginepowered.com/2017/09/literary-allusion-cuckoos-calling-part-2-tennysons-ulysses/

* Brilliant discussion of Strike as Ulysses

* No mention of Strike as Aeneas, curious becauseh Virgil models Aeneas on Ulysses

The Ten Questions of This Conversation (Sort Of!)

1, (Nick) So, John, I finally wrote up my findings about The Ring and the Book as the story template for Hallmarked Man’s murder mystery and, as we did with my posts about Aurora Leigh and I Capture the Castle, let’s talk about it, expanding on the correspondences between the Browning poem and Strike 8. The natural place to begin is with your guess about Ring and the Book being a template based on your tally of the Hallmarked Man epigraphs, a theory you shared on our first show post-publication. Can you explain your process and what made you so confident about Ring and the Book?

2. (John) Looking at that tally, then, Arnold’s Merope and Oxenham’s Maid of the Silver Sea are quantitatively more likely equivalents to Aurora Leigh in Ink Black Heart, but the Browning frontispiece, number of his epigraphs, the hidden quality of the Ring and Book poem titles, and the relationship with Barrett Browning made it seem the most likely. That the poem is considered one of the great feminist tracts written by a man didn’t hurt. I still want to go back to the Arnold poem, though, because of the centrality of his epigraphs in the center Parts and Oxenham deserves a re-read, too, or just a trip to Louise Freeman Davis site, the home of Oxenham Studies online. What struck me while reading your post, Nick, was in the correspondences you found between Ring and the Book and Hallmarked Man. Can you give us the highlights of that?

3. (Nick) The Ironbridge murder mystery, then, is largely lifted from the death of Pompilia. Which is unusual isn’t it? Has Rowling-Galbraith ever used her epigraphs to point to the template of her story?

4. (John) I think, then, that at least four of the previous Strike novels give us the embedded template, per Beatrice Groves The White Divel and The Revenger’s Tragedy (and even Hamlet) gives us important clues about The Silkworm crime, Rosmersholm and its incestuous backdrop inform the murder of Lethal White, the Janus deceiver in Faerie Queene should have been a give-away about the poisoner in Troubled Blood, and, as Rowling confirmed and you demonstrated Nick, Aurora Leigh is the working model for Ink Black Heart. I think the closest Rowling epigraph suggestions to story template was in the Rossetti poem that opens Cuckoo’s Calling and the Aeschylus epigraph in Deathly Hallows. What has Rowling said, though, about her epigraph sources? Do they precede the novels or follow the writing?

5. (Nick) So it’s not one or the other, I think, that is, she has a template in mind and if the source doesn’t have sufficient quotable pieces to serve a epigraphs for the whole book, she uses other sources from the genre in play or that highlight her central theme (cf., the Gray’s Anatomy heart epigraphs in tandem with the hearty women Victorian poets in Ink Black). What I’m struck by here, though, is the shift in importance of epigraphs to Rowling-Galbraith. The numbers are startling, no, between Cuckoo and Hallmarked?

6. (John) Not only do we see a jump from eight or nine epigraphs in Strike1 to 139 in Stike8, but Team Rowling is pushing readers to think more seriously about them by posting reviews of the epigraphs in each book, drawing the dot-to-dot correspondences. I confess the Strike novel whose epigraphs are not like the others, Nick, is Career of Evil and its Blue Oyster Cult lyrics. You’ve been reading a book about Blue Oyster Cult so I’ll defer to you in this despite my great fondness for heavy metal groups with sci-fi themed lyrics...

7. (Nick) What about the book we haven’t got in hand, John: Sleep Tight, Evangeline? We have been told -- sort of! -- the title is from a 2014 song from an American blues band called ‘The Whiskey Shambles.’ Which of the previous epigraph models Rowling has used, from Deathly Hallows to Hallmarked Man, do you think we’ll be seeing in Strike9? What are your thoughts on that, especially as the best link we have for Sleep Tight, Evangeline is from a rock and blues band?

8. (John) So I hope that we’re going to see another Running Grave type epigraph experience in Evangeline, though Grave was unique among Rowling novels and their epigraphs in not having a story-book, poem, or play as its primary source. The I Ching, cannot be a story-template per se because it is a divination tool or means to reflection. Unless you think Pike’s Morals and Dogmas Freemasonry encyclopedia qualifies as an equivalent of sorts to the I Ching? That’s another outlier, isn’t it?

9. (Nick) To put a Fourth Generation focus on this, John, we should be looking for a technique that Serious Readers can use for Sleep Tight, Evangeline to hunt for the embedded source if its hidden as were Aurora Leigh and The Ring and the Book. You’ve found the ones no one else noticed in Ink Black Heart and Hallmarked Man, how did you do that and do you think the same method will work for Cuckoo and Career as well as Evangeline?

10. (John) So, yes, I found them but you had the first confirmed by Mrs Murray and then connected the dots between the Browning poems and Rowling’s work. If this method is going to work on Cuckoo, Career, and Evangeline it will have to involve a spotter and a shooter, though they can be the same person. The spotter technique is nothing but grunt work; chart the epigraphs used and spot the author most frequently referenced and the work of theirs most frequently cited. The shooter work is actually a lot more involved and interesting; tell us about your experiences with the two Browning’s’ epic poems, that thrill of discovering correspondences. Do you think that excitement is something Rowling is offering her readers a a treasure hunt or as a point of reflection in terms of meaning?

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Last November Nick and John introduced Dimitra Fimi, the magnificent maven of Tolkien Studies and Professor of Fantasy and Children's Literature at the University of Glasgow, to students of J. K. Rowling’s work. In that discussion, ‘Reading Rowling as Myth Maker and Myth Re-Writer: A Conversation with Dr Dimitra Fimi,’ she shared her thoughts about Rowling’s creative use of mythology in Harry Potter but especially in the Cormoran Strike series.

The Hogwarts Professor team asked her to join us again because of Rowling’s yuletide charm bracelet gift to Strike fandom and the recent announcement of the Strike 9 title, Sleep Tight, Evangeline. Her insights about the Longfellow poem as a possible even likely source of the next book’s epigraphs are engaging, but it is her expertise in the arcane area of miniature books as well as mythology and the light each shines on the two items attached to the last link of the charm bracelet that open up exciting possibilities

.

Her idea is that the Psalter on the ninth link of the charm bracelet may actually be, unlike the other tokens on the bracelet’s nine links, an object that will play a part in the story, a miniature book. It turns out that one inch high books were something of an industry as curios in the 19th and early 20th century, a means of demonstrating technological mastery.

Dr Fimi discussed several projects she has been a part of in conjunctions with nano-technologists and the librarians at the University of Glasgow’s special collections division. The one that has the most obvious link to English literature is the ‘Tiny Alice project,’ a contemporary effort to minituarize Lewis Carroll’s Alice stories to unfathomable minuteness:

The Tiny Alice Project has produced one of the world’s smallest books: a tiny reproduction of Lewis Carroll’s children’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865). All 78 pages and 26,764 words of the story have been transposed on to a tiny silicon chip, with each page just the width of a human hair (60 microns). Each individual letter is just two microns high, and made from pure gold!

Click on the icons below to find out more about the project, the technology behind it, and Lewis Carroll and his interest in the minuscule. Via the tabs above you can also discover the long tradition of miniature books, and teaching resources.

Clip: Twixter link to tweet above

You can read Dr Fimi’s write-up of ‘Tiny Alice’ and the Miniature Book exhibition she curated at the University of Glasgow to highlight their special collection of these treasures at her 2019 blog post about them. Pictures that include annotated miniature books — copies in which their owners made notes in the miniscule margins of the printed pages — can be seen here.

Later this week, Nick will be sharing his thoughts on Robert Browning’s The Ring and the Book as the Ironbridge Murder story’s template within Hallmarked Man, John, Nick, Sandy Hope, and Ed Shardlow will be parsing the ring within Strike8’s Part Seven, and more about Longfellow’s Evangeline — stay tuned!

The Ten Questions Guiding Today’s Conversation with Dr Fimi with the Necessary Links for Fun Follow-Up:

(Intro) So everything Serious Strikers are thinking and talking about this month made me think of you, Dimitra, and to write you hat-in-hand with an invitation for your return to HogwartsProfessor to share your perspective, knowledge, and first impressions. Thank you for making time to join us!

1. (John) Jumping right in, then, two of the charms on the Strike9 or ‘Evangeline’ bracelet are Fimi areas of unique expertise: the Psalter and the Head of Persephone. I had urged readers to read your Miniature Books in Children’s Fantasy at A Kind of Elvish Craft: The Dimitra Fimi Substack Site in the links after our conversation here last November but I confess to being surprised still when you asked for the dimensions of the Psalter charm after Nick and I posted our thoughts on the subject. For those who haven’t read your ‘Miniature Books’ post, please share how one of the world authorities on the writing of J. R. R. Tolkien became interested in the smallest of texts, the ‘Little Books’ of 19th century printing.

2. (Nick) So you asked for the dimensions of the Psalter, you weren’t thinking as we were that the Psalter charms would be a box holding a folded up paper with a psalm, maybe two, inside it. You’re thinking it might actually be a complete Coverdale Psalter? Is that possible?

3. (John) What Nick and I hope to contribute to the nascent field of Rowling Studies, as you know, is a refocusing of the scholarship and the serious reader attention about her work on to her Lake Springs -- the biographical part of story inspiration -- her Shed Tools or intentional artistry, and the Golden Threads, the plot points and themes that run throughout her work, i.e., to bring Rowling Studies more in line with all literary scholarship about notable authors, living and dead.

One of the Golden Threads we talked about in our Kanreki series last summer was the ‘Embedded Text,’ the books inside a book topos that is in almost every book Rowling writes (Kanreki Golden Thread posts one and two). Detective fiction is always about an embedded text, the narrative ‘written’ by the criminal to prevent the detective from reading the real story of what happened and Rowling-Galbraith often makes this narrative an actual book (Dumbledore Chocolate Frog Card, Tales of Beedle the Bard, Bombyx Mori, Talbot’s ‘True Book,’ The Predictions of Tycho Dodonus, etc.). How do you think a Psalter miniaturized book would appear in a Strike novel?

4. (Nick) Has an author used a miniaturized book before in this way? Were there 19th Century Psalters that people wore as talismans or carried as the original Pocket Books?

5. (John) And what about the Head of Persephone charm on that bracelet? It’s on the ninth and last link, paired with that Psalter. You shared your first thought about the Persephone charm, a hopeful note, on the comment thread here. As our go-to authority on Greek mythology, I’m dying to know more of your thinking about (a) the specific charm and its relation to the Cupid and Psyche myth-template to the Strike series, (b) its pairing with the Psalter, and (c) its position as the last charm on the bracelet. Do you still think it’s a sign that Robin will survive Sleep Tight, Evangeline?

6. (Nick) As someone immersed in mythological studies and more than familiar with Rowling’s use of myth, do you think the Jungian interpretation of that myth as the ‘actualization of feminine identity’ is a better lens through which to read that embedded text or is the Spenserian lens of Eros/Anteros, False Cupid and Cupid more helpful? Or is this not a case of Either/Or but Both/And? Valentines Day Special

7. (John) Rowling is a close reader and admirer of J. R. R. Tolkien, though that is more evident in the clear pointers to his work in her own work than from her interviews. How does her use of myth contrast with that of Tolkien and Lewis? (See John’s 2008 post about Rowling’s debts to Tolkien and the two part podcast with Tolkien scholars and Rowling Readers Dr Amy H Sturgis and Dr Sara Brown here and here for more on that influence.)

8. (Nick) In an in-person meeting with UK Serious Strikers last week, Rowling shared with them and later via X with everyone the title of the ninth Strike novel, Sleep Tight, Evangeline. We’re pretty sure that title refers to a song by an American Blues group called ‘The Whiskey Shambles’ (story of the hunt, why Whiskey Shambles is a good bet). There is a famous poem, though, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called ‘Evangeline,’ one perhaps not as famous as ‘Aurora Leigh’ or ‘The Ring and the Book,’ other texts Rowling may have used as back-drops to her novels, but still another poem very famous in its own time akin to those epics. Is its subject matter as good a match-up with the possible direction of Sleep Tight as the Victorian poetry back-drop is with other Rowling models?

9. (John) You’re a native Greek speaker; what does ‘Evangeline’ mean in Greek? Is it a common name in Greece or is it a ‘Virtue Name’ in the Puritan tradition of grace-filled names (cf., Credence Barebone is probably a reference to an Englishman named “Praise-God Barebone, whose son Nicholas may have been given the name If-Jesus-Christ-had-not-died-for-thee-thou-hadst-been-damned[3]“).

10. (Nick) Don’t leave before trying to tie together the pieces of this conversation! Is there a thread joining the Psalter, the Head of Persephone, miniaturized books, and the title Sleep Tight, Evangeline?

Dimitra Fimi is Professor of Fantasy and Children’s Literature at the University of Glasgow and Co-Director of the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic. Her Tolkien, Race and Cultural History won the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies and she co-edited the critical edition of A Secret Vice: Tolkien on Invented Languages which won the Tolkien Society Award for Best Book. Her Celtic Myth in Contemporary Children’s Fantasy won the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies. Other work includes co-editing Sub-creating Arda: World-building in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Work, its Precursors and its Legacies and Imagining the Celtic Past in Modern Fantasy. She has contributed articles for the TLS and The Conversation, and has appeared on numerous radio and TV programs.

When the rightly famous and beloved ‘The Great Courses’ series decided to offer a Lord of the Rings entry for their catalog of the very best in scholarship for adult-learners, they asked Dimitra Fimi to create ‘The World of J. R. R. Tolkien,’ one of their most popular courses and one you can enjoy in an Audible edition.

Links Promised in Conversation:

A Kind of Elvish Craft: The Dimitra Fimi Substack Site

* Miniature Books in Children’s Fantasy

* Parabasis: A Tribute to Dionysis Stavvopoulos

* On Tolkien’s Letter 131 (4): “Romance” vs. Science

Dimitra Fimi articles at ‘The Conversation’

* After 150 years, we still haven’t solved the puzzle of Alice in Wonderland (2015)

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/subscribe

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Mrs Murray met the UK StrikeFans.com contingent and Badly WiredLamp (“and friends”) on Thursday to talk about the Cormoran Strike novels. Yesterday, Friday the 13th, Rowling tweeted about the secret she had told them — the title of Strike9:

Nick Jeffery found the most likely source of the title Sleep Tight, Evangeline, assuming it is not an anagram, in six minutes:

BadlyWiredLamp who was at the Rowling meeting congratulated Nick on twixter seven minutes later: “Well done for finding it Nick!” with a hand salute emoji. Which semi-confirmation from a witness suggests he is spot on.

Even more impressive, Nick wrote up a flash post about The Whiskey Shambles and other ‘Evangeline’ possibilities at the HogwartsProfessor weblog, ‘Sleep Tight, Evangeline – Title Release for Strike 9.’ Nick and John will be discussing this news as well as the Psalter and Head of Persephone charms with miniature book, Tolkien, and mythology expert Dimitra Fimi this weekend for a post here next week. See her ‘Miniature Books in Children’s Fantasy’ to prepare for that conversation. Stay tuned!

But it’s Valentine’s Day! John and Nick celebrate this Hallmark Holiday with a journey through the Cormoran Strike novels’ V-Day celebrations and a discussion of the various Valentines and Cupid’s in the story, with special emphasis on the Cupid and Psyche myth that Rowling has suggested is the series story template.

That suggestion came the week after Hallmarked Man’s publication in the first of her Public Service Announcements to “Robin and Strike fans:”

This image came as a surprise even to Hogwarts Professor subscribers because, though we have been writing and talking about the Cupid and Psyche myth as one of the mythological templates behind the Strike series since early 2021, it was the first time Rowling had acknowledged this publicly. Since the September revelation of this connection by the author and the appearance of the head of Persephone at the end of her Strike9 clues Christmas Charm bracelet, Strike fandom is now on board with the idea.

Which on-boarding Nick and John celebrate with this Hearts and Flowers conversation, in which:

* Nick reviews the Valentines Day events in the Strike series, the importance of which makes 14 February to Serious Strikers what Halloween is to Harry Potter fans;

* John discusses the post American Bar office scene in Troubled Blood that let the cat out of the bag about the Cupid and Psyche myth just beneath the Strellacott romance;

* Nick updates that with Rowling’s PSAs and charm pointers to the Trials of Psyche in Robin’s story;

* John lays out how and where Hallmarked Man features Valentine Longcaster, the character with the Cupid name, and a Valentine’s Day conflict with dogs to Guard the Gates of Hell (from charting Parts Five and Six);

* Nick journeys back to Cuckoo’s Calling and explains how Lula Landry’s death and Robin’s first meeting with Strike are twist on Cupid and Psyche with Venus, Psyche, and Cupid, Hephaestus, and Ares all with their equivalents in Charlotte, Robin, and Cormoran;

* John ups the ante of the conversation by bringing in Edmund Spenser and C. S. Lewis, two writers Rowling loves, both of whom wrote stories that turn on Cupid and Psyche, and suggesting that Galbraith, in using the Eros-Anteros distinction of those writers in the Strike series is answering allegorically the core question of human life: whether to focus the soul on the ephemeral body and its desires or on the noetic faculty of soul, the Heart, logos within us;

* Nick and John then discuss Robin and Strike’s individual relationships Cuckoo to Hallmarked in light of Cupid-False Cupid and taking turns going through the Strike novels with a look at the principal murder victim and murderer and their respective relationships;

* John shares the Jungian interpretation of Cupid and Psyche as the mythic representation of feminine actualization, the chrysalis of female identity;

* And more!

Below are the links to posts on this subject mentioned in their back and forth and to a translation of the original myth. Happy Valentines Day — and stand by for more discussion of Sleep Tight, Evangeline, the Psalter and Persephone Charms, and all things Strike and Mythology with Dimitra Fimi.

Links Mentioned in the Valentines Day Celebration Conversation:

Rowling Points to Myth of Cupid and Psyche in order to Console Strike Fans Disappointed with Hallmarked Man (8 September 2025, Nick Jeffery)

Nick shares the context of Rowling’s tweet (fan disappointment!) and the background information about the illustration she chose for it.

The Most Pleasant and Delectable Tale of the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche (Apuleius)

A translation of the Silver Age Latin tale from Apuleius’ Golden Ass.

A Mythological Key to Cormoran Strike? The Myth of Eros, Psyche, and Venus (22 April 2021, John Granger)

The first post to discuss Rowling’s use of this specific myth within Cormoran Strike, it is essential reading and comes in four parts:

* a discussion of Rowling’s stated beliefs about the soul and how it is the focus of her story-telling,

* a review of her psychological artistry in Potter and the post Potter novels and screenplays,

* a synopsis of the Eros and Psyche myth, and

* a point to point look at the parallels in the story thus far with speculation about novels to come.

Robin’s Two Perfumes: The Meaning of Philosychos and Narciso (9 June 2021, John Granger)

The names of Robin’s baseline perfume, Philosychos, and the one she and Strike choose at story’s end, Narciso, both point less to the bedroom than to Robin’s allegorical, psychological, and mythological role as Psyche in the series.

Erich Neumann in his Amor and Psyche: The Psychic Development of the Feminine describes this discipline as a “prohibition against pity” which “signifies Psyche’s struggle against the feminine nature.” …

Psyche’s last trial involves her having to confront death, a “marriage” to which she was condemned as a sacrifice at the story’s start, a meeting she can only survive by transcending her feminine qualities of nurturing and pity. She must become, if only temporarily, a narcissist to pass through Hades and return to the world of the Sun and to Cupid. The myth, in Jungian lights, is about her transcending the accidental self, here her feminine and sexual relation to Eros or Cupid, for “ego-stability” leading to “individuation,” ascent to the greater, immortal Self.

Robin as resident psychologist and loving soul is the Psyche-cipher of the Strike mysteries. She differs from the relatively passive Human Beauty of the myth in her active and determined “struggle against the feminine nature,” her “What. I. Do!” She not only wrestles with her desires for domesticity and maternity in her thinking but stands up to Strike-Cupid in their Valentine’s Day Street Fight and demands his respect or at least more considerate behavior. But she is still struggling with her difficulty to be the narcissist rather than the Great Mother when circumstances and her heroine’s journey of psychological individuation demand that.

Reading Rowling as Myth Maker and Myth Re-Writer: A Conversation with Dr Dimitra Fimi

Nick Jeffery and John Granger converse with Dr Dimitra Fimi about Harry Potter, Cormoran Strike, Tolkien, Jane Eyre, and the Mythological Artistry of J. K. Rowling, Hogwarts Saga to Hallmarked Man

The Hallmarked Man’s Mythological Template

‘Cupid and Psyche’s importance for grasping the depths of Strike 8, from the “necessity” of the Silver Vault and the three men in Robin’s life, to spaghetti carbonara and ‘Maid of the Silver Sea’

Ink Black Heart: The Mythic Backdrop (10 September 2022, John Granger)

What Rowling is depicting in Robin’s journey through the events and mystery of Ink Black Heart include a trap set by Venus, one that takes Robin to a personal and professional underworld or hell, her survival and endurance of every temptation by her determination to be steely rather than empathetic, especially with respect to a certain “lame fellow” (!), and her re-surfacing from hell a changed person, one worthy of begrudging Venereal approval (or Zeus’ intervention — Rokeby!).

Ink Black Heart: Strike as Zeus to Robin’s Leda and Cupid to Mads’ Psyche (10 November 2022, John Granger)

These traditional portrayals of the every person’s human and divine aspects, soul and spirit as man and woman in dynamic, cathartic relationship — think Romeo and Juliet, Redcrosse Knight and Una, Cupid and Psyche — are perhaps, with her alchemical symbolism, sequencing, and coloring, Rowling’s greatest literary ‘reach’ and achievement in the Strike series, albeit one largely lost on her her vast reading audience. The deliberate conjunction-melange of archetypal psychology, mythology, and spiritual allegory in these novels is, especially in combination with her hermetic artistry, intertextual playfulness (Aurora Leigh!), and chiastic structures, testimony to the author being one of the most accomplished and challenging writers of the age in addition to the most popular (and least well understood, even by her fans).

Hallmarked Man: Freemasonry and J. K. Rowling (7 February 2024, Nick Jeffery)

The Royal Arch degree is unique in England for including the ceremony of “Passing the Veils” symbolising the path to enlightenment that a mason undergoes as he progresses in the craft. Given Peter Rowling’s upward social mobility from working class apprentice to engineer and moving from the Bristol suburbs to middle class Tutshill, it isn’t beyond reason to wonder if Peter might have been tempted by the social and career advantages that freemasonry might have offered him and exposed a young Joanne to some of the symbolism.

Edinburgh, as well as being the home of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, is also home to if not the oldest lodge in the world, then at least the one with the oldest records. Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary’s Chapel) No. 1 has minutes of meetings from 31st July 1599. There have long been arguments between this Lodge and the one in Kilwinning on the other coast of Scotland as to which is the oldest. (see IVº of the Rite of Baldwyn above)

J. K. Rowling’s ‘G-Spot’ and ‘Triple Play:’ The Lake & Shed Secret of Her Success (21 September 2024, John Granger)

I want to try tonight to explain as succinctly — and as provocatively — as possible why I think Rowling’s ‘Lake and Shed’ metaphorical explanation of how she writes offers a compelling reason for both why she writes and why readers around the world love her novels the way they do. I call this her ‘G-Spot’ and ‘Triple Play’ because it is her point of singular genius, the defining quality that separates her from contemporary story-tellers, which involves ‘Shed’ artistry of three particular literary tools, all subliminal, which work together to achieve her aims.

The Hallmarked Man’s Flood of Names, Characters, and Plots (22 September 2025, John Granger)

Rowling’s seven Shed tools — psychomachia, literary alchemy, ring composition, misdirection towards defamiliarization, Christian symbolism, mythology, and inter-intratextuality (writing about reading and writing) — are all about the transformation of the human soul by cathartic experience in the imaginative heart, i.e., our spiritual reorientation. These traditional tools alone don’t do it, of course; her capacity for creating archetypal characters that we care about in profound fashion is what gives the tools their grip on the heart.

But, if a writer uses these tools in his or her Shed, the game being played and its stakes are not in question. Everything Rowling has written to date, with greater or lesser success (largely dependent on her control of the final product, cough*Warner Brothers*cough), shares this aim. Her global popularity testifies that much more often than not she hits her target to the delight of her readers.

I assume this was her aim in Hallmarked Man. It’s early days on the full exegesis of Strike8 in light of Rowling’s Shed tools, Lake springs, and Golden Threads, but there are encouraging signs. My third reading of the book included my first ‘Aha!’ moments with respect to the mythological template of the series, the Shed tool Rowling was openly urging her readers to think about in her recent Cupid and Psyche tweet.

Jungian Interpretations of ‘Cupid and Psyche:’

* Erich Neumann: Amor and Psyche: The Psychic Development of the Feminine (A Commentary on the Tale by Apuleius)

* Paul Diel: Symbolism in Greek Mythology: Human Desire and Its Transformations (A “psychological study of the symbols condensed in the fate of the mythological hero”)

* Robert A. Johnson: SHE: Understanding Feminine Psychology (An interpretation based on the myth of Amor and Psyche and based on Jungian mythological principles)

* Marie-Louise von Franz: Golden Ass of Apuleius: The Liberation of the Feminine in Man (originally A Psychological Interpretation of The Golden Ass of Apuleius)

‘Tamspells’ Point to Point Correspondence List of Events in the Strike-Ellacott Novels and the Myth of Cupid and Psyche

The list ‘Tamspells’ made will be Nick and John’s starting point in their upcoming conversation with her about how to see the myth beneath the surface of the story

Cupid and Psyche Myth Highlights to Look for in Your Review at Home of the Strike Series:

* Jealousy of Venus

* Psyche’s Wedding/Funeral March to Mountain Crag

* Psyche Rescued by Cupid, stuck with his own arrow

* Retreat to Hidden Castle, Love in Darkness

* The Two Sisters

* The Confrontation with Lamp and Knife

* Psyche’s Return Home; Death of Sisters (Pan cameo)

* Psyche’s Search for Cupid/Venus: Ceres Interview

* Brought to Venus (Worry and Sadness)

* First Trial: Seeds and Grains (Ant)

* Second Trial: Wool from Golden Sheep (Reed)

* Third Trial: Crystal glass for Black Stygian water (Zeus, Eagle)

* Persephone Odyssey: Box for Beauty (Tower instructions)

* Barley Cakes for Cerberus and Two Coins for Charon

* Must ignore: “a lame man driving a mule loaded with sticks, a dead man swimming in the river that separates the world of the living from the world of the dead, and old women weaving.”

* Meal in Underworld with Persephone

* Return Trip, Falling to Temptation

* Cupid intervention; intersession and deal with Zeus

* Olympian Court Date

* Marriage of Cupid and Psyche post Ambrosia, birth of Pleasure

Strike Novel Victim Eros Anteros Murderer Eros Anteros Cuckoo’s Calling Lula Landry Evan Duffield Marlene Higson,Yvette Bristow, Guy Some, Jonah Agyuman John Bristow Alison Creswell Yvette Bristow The Silkworm Owen Quine Kathryn Kent Leonora/Orlando Elizabeth Tassel Michael Fancourt Owen Quine? Career of Evil Kelsey Platt Rock Band Leader Ray Williams, (Hazel Furley) Donny Laing Rhona Bunyan, hostage women Agnes Waite Lethal White Jasper Chiswell Ornella Seraphin, Kinvara Patricia Fleetwood Raphael Chiswell Kinvara Hanratty Ornella Seraphin Troubled Blood Margot Bamborough Paul Satchwell Roy/Anna Phipps Una Janice Beattie Steven Douthwaite/Diamond Dead Mother Dennis Creed Louise Tucker Agnes Waite Ink Black Heart Edie Ledwell Philip Ormond? Joshua Blay, Grant Heather Ledwell Gus Upcott Anomie/Paperwhite, Vikas BhardwajMorehouse Katya Upcott The Running Grave Daiyu Wace, Kevin Pirbright (Jacob) Louise Pirbright Abigail Glover Patrick, Baz Jennifer Wace The Hallmarked Man Tyler Powell Anne-Marie Morgan Chloe Griffiths/Jolanda Lindvall Ian Griffith Jolanda/Sapphire Rita Lindvall?

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