either knitting or Harry Potter
If you're not interested in either knitting or Harry Potter, you might want to go read someone else today.
I would like to proudly announce that I am sitting here at work in my newly-completed sleeveless turtleneck! I finished it while reading Harry Potter on Saturday, wove in the ends and blocked it yesterday. It fits perfectly. It's based on the pattern in the
Yarn Girls' book. There's a fine line between "based on" and "inspired by"; in this case I think it's the former. I used a totally different yarn with a different edge (Sirdar Denim Ultra Bulky in a denim blue), and did the armhole edges in garter stitch rather than crocheting around the edges, so mine is a little more cut away than theirs at the shoulders (not too much for work, but it does show my shoulders a little more), and I didn't use an accent color at the neck. On the other hand I used their measurements and adapted for gauge, instead of just looking at the picture and figuring it out for my body. In general their patterns are simple to knit; I started this one only two weeks ago, and didn't even take it to
Santa Barbara last weekend. On the other hand, they're a little too simple: no shaping or other interesting details. This one is ribbed fairly high up so didn't need any, but I did add a little shaping to the
other tank top I knit from their book, which I also finally got around to washing and blocking yesterday. I may wear it to work (with a cardigan) later in the week.
Below are comments, questions, and predictions from and for the Harry Potter books; the following contains the very spoileriest and most blatant spoilers for Half-Blood Prince. You have been warned.
Wormtail's silver hand:
Nuada, a hero of Celtic mythology (sometimes conflated with Lugh) has a silver hand. I'm still wondering if that's deliberate on Rowling's part, though Nuada was a king and warrior, and his hand was severed during a battle.
Return to Hogwarts:
I have some trouble believing that Harry won't return to Hogwarts. First of all, if you look on the flypage where all the books in the series are listed, they are all subtitled "First Year at Hogwarts", "Second Year at Hogwarts", and so on. Rowling has said that her reason for having seven books is that she thought it would take that long to train a wizard. So how does that work if the severth year
isn't at Hogwarts? Second, I think Harry would be foodlist not to return. He's not there just for fun; he's learned quite a lot each year. He's going up against one of the most formidable wizards ever, and while it's clear his strength will not be in superior magic skills, it still seems stupid for him not to prepare himself as thoroughly as he can.
Hagrid:
Has anyone noticed that Hagrid's choronolgy doesn't add up? We know from PoA that he was expelled fifty years ago, aged 13; he says in HBP that his home has been at Hogwarts since he was 13 (which might be a mistake; he's been there since 11, though it's possible he's only thought of the place as "home" since his father died, and I can't remember when that was). Yet Molly Weasley, who was at Hogwarts less than fifty years ago (presumably thirty-ish years, judging by Bill's age) remembers someone else as gamekeeper (Book 4). So what was Hagrid doing at Hogwarts from the time he was 13 until he took the gamekeeper job?
Ginny:
I have seen speculation (admittedly from people who are emotionally invested in the idea of a romance between Harry and Hermione) that Harry and Ginny's relationship is not an important one, just a teenaged short-term romance. I don't think so. Teenaged romances, especially short-lived ones, are characterized by great Drama, punctuated by declarations of undying love and ending in weeping, wailing, and ganshing of teeth at their end. Ron's affaire Lavender is a perfect example of the sort. Ginny lets Harry go too easily. I don't believe it. She's too tenacious; she's never let anyone go off into trouble without her before, if she could possibly help it - as witness the invasion of the Ministry in OtP. I do think Harry is right that she understands what he has to do, agrees about its import, and maybe even accepts that he has to do some things alone. But for anything where his friends can accompany him, I think Ginny will turn up again.
RAB: Dammit, I thought I was so smart for guessing that RAB might be Regulus Black - until I found that half the Potter-reading Internet thought so too.
Dumbledore: I agree with others that Dumbledore expected to die, and at Snape's hand. He didn't seem to mind his withered hand; possibly he knew it wouldn't be for long. More important, when he came back to Hogwarts after drinking the potion - and why did he know it would be so hard to drink, and not even consider the possiblity of a ruse? - he
asked for Snape. Especially given that Snape would be reluctant to come at Harry's call, Madam Pomfrey would have been a more likely choice. Also, if Dumbledore had only wanted to keep Harry safe from Draco, Immobilizing him is not a great way to do it; it seems more likely that Dumbledore wanted to keep Harry from interfering in what he knew was about to happen. Also, I cannot imagine Dumbledore shouting at Snape simply to keep him working for the Order. It wouldn't have worked, for one thing. An unwilling Order member would be more dangerous than Kreacher. It seems more likely and characteristic that Dumbledore was requiring Snape to do something much more abhorrent: maintain his deep cover at any cost and kill the only man who had ever trusted him. On the other hand, I don't think his death would have been necessary to make him more powerful in the way Aslan's did in
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; that would only make sense in terms of a much more explicitly Christian linkage than the books have shown so far.
I believe Dumbledore will be back, though. While Rowing has spent a lot of effort linking Dumbledore to the Phoenix - Fawkes seems to be more a familiar than a pet, Rowling has said on her website that Dumbledore's Patronus is a phoenix, and his body is consumed in white flame without any apparent outside intervention. Given all that I find it highly unlikely that there won't be some sort of rebirth. He may not stick around long, but I do think Dumbledore will come back in some way more substantial than as a ghost or a portrait.
Allusions:
Though I don't think Dumbledore is linked to Aslan, there do seem to be a few nods to other classics, though I can't quite tell if they're all in my mind or if they were in Rowling's as well. The dead people under the water in the cave reminded me of the ones in the marsh Gollum led Frodo and Sam through. In the repeated refrain that Harry is "Dumbledore's man", I kept hearing echos of Hawkin's pledge to his liege Merriman in the
Dark is Rising books - though Harry's relationship to Dumbledore is of course more like Will's to Merriman. I can't imagine that JK Rowling readsHP fanfiction, for fear of being drawn away from her own vision (not to mention fear of lawsuits) or I'd think there were a couple other nods in there, between the scene with
Narcissa and the fox and the bit about Lupin and Tonks (close enough to
Werewolf and Metamorph that the latter could be backstory). I suppose there must just be a lot of foxes in England, and that other authors are, after all, following in JKR's lead.
Posted by dichroic at July 18, 2005 01:28 PM