Join hosts Ev and Sophia, as well as special guests Dr. Beatrice Grove, Dr. Louise Freeman, and Nick Jeffrey, as they discuss the connections between the Harry Potter books and The Hallmarked Man from the Cormoran Strike series.
Please be warned that there will be spoilers for the Cormoran Strike books in this episode.
In this episode:
- Sophia eats up rich romantic drama
- The Hallmarked Man is Crimes of Grindelwald
- Is it you, Dorcas Pengelly?
- Red herrings: masons, astrology, prophecy?
- What’s with all the Margarets?
- Ted and Sirius breaking patterns
- Capslock Strike or capslock Robin?
- Living with Murphy is worse than Occlumency lessons
- Kim is Umbridge without kittens
- That Cursed Child feeling
- Our Strike 9 predictions
Resources:
- “The Crimes of Grindelwald”, Kipling, and the Origins of the Deathly Hallows Symbol by Dr. Beatrice Groves
- The Alchemical Symbolism of the Deathly Hallows in “Crimes of Grindelwald” by Dr. Beatrice Groves
- First Impressions of The Hallmarked Man by Dr. Louise Freeman
- Pentagram Predictions III: Troubled Blood as Alchemical Twin to Deathly Hallows by Dr. Louise Freeman
- The Phoenix or The Flame – a collection of essays from authors incl. Dr. Beatrice Groves, Dr. Louise Freeman, and Irvin
For more from our guests:
- Dr. Beatrice Groves:
- Dr. Louise Freeman:
- @lmf3b on Twitter
- Doc Thelma on Reddit
- The Farting Sofa Faculty Lounge
- The Harry Potter Academic Conference
- Queen City Magic
- Nick Jeffrey:
Despite Dr. Groves’ track sounding garbled, it was a fantastic episode. I “cheated” and looked at the last few pages first to see whether Cormoran and Robin finally get together. I was bitterly disappointed, but not surprised about the ending. My favorite book remains “Troubled Blood” with “Running Grave” a close second.
I saw somewhere that Book 9 will start nine minutes after the end of “Hallmarked Man”. My theory is that Strike will be abducted and the book will center around Robin searching for him with Shanker’s help. By the end of Book 9, she will FINALLY accept and return Strike’s love. Also, we will learn Shanker’s real name right before he dies.
Love love love this panel and all the Strike crossover episodes! One possible explanation for Strike’s out-of-character behavior in Hallmarked Man is rooted in Rowling’s “solve et coagula” philosophy. Strike has been broken down in Troubled Blood and Ink Black Heart, culminating in what is arguably his worst womanizing behavior in the series, sleeping with Bijou (“While it was hardly the first time Strike had slept with a woman he wasn’t in love with, never before had he screwed someone he actively disliked.”). From that nadir, he has to rebuild himself, including facing up to the truth of his feelings for Robin, first to himself, and then (kind of!) to her, until in this book he struggles (and mostly fails) to become the open and honest man (“a proper man”) that he wants to be. Along the way, he makes a fundamental and uncharacteristic error: he never fully commits to finding truth and justice for the body in the silver vault. He is trying to become a whole human being, not someone who lives where he works, focused on the agency above all else, for whom the search for truth and justice overwhelms all other commitments, but someone who balances his investigative calling with his personal relationships. I suspect that eventually he will develop a much less transactional and self-focused way of being in a relationship, and might even be able to commit to caring for a child not physically related to him (Dirk?). However, finding that balance isn’t easy! It isn’t simply a matter of choosing to change, motivated by love for Robin. He has to work out that balance, and in this book, he tilts inappropriately far towards his effort to prioritize love. In his misguided attempts to be honest with Robin, he forgets that, as he states in Lethal White, “The client doesn’t get to tell me what I can and can’t investigate. Unless you want the whole truth, I’m not your man,” and he forgets that he is on “team client,” meaning Two-Times. I suspect that we will see his values come back into focus for himself as he learns how to find a healthy balance between his professional calling, true self-care, and personal (sacrificial) relationships in Nine and Ten.
Louise – Love the 5 – 8 comparisons, and every time I read (or hear) you speak about the double ring theory, I understand it better and am more impressed!
The comparison between cleaning out Grimmauld Place and Ted’s house is fantastic. It reminded me of a conversation, which I believe took place in the comments on one of your Substacks, Louise, comparing Lucy to Kreacher. The basis for that connection is, of course, Rivka Temima Kellne’s brilliant piece, “J.K. Rowling’s Ambivalence Towards Feminism: House Elves–Women in Disguise” (https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA232311203&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=00263451&p=LitRC&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7E2c8f269d&aty=open-web-entry). Unfortunately, I can’t find the comment and so cannot attribute the person who suggested that Lucy echoes Kreacher. The convo took place prior to Running Grave, and the revelation that Lucy had been molested seems to verify that theory. Lucy’s desire to save everything from the house – just like Kreacher – seems like another piece of evidence for Lucy as a reflection of Kreacher, as well as a strong connection between Halmarked Man and Order of the Phoenix.
Of course, one of the many brilliant qualities of Rowling’s writing is how she does multiple things at once — in this case, she parallels Potter perfectly and simultaneously parallels a real-life experience that many readers have. For me, cleaning out my parents’ house was one of the most difficult and reflective experiences of my life. Balancing the desire to save Dad’s old clothes with the reality that I simply cannot do so is as impossible as reconciling the facts that 1) holding on to threadbare gardening trousers is not the same thing as holding on to Dad and 2) things do matter; they have meaning and they hold memories and stories. The treatment of Ted’s death was short, but made me cry nonetheless.
Thanks again for a great episode!
Thank you, Kathleen! Of course, now that people are making sense of Double Wedding Band, the many CoE-THM connections that turned up made me revise that model. DWB may get scrapped entirely.