Happy Birthdays!/Book Covers/Rookwood (with digression on Malfoys)

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston) <catlady@wicca.net>]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Mary Ann <macloudt at y...>" 
<macloudt at y...> wrote:
> :::::throws bags of confetti around the room and puts two cakes 

which are NOT spiked with a simple sleeping potion

> on the table:::::
> 
> That's right, we have two birthdays today, Amanda (esdgrrl) and one 
> of our Filk Meisters, Gail Bohacek!  Greetings for Amanda and Gail 
> can be sent to the List.
> 
> Have a fabulous birthday, Amanda and Gail, and I hope you both have 
> lots of HP goodies!
> 
> Mary Ann
> (TBE)

It's Amanda and Gail's birthday! It's Amanda and Gail's birthday! 
*does the cheering-for-Amanda-and-Gail dance*

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Tim Regan" <timregan at m...> 
wrote:

> Still my favourites have to be the German covers:
> http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/3551551677.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
> http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/3551551685.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
> http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/3551551693.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
> http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/3551551936.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
> Very cabinet-of-dr-caligari-esque.

I've never liked those German covers, because they make Harry look 
like a villain (okay, in the GoF cover, new to me, they make Harry 
look like a loony rather than like a villain, but *still*).

I like the French covers because they are accurate to the books:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/files/Graphics/Book-relate
d%20Graphics/frenchhp/

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Brian" <bkb042 at y...> wrote:
> This could be an interesting little parallel that I've found. 
> 
> It's generally accepted that Fawkes the phoenix is named after Guy 
> Fawkes of Gunpowder Plot fame. While researching the plot, I found 
> the name of one of his co-conspirators: Ambrose Rookwood. Is 
> Ambrose the gr gr gr gr grandfather of Augustus (mentioned in GoF)?
> Did JKR use this surname knowingly? If so, what could it portend?

Ambrose Rookwood, what a lovely name. I have no idea what the name 
"Rookwood" means to JKR, but to me, first of all it sounds classy, so 
in my Potterverse, the Rookwoods are an old aristocratic wizarding 
family like the Crouches and IMHO the Fudges and the Notts, people 
with whom the Malfoys mingle and intermarry.

(Digression on the MALFOYS: while the name is Norman, I don't believe 
the family is Norman. I think they were there before the Normans, but 
translated their name to fit in with the winning side after the 
Conquest. I don't know how to say "bad faith" in Saxon, Welsh, Roman, 
Pictish, Beaker People-ish, and Atlantean. But I found a possible 
Malfoy ancestor in the Patrick Ford translation of the Mabinogion, 
in the tale of Culhwch and Olwen, when listing the men of Arthur's 
Court: one is "Tathal Twyll Golau whose treachery was patent".)

Second, I fixated on "rook", which is a black bird like a raven or a 
crow, so I imagine the Rookwoods as all black-haired, dark-eyed, and 
slightly (more tan)/(less dead fish-belly white) than the typical 
indoor-confined Brit, and I'm working on names for my Rookwoods like 
Corva and Cole. Dunno if Rafe and Branwen would be obvious enough. 
Meanwhile, the combination of "black" and "wood" is leads me to 
"burnt"... 

Third, "rook" is also a chess piece, the one called "castle". (The 
piece Hermione plays in finale of Book 1.) I can't figure out what to 
do with this association except to give them family arms of: on a 
green background, a silver tower on which perches a black corvid, 
wings closed.