Literary References in HBP

[kneazle24]

No: HPFGUIDX 134018


I don't generally notice literary references in JKR's books, but 
there are 2 that struck me in HBP.

One--Robert Browning's poem, "Childe Roland" which mentions a 
slughorn and features a lone, bitter knight on an impossible quest to 
reach a dark tower. 

Two--Some of Winston Churchill's WWII speeches mention the sun 
or "sunlit" like this bit from his "Finest Hour" Speech:

"Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose 
the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the 
life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if 
we fail, then the whole world, including all that we have known and 
cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more 
sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted 
science. 

Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves 
that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand 
years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'"

Pretty interesting in light of Harry's resolution at the end of HBP.  
I think #7 is going to be pretty grim.

Kneazle24