History and Myth Behind HP

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 126213


Fitzov de Sullens wrote:
> The Chapter Title of "Spinner's End" also has me intrigued.  It
actually sounds more like a house name than a street name to me. I
wonder, therefore, if this is the name of Sirius' own house: the one
that he bought at the age of 17 with his Uncle Alphard's gold (OOtP,
p104 (UK Ed.))? <snip>


Carol responds:

Interesting suggestion. I've always wondered what happened to Sirius's
other house--surely the one he intended for Harry to come and live in
if he (Sirius) hadn't remained a fugitive and if 12 Grimmauld Place,
with all the protections already on it, hadn't been a perfect (if
eerie and uncomfortable) choice for Order Headquarters.

Regarding the name "Spinner's End": I thought that "End" was a term
used in Britain for a cul-de-sac, which literally means "bottom of the
bag" (note Tolkien's pun in naming Bilbo's house "Bag End," which IIRC
refers to both the house and the cul-de-sac where it's situated. At
the end of LOTR, the street replacing Bagshot Row is called New Row
but referred to as "Sharky's End" as "a purely Bywater joke."

My point is that I can see "Spinner's End" being both the name of a
street ending in a cul-de-sac and a house at the end of that street. I
won't try to speculate about whose house it is, but I'll bet it's the
place Harry goes after "the shortest stay ever" at 4 Privet Drive.

Carol, who has never encountered a house with a name outside British
literature (and photos of Frank Lloyd Wright creations)