Book 7 Title

[leslie41]

No: HPFGUIDX 163069

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, juli17 at ... wrote:
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> montims:
> The Oxford English dictionary  shows:
> hallow
> 
> /*hal*o/
> 
> • *verb* *1* make holy;  consecrate. *2* honour as holy. *3*
> *hallowed*greatly  revered.
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> • *noun* archaic a saint or holy  person.
> and
> Halloween
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> (also  *Hallowe'en*)
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> Julie:
> Following from this, what if Hallows are "saints" or "holy persons"-
-or 
> more accurately souls that been somehow sanctified by going beyond
> the veil? So the title refers to Harry and those behind the veil 
who  will
> eventually help him defeat Voldemort--James, Lily, Sirius,  
Dumbledore...
> The Deathly could refer in some way to their state of  being.
>  
> This would tie in perfectly with the concept of Harry defeating  
Voldemort
> by taking him beyond the veil, where Voldemort (sans Horcruxes) 
would
> die, and Harry would somehow (with the help of Sirius perhaps) come
> back to the living side and survive. 
>  
> Julie, feeling certain Deathly Hallows doesn't refer to horcruxes as
> those have already been dealt with at length, and JKR doesn't tend
> to repeat herself in that manner.
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> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I think this is a good point--I don't think Rowling would be so fey 
as to disguise the horcruxes with a trick name.  It's not like her 
with regard to her titles.

All of her titles are really self-explanatory.  Harry Potter and 
the...

Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone
Chamber of Secrets
Prisoner of Azkaban
Goblet of Fire
Order of the Phoenix
Half-Blood Prince

In some cases we have to learn who or what the person/thing is, but 
the name itself is never a trick or a riddle.   

So, like Julie, I lean towards the simple answer--"deathly" 
meaning "having the appearance of death" or "deathlike". (You might 
say it can also mean "deadly," which it can in context, but I think 
if Rowling had wanted to use the word "deadly," she would 
have. "Deadly" and "deathly" are subtly different.)

"Deathly" can be either an adverb or an adjective, depending on 
whether a noun or verb follows it. "Hallow" can be a verb, 
but "Hallows" cannot, at least in this context. So it's an adjective 
modifying a noun.  

What is, then, a "hallow"? All Hallow's Eve means, literally, All 
Saints Eve. All Saint's Day is still a very holy day in the Catholic 
and Anglican churches.  It celebrates the "faithful departed". It's a 
feast day.

All Saints Day started actually as "All Souls Day".  So what we get, 
in the end, from Rowling's title is: 

"Harry Potter and the Deathlike Souls/Saints".

Which will doubtless make complete sense to us, just like that famous 
Prisoner of Azkaban and the Half-Blood Prince, only once the book 
comes out.