alternative title

[leslie41]

No: HPFGUIDX 169340

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "tassgurka" <snorkack at ...> 
wrote:
>
> The swedish HP publisher, Tiden förlag, reveals their translation of
> the title for HP7, "Harry Potter och dödsrelikerna" (Harry Potter 
and
> the Relics of Death). This alternative title was given to 
translators
> by JK herself, as DH is very difficult to translate. Thoughts on the
> alternative title? Are relics "only" referring to the horcruxes
> (locket, cup)?
> 
> Kati
>

Leslie:

I think it's got to refer to the Horcruxes, and only the Horcruxes.  
What else could it be?

We've talked about the meaning of the word "horcrux" before, as it's 
an invented word, but obviously one Rowling thought about.      

The word "hore" in Old English means "whore".  "Horh" means dirt or 
defilement, and "horig" (hory) means foul or filthy, and many of the 
Old English words that have "hor" as their root have to do with dirt, 
mud, and squalor.  Makes sense.  "Crux" means cross or center, root, 
and many words associated with it have something to do with pain (in 
Rowling's world and ours as well).  

A less religious interpretation would simply read horcrux as "root of 
filth".  A more religious one (to which I am inclined) would have it 
mean "cross of defilement" (or something like that), with Voldemort's 
resurrection serving as an unholy, inverted version of Christ's.  But 
your milage may vary on that.  I'm one of those people that sees 
Harry's scar as symbolic of baptism and unction.  

We talked a lot about the meaning of "Deathly Hallows" as well when 
the title was released, but the fact that Rowling allowed the title 
to be translated as "relics of death" means that the deathly hallows 
must be horcruxes, not saints or holy places or whatever.

Rowling I think is being deliberately vague by not calling it "Harry 
Potter and the Horcruxes," but that title sounds rather stupid, and 
every other title has had a bit of mystery too it and why not this 
one, too?