snorkackcatcher speculated that the release date might be near Halloween of '07. That timeline seemed pretty good to me, plus there'd be plenty of opportunity to capitalise on the title if that were the case.
There's a message on the Leaky Cauldron's message board about the meaning of hallows, which I think was posted by Arianhrod (sp?). It refers to an Arthurian reference in which hallows are actual artifacts. Very cool. I'll look for the link...
(As far as I know there is no holiday to celebrate the unfaithful departed!)Walpurgisnacht, maybe?
As far as Ms. Rowling’s use of “hallows,” I suspect that she picked up the usage from Tolkien’s The Return of the King, wherein the “hallows” are the tombs of the ancient kings and stewards of Gondor (where all that unfortunate affair of Denethor’s madness and Beregond’s blood-shed takes place). JKR’s diction can be a little shaky at times - I still wake up at nights in a cold sweat remembering how she said Voldemort was the last surviving ancestor of Salazar Slytherin - but she might very well have felt safe enough in following the lead of an Oxford don and philologist like the Good Professor.
Well, the German translation is "Heiligen des Todes". So you're back in the fandom - we'd been wondering how you were. I unfriended you when you went quiet, but I've added you back in now :) I've been back on the Quill myself today, just want to be part of the last big wait.
Heiligen des Todes? Is that from the publisher, or just a newspaper? TLC gives Harry Potter und die tödlichen Heiligen, with your version plus Harry Potter und die todbringenden Heiligen as alternates. From my (very) limited knowledge of German, it seems like tödlichen Heiligen would be the most direct translation.
At this point, however, I'm not really putting too much stock into the translated titles except as a sampling of how some well-positioned readers around the world are interpreting the title. It would only add to our store of information if JKR had either (1) given the foreign publishers inside information about what "deathly hallows" means, or (2) had directly recommended a title to the foreign publishers (with French, and perhaps with the other Romance languages, she could probably do that; I'm not sure how she is with German).
The title is from the newspaper - I don't expect to see a true German translation until the translator has read the final manuscript. I much prefer the "location" or "item" interpretation of Hallows myself ...
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LL
Pretty cool that the day after I whine about the lack of book 7 buzz the title appears. I think she must monitor our conversations.
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As far as Ms. Rowling’s use of “hallows,” I suspect that she picked up the usage from Tolkien’s The Return of the King, wherein the “hallows” are the tombs of the ancient kings and stewards of Gondor (where all that unfortunate affair of Denethor’s madness and Beregond’s blood-shed takes place). JKR’s diction can be a little shaky at times - I still wake up at nights in a cold sweat remembering how she said Voldemort was the last surviving ancestor of Salazar Slytherin - but she might very well have felt safe enough in following the lead of an Oxford don and philologist like the Good Professor.
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Heiligen des Todes? Is that from the publisher, or just a newspaper? TLC gives Harry Potter und die tödlichen Heiligen, with your version plus Harry Potter und die todbringenden Heiligen as alternates. From my (very) limited knowledge of German, it seems like tödlichen Heiligen would be the most direct translation.
At this point, however, I'm not really putting too much stock into the translated titles except as a sampling of how some well-positioned readers around the world are interpreting the title. It would only add to our store of information if JKR had either (1) given the foreign publishers inside information about what "deathly hallows" means, or (2) had directly recommended a title to the foreign publishers (with French, and perhaps with the other Romance languages, she could probably do that; I'm not sure how she is with German).
P.S. "Last big wait"-- nice phrase!
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