Rafer 1

Mythic Symbols in Harry Potter

David Rafer Although Rowlings books contain a host of influences, the core of the Potter series is inescapably mythic. Considered as a mythic hero, Harry encounters archetypal figures such as the Wise Old Man, embodied by Dumbledore, and the Shadow, encountered in the form of Voldemort. However, whilst ancient mythological materials are refashioned within Rowlings modern fantasies, the creation of a higher or Tolkienesque Secondary World in which we encounter mystic realities is undercut in Rowlings wizard world by the intrusion of Muggle reality and the satirical mirror that she holds up to the world of the reader. However, Tolkien isnt necessarily a major influence, for Rowling pointed out that Tolkien created a whole new mythology (Rowling, Transcript), something she doesnt recognise in her own crafting of Potters magic world. Rowling has commented on her childhood enjoyment of fantasies by Edith Nesbit and C.S. Lewis. Although critical of Lewis treatment of awakening sexuality (Rowling, Interview with Lev Grossman), she has previously praised his fantasy cycle, saying Even now, if I was in a room with one of the Narnia books, I would pick it up and re-read it like a shot (Shapiro 2829). Narnias mythic material is drawn from a range of different mythologies and was criticised by Tolkien for producing a rather disjointed effect (Sayer 312313). This criticism could also be levelled at Rowling. For example, in Goblet of Fire Wagnerian references and northern myth emerge alongside a sphinx and mermen from Southern mythologies and classical literature as well as the Bulgarian veela (Colbert 245), Yorkshire grindylow and Irish leprechauns. Her collection of mythic elements reflect the disjointed, fractured modern cultural experience. The Potter books trawl popular English myth for hags, witchcraft, castle spectres and Arthurian influences as easily as they do Cerberus and centaurs from Greek myth. Hagrid has to remove kelpies from a well in The Chamber of Secrets in which Harry encounters an elf and a basilisk. Other mythical allusions include the manticore, hailing from Asia, the kappas, originating in Japanese myth (Colbert 139), doxies, northern giants and various varieties of dragons. The list grows with each work, extended by Rowlings own creations like Blast-Ended Skrewts, a cross between a manticore and a firecrab. Such a host of mythical creatures begs the question as to their function within her tales, though clearly her treatment of myth is eclectic. Rowling often exploits mythical creatures for their humorous potential. We encounter a comic trickster house elf in Dobby whilst Gilderoy Lockharts books sport titles that subvert and mock many sinister myths, such as Break with a Banshee and Gadding with Ghouls, etc. Gnomes are common-or-garden pests and Cornish pixies run amok due to Lockharts incompetence. Rowling creates a metaphor for the mythical. Seeing inevitably brings with it believing generating both familiarity and explanation, but the mythical is forever out of reach and in a sense without foundation and untrue. Things that Muggles believe to be mythical or unreal have simply been removed from memory by the wizard ministry. This highlights an inner tension within myth since myth can be perceived simply as lies and yet it is also viewed as having the power to impart higher truths. Whilst myth seems to have emerged from human irrationality and primitive modes of thought, it also seems to have its own peculiar logic. Another inner tension of myth occurs between myth and the real since theorists have argued that myth arises from images emerging from real phenomena. John Pennington argues that

Rafer 2 Rowlings novels, for all their magical trappings, are prefigured in mundane reality, relying too wholly on the real from which she simultaneously wants to escape (79). The wizard world is Harrys wish-fulfilment for escape from Muggledom and hence from a depressing reality, where he is nothing special, to a magic world where he is a mythic hero whose adventures recall myth theorist Joseph Campbells phases of the hero monomyth (Mills 5). However, Rowlings wizards have office jobs, bureaucratic laws and tabloid journalism. The plight of elves is politicised and social concerns of background, race and class emerge, all of which seem curiously mundane elements to intrude into an otherwise wondrous magic world. Rowling explained in a recent interview that she wanted to subvert the genre Harry goes off into this magical world, and is it any better than the world hes left? (Interview with Lev Grossman). This may explain why it often seems that Rowlings mythic symbols are not quite mythic enough to satisfy readers who enjoy Tolkien or Lewis. These writers offer clearly delineated spiritual fantasy worlds that rise above the mundane instead of suggesting, as Rowlings premise does, that the mythical and magical is simply hidden amongst our own contemporary reality, like Sirius Blacks house squeezed between Muggle houses, or an entire magic train platform existing in the gap between real platforms. Each mythology has its own character, fashioned by people, place, purpose and worldview, although a great deal of the inner content of myth remains obscured as myths have travelled and permeated different cultures. These kinds of factors can create ambiguity in the interpretation of mythic symbols. Kronzek and Kronzek note the way, for example, that griffins came to symbolise both good and evil (107) during the Middle Ages. The myth of the phoenix, although widely viewed as a Christian symbol, originates in pagan Egyptian myth and is viewed as a symbol of immortality (Colbert 93). Whilst the phoenix is a fundamental symbolist structure in the Potter books, there exists this curious sense of inner ambiguity inherent within the symbol (Kern 217218). Debate continues concerning Rowlings religious intentions for the Potter works. For example, Granger and Abanes view Potter as Christian and occult respectively but Rowlings use of symbolism seldom seems as overtly Christian as Lewis Narnian symbolism although there is the mediation of love from Harrys mother (PS 216). The phoenix rising from its ashes recalls alchemical change (Kronzek and Kronzek 209) and the cycle of life renewal, but theres also higher spiritual meaning when Fawkes conjures hope, loyalty and healing and symbolises Dumbledores covert Order of the Phoenix, the wizards on the side of good who fight the devilish evil of Voldemort and his followers. The word order has connotations of both a knightly order, to which admission is an honour, and may well suggest religious fraternity. The phoenix myth provides an image for rebirth, and the cycle of life and death, where Harry is the champion of life whilst Voldemort is in flight from death. Both Harry and Voldemort have wands with a core feather drawn from the same phoenix, though Voldemorts wand is made of yew, an emblem of grief associated with graveyards (recalling the yew tree in the Riddles graveyard in Goblet) whilst Harrys wandwood is holly, associated with Christmas, the birth of Christ and salvation. There are many kinds of symbol deployed throughout the Potter series, including those relating to alchemy, the sacred, the numerological, the psychological, gender, power, time and history (Gallardo-C and Smith, passim). On arriving at Hogwarts, Harry encounters the formal symbols for the Hogwarts Houses. These symbols structure Harrys life at the school since the categorisation of the Sorting distributes students according to their inner qualities and natural disposition and aptitudes into the four houses. The lion of Gryffindor symbolises courage, daring, nerve and chivalry (PS 88); the snake of Slytherin symbolises ambition; the badger symbolises

Rafer 3 Hufflepuffs qualities of being loyal, hardworking and true; whilst the eagle symbolises the virtues prized by Ravenclaw of wisdom, wit and learning (PS 88). Even Harrys teachers are largely symbolic (Eccleshare 24). Thus we have Professor Vector teaching Arithmancy and Professor Pomona Sprout, teaching magical horticulture. Her first name is particularly apt considering that Ovid wrote of Pomona that No other Latin wood nymph could tend a garden more skilfully (328). Myths often signify qualities in Rowlings characters, thus Minerva McGonagalls first name refers to Minerva, Roman goddess of wisdom and the arts (Colbert 172) and Sirius Blacks given name reminds us of the Dog Star in the constellation known as the Great Dog (41) that had significance in Egyptian mythology for the migration of the soul after death. Some of Rowlings symbols can be read as simply standing for inner human qualities. We might consider that lust is symbolised by her use of the veela, for example. The boggart in Prisoner of Azkaban is a symbol for fear itself, and something the hero must overcome (Kern 201). Rowling allegorises Peter Pettigrews rat-like nature through his physical transformation into a rat. She also leaves a suggestion of the rat about him, following his transformation back into human form after which she writes that His skin looked grubby, almost like Scabberss fur, and something of the rat lingered around his pointed nose, his very small, watery eyes (PoA 269). Inner qualities are given visual allegorical expression when Hagrid fires his umbrella/wand at Dudley in Philosophers Stone, intending to turn Dudley into a pig but all that happens is that a pigs tail appears on Dudley because, he was so much like a pig anyway there wasnt much left ter do (48). Dudleys inner selfishness has already become outwardly expressed through his appearance as Rita Skeeters animagus form of a bug can also be read in this way as an expression of her inner personality. Rowlings use of the Hippogriff serves as an interesting example of a more complex symbolism. A Hippogriff previously appeared in Ludovico Ariostos Orlando Furioso (1516) and also in a throw-away comment about crossing a horse with a griffin made by Virgil (Colbert 131). For Edmund Kern, Buckbeak might be read as a symbol of human potential or the pursuit of dreams. Churlishly taunting human beings, the hippogriff becomes tame and loyal once mounted, capable of soaring quickly and to the highest altitudes (eventually) Buckbeak literally becomes the vehicle upon which Harry and Hermione successfully pursue a hopeless cause. Eschewing faintheartedness, they need only dare to try (201). This reading evokes a higher mythic facet to Buckbeaks symbolic power. However, Rowlings treatment of the Hippogriff expands upon its literary myth. Hagrids Blue Peter approach to the care of Hippogriffs, turns Ariostos aspirational mythical creature into a real animal that needs to be tended more like a highly-strung thoroughbred race-horse than the mythical creature that Ariosto used to transport Astolfo to the moon. When trying to save Buckbeak, Ron Weasley is found reading The Handbook of Hippogriff Psychology and Fowl or Foul? A Study of Hippogriff Brutality (PoA 221). Rowling thus transforms an initially elusive mythical beast into a character with form, shape and identity. Similarly, Professor Lupin is revealed to be a werewolf but, by that time, he has become established as a friend and ally to Harry. Thus a curious sense of otherness associated with confronting the mythic is reduced and lost from the reading experience. A great deal of the fun of reading Rowlings books lies in the interpretation of her symbolism. However, the question arises as to the extent that her symbols move beyond allegorical explanation and open themselves to notions of higher mythical radiance. In his introduction to the allegory The Pilgrims Regress, C.S. Lewis proposed that when allegory is at its best, it approaches

Rafer 4 myth, which must be grasped with the imagination, not with the intellect (19). He explained that if his allegorical symbols in Pilgrims Regress such as North and South and Mr Sensible have some touch of mythical life, then no amount of explanation will quite catch up with their meaning. It is the sort of thing you cannot learn from definition : you must rather get to know it as you get to know a smell or a taste, the atmosphere of a family or a country town, or the personality of an individual (19). For Lewis myth is a higher thing than an allegory (Letters 458) because reason and rationalisation have limits that can be surpassed through imagination. Lewis maintained that myth gives us a story out of which ever varying meanings will grow for different readers and in different ages whilst into an allegory a man can put only what he already knows (458). A highly symbolic passage emerges in Philosophers Stone when Harry encounters Voldemort feeding upon a unicorn; this act symbolising the ultimate evil of the wizards feeding upon innocence and purity. For David Colbert Even in Harrys wizard world, with so many wondrous beasts, the unicorn is a symbol of the sacred (239) and the killer of the unicorn is cursed from the moment the unicorns blood touched his lips. The centaurs inform Hagrid that Mars, the symbol of war or wrath, is Unusually bright (PS 185). The centaur Firenze hopes the planets have been read wrongly on this occasion, implying that Harrys fate is predetermined. Cirlot observes that Mars symbolism indicates a necessity for the shedding of blood (204), significant for Harry who will be forced to shed blood for Voldemort in Goblet. However, the higher mythical power of the pure and defenceless unicorn is undercut when Harry acknowledges that hes only used the horn and tail-hair in Potions (PS 188). A sense of the commoditisation of this sacred mythical creature thus emerges, prefigured by unicorn horns for sale in Diagon Alley at 21 Galleons each (62) and that recurs with the greed that Slughorn displays when he realises the commercial potential of unicorn tail-hair in Half-Blood Prince (455). The wizards have in fact made a commodity of such things as unicorns, dragons and other mythical creatures, buying and selling them within magic products. It is hard to draw much in the way of awe and mystery, the otherness that should be evoked by the scene in the Forest which Julia Eccleshare criticises because the symbolism of the dead unicorn stand(s) out as an unusual example of Rowling failing to inject magic into a scene which, closely resembling much of C.S. Lewis, falls surprisingly flat (24). Rowling projects these happenings as though we are watching shapes moving at a distance rather than emphasizing the immediacy and intimacy of Voldemorts spiritual transgression. Earlier in Philosophers Stone Hagrids explanation that Harrys scar is what yeh get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh (45) is muted by Snapes put-down that Harry is simply Our new celebrity (101), celebrity being both part of Harrys hero myth and the blight inflicted upon him by Voldemort in perpetuity. Rowling follows traditional uses for dragons, having them guard golden eggs in the Triwizard tournament and hinting that they guard Gringottss vaults in book 1, but by book 5 they are the butt of her joke about dragon pox and in Half-Blood Prince the Weasley twins wear dragonskin jackets at Dumbledores funeral. In a similar vein Cerberus in Philosophers Stone serves as a guard dog but his mythic power is lessened by Hagrids naming of Fluffy, suggesting a pet poodle rather than the ravening guard of Hades encountered by the heroes of Greek myth. Again, as with the scene in the Forbidden Forest, this mythic encounter struggles to rise to that curiously Lewisian notion of receiving the Event of a myth that evokes awe and has a power that is extraliterary (Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism 48). Lewis viewed this special kind of myth as awe-

Rafer 5 inspiring (and) numinous (44), drawing upon Rudolf Ottos The Idea of the Holy for his rather idiosyncratic analysis of myth in Experiment in Criticism (1961). Myth, in this sense, is not applicable to The Lord of the Rings or to The Odyssey or to some other forms of original myth (Purtill 13). Instead Lewis defined an interesting category, something related to myth, that might be called the numinous idea (13). Many works that are mythic fall short of some of Lewis characteristics for this kind of numinous quality. For Lewis numinous myth is always grave, something that Rowlings treatment seldom provides, and deals with impossibles and preternaturals (An Experiment in Criticism 44). These criteria seem more in keeping with such creations as the thestrals who are uncannily visible to those who have witnessed death. They are described as bat-winged, horse-like, reptilians completely fleshless, their black coats clinging to their skeletons, of which every bone was visible. Their heads were dragonish, and their pupil-less eyes white and staring. Wings sprouted from each wither vast, black leathery wings that looked as though they ought to belong to giant bats. Standing still and quiet in the gathering gloom, the creatures looked eerie and sinister (OotP 178). Thestrals belong to that category of Rowling creations that includes Dementors and Voldemort, since they retain a garish nightmare quality that feeds their mythic power and works to convey otherness even though they exist more fully as psychological archetypes. As mythic symbols these creations are pulled in different directions, being mainly psychologised but also striving through their solemnity and archetypal significance to rise beyond this kind of reduction. They are symbols from Rowlings own Potter mythology and drawn from her psyche but these kinds of symbols also live in our deeper inherited Jungian collective unconscious (Jung 67). We thus find the sacramental symbolism of the phoenix and unicorn alongside deeply psychological symbols such as Dementors which for Rowling symbolise the debilitating effects of depression (Kern 201). However, Dementors are not confined solely to the realms of psychology. Lupin explains that ultimately they clamp their jaws upon the mouth of the victim and and suck out his soul (PoA 183), a fate worse than death because You can exist without your soul as long as your brain and heart are still working. But youll have no sense of self any more, no memory, no anything. Theres no chance at all of recovery. Youll just - exist. As an empty shell. And your soul is gone for ever lost (183). However, Lupin doesnt refer to this attack upon human spirituality as consigning victims to damnation. Unlike the Baptismal death of the old self before the birth of the new, dementors give a permanent loss of self although Lupins explanation never encroaches upon the Platonic concept of the soul as a metaphysical entity created by God (Badham qtd. in Richardson and Bowden 548). Although Dementors allegorise a mental illness, they are countered by a curiously psychoanalytic yet also more numinous mythic symbol. In the scene where Dementors attack Harry by the lake in Prisoner of Azkaban, Rowling counters their reductivism with a silvery light that gains in intensity until it is as bright as a unicorn (282). This patronus, or guardian, is conjured from a wizards inner depths. Harrys patronus takes the form of a stag, the same animal-shape adopted by his animagus father. Harrys patronus is recognised by Dumbledore as Harrys father when Dumbledore witnesses it at a quidditch match, Dumbledore later explaining to Harry, that you did see your father last night, Harry you found him inside yourself (312). Siriuss soul is thus saved by what Freud

Rafer 6 termed the return of the repressed which in this case is Harrys murdered father James Potter. The theme of the murdered father also motivates events in Goblet with Barty Crouch junior viewing the slaying of his father as an echo of Voldemorts murder of his hated Muggle father. Sirius had intended to commit the murder hed been falsely imprisoned for but, thanks to Harry saving his soul, Sirius is not diminished by this act and later crosses the veil, symbolising the division between life and death, in The Order of the Phoenix with his soul undiminished. Considering the creation of Lord Voldemort, the fact that fearful wizards prefer to call Harrys nemesis You Know Who emphasizes the demonisation of Voldemort. In a world where mythical conceptions are real, Voldemort is evil incarnate. The power of fear is one of Voldemorts key strengths, tying in to the power of irrationality in myth and the way that Myth is an offspring of emotion and its emotional background imbues all its productions with its own specific color (Cassirer, An Essay on Man 82). However, this aspect of the wizards irrationality contrasts with Voldemorts own manipulative reasoning since he argues Quirrell, for example, out of believing in the concept of good and evil whilst promoting the more Hegelian view that there is only power. The symbols of the boggart and the grim change and lose their power over Harry after he faces up to the fear they present and thus he breaks the emotional hold that they have over him. In contrast, other symbols grow through the books as greater emotion is vested in them. Thus Voldemort gains appreciable mythic power and reality with each new book. Hagrid, for example, explains that people feared thestrals as bad omens because they didn understand them (OoP 396) whereas Neville Longbottom sees but doesnt fear them. Voldemorts mythical symbolic properties grow through both his evil acts and the inclusion of other symbols. Symbols associated with Voldemort include darkness, the division of light and dark into good and evil respectively being an entirely mythical conception with no basis in rationalism, and the snake that is the emblem of Slytherin house. The venom of the snake Nagini keeps Voldemort alive in book 4, Nagini recalls Indian myths of the naga snakes (Colbert 1634) whilst Voldemorts very appearance becomes snakelike as his soul is corrupted. His specific symbol is the Dark Mark with which he identifies his disciples, a version of the Devils Mark, a notion from the Middle Ages The stamp that makes these marks is nothing less than the Devils talon (Colbert 5960). This symbol is invested with specifically mythical modes of thought since the Dark Mark taints all who submit to its impression, like a brand of evil. Voldemort also leaves the mark of a scar upon Harrys head which symbolises more than the psychological damage hes caused by the murder of Harrys parents. Critics Gallardo-C and Smith identify the scar as Harrys magical third eye suggesting that it functions not only as an outward symbol of the protagonists supposed power against evil, but also operates as a reminder, like the mark of Cain, of the very evil it protects against. The symbolism runs even deeper when considering the Hindu god Shiva the destroyer of all material forms whose vertical third eye, centered in his forehead, blazes with the fire of ten million suns, and can consume any creature with flame (197). However, Voldemort continues to be most easily read as the Jungian archetypal Shadow figure (Nikolajeva; Merrill). Jung wrote that The devil is a variant of the shadow archetype, i.e., of the dangerous aspect of the unrecognised dark half of the personality (Jung 7879). Harry and Voldemort have similar powers, half-blood lineage, similar backgrounds, upbringing and

Rafer 7 appearance. Even Tom Riddle notes the strange likenesses between us (CS 233) during their encounter in the chamber of Salazar Slytherin. As if to confirm his identity as a Jungian mythologem, Voldemort identifies himself in Philosophers Stone as Mere shadow and vapour I have form only when I can share anothers body but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds (PS 213). We might read Voldemort as Harrys Freudian desire to kill his own father and replace him in his mothers affections. However, in Goblet the Shadow emerges from the cauldrons womb and becomes magically blood-related to Harry, a son to Harry as father, as Harry himself is forced into giving Voldemort physical form once more (Mills 4). Even as a largely psychological symbol, Voldemorts significance continues to feel greater. His mythical life lives beyond the limitation of simply being part of Harrys repressed sexual desire because Voldemort has a mythic life beyond Freudian, or Jungian, interpretation as the Cave scene in Half-Blood Prince suggests. Here Dumbledore becomes Harrys Underworld guide and ferryman when they cross over a black Acheron-like expanse to seek one of Voldemorts Horcruxes. His victims rising from their submergence evoke a Dantean vision after Harry forces Dumbledore to drink a mysterious draught that could be the Draught of Living Death that Snape teaches Harry about in their first ever potions class. This draught induces profound sleep indistinguishable from death and thus gives the cave scene a suggestion of the myth of the Cave of Somnus where also dwelt Thanatos. The Draughts ingredients including asphodel, and in Greek myth the first region of Tartarus contains the cheerless Asphodel Fields (Graves 1201). Entry to Voldemorts Cave is gained by blood, recalling that the underworld gods one delight is in libations of blood poured to them by the living (120-1). These myths form facets of Voldemorts greater resonance and magic dimension, through his participation in their patterns. Thus we have considered some of the curious tensions within the symbols of Rowlings art. Voldemort is both the embodiment of evil, a devil incarnate for wizards, and also, as Hagrid and Dumbledore explain to Harry, simply a wizard that went bad. Even though Harry appears to be locked into a mythic struggle that is celestially predetermined, Rowling suggests that Harry has the freedom to make choices. When all is said by the Sorting Hat, he chooses to go into Gryffindor and not to succumb to his Slytherin/dark side, and this is important because, for Rowling, evil in Potter comes squarely down to the choices of individuals. They thus must bear responsibility for their own actions.

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Rafer 8 Cirlot, J.E. A Dictionary of Symbols, 2nd ed. Trans. Jack Sage. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1971. Colbert, David. The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter: A Treasury of Myths, Legends and Fascinating Facts. 3rd ed. London: Puffin, 2005. Eccleshare, Julia. A Guide to the Harry Potter Novels. London: Continuum, 2002. Granger, John. Harry Potter and the Inklings: The Christian Meaning of The Chamber of Secrets CSL:The Bulletin of the New York C.S. Lewis Society. 392 (November-December 2002): No. 6, Whole No. 392, pp. 1-14. . The Hidden Key to Harry Potter. Port Hadlock, WA: Zossima P, 2002. Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths: Volume 1. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1960. Gallardo-C, Ximena, and C. Jason Smith. Cinderfella: J.K. Rowlings Wily Web of Gender Reading Harry Potter: Critical Essays. Ed. Giselle Liza Anatol. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003. Jung, C.G., Jung on Mythology. Routledge: London, 1998. Kern, Edmund. The Wisdom of Harry Potter: What Our Favorite Hero Teaches Us about Moral Choices, New York: Prometheus Books, 2003. Kronzek, Allan Zola, and Elizabeth Kronzek. The Sorcerers Companion, a Guide to the Magical World of Harry Potter. 2nd ed. New York: Broadway Books, 2004. Lewis, C.S. C.S. Lewis: Essay Collection and Other Short Pieces, London: HarperCollins, 2000. . An Experiment in Criticism, Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996. . Letters of C.S. Lewis, Rev. ed. Ed. W. Hooper, W., San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1993. . The Pilgrims Regress: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason and Romanticism. London: Font, 1977. Mills, Alice, Archetypes and the Unconscious in Harry Potter and Diana Wynne Joness Fire and Hemlock and Dogsbody Reading Harry Potter: Critical Essays. Ed. Gisselle Anatol. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003. Merrill, Trista, M., Crossing Boundaries on a Bolt of Lightning: Mythic, Pedagogical and TechnoCultural Approaches to Harry Potter Ph.D. Diss. Binghampton U, State U of New York, 2003. Nikolajeva, M. Harry Potter A Return to the Romantic Hero Harry Potters World, Multidisciplinary Critical Perspectives. Ed. Elizabeth, E. Heilman. New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2003. Ovid. The Metamorphoses of Ovid. Trans. Mary Innes. London: Penguin, 1967. Pennington, John. From Elfland to Hogwarts, or the Aesthetic Trouble with Harry Potter The Lion and the Unicorn, 26.1 (2002): 78-97. Purtill, Richard. J.R.R. Tolkien, Myth, Morality and Religion. San Francisco: Ignatius, 1984. Richardson, Alan & John Bowden, eds. A New Dictionary of Christian Theology. London: SCM P, 2002. Rowling, J.K. Interview with Lev Grossman J.K. Rowling Hogwarts and All Time Magazine 25 July 2005. [QQQ says 17 July; Time says 25 July] QQQ /articles/2005/0705-timegrossman.htm

David Rafer 9 . Transcript of J.K. Rowlings live interview on Scholastic.com: 16th October 2000 Scholastic.Com. 21st March 2003, www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/author/transcript2.htm Sayer, George. Jack, a Life of C.S. Lewis. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1997. Shapiro, M., J.K. Rowling: The Wizard Behind Harry Potter, New York: Griffin, 2000.