Solve et Coagula: Part 3 – Literary Alchemy
In Part 3 of her “solve et coagula” analysis, Dr. Beatrice Groves explains how literary alchemy influences J.K. Rowling’s writing process.
Category: Bathilda’s Notebook
Solve et Coagula: Part 2 – The Ripley Scrolls, Nicolas Flamel, and Ben Jonson’s Alchemist
Dr. Beatrice Groves looks further into the origins of the phrase “solve et coagula” and the way in which it encapsulates Rowling’s own metaphors for her “process.”
Solve et Coagula: Part 1 – Rowling’s Alchemical Tattoo
Last year, J.K. Rowling got a tattoo of the alchemical Latin phrase “solve et coagula.” Read about how the phrase has an intimate connection with everything she writes.
“The Faerie Queene” and the Fifth “Strike” Novel: “Troubled Blood”
On March 20, 2020, J.K. Rowling changed her Twitter header to an image taken from “The Faerie Queene”, an epic poem containing the phrase “troubled blood,” the title of the forthcoming “Comoran Strike” novel. What relevance, beyond inspiring its title, will “The Faerie Queene” have on “Troubled Blood”?
“Potter” and “Python” – Part 2: “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”
To mark the 50th anniversary of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”, Dr. Beatrice Groves is exploring links between “Potter” and “Python”. In this second article in a two-part series, she writes about how “Potter” echoes “Holy Grail”.
“Potter” and “Python” – Part 1: “Monty Python’s Life of Brian”
To mark the 50th anniversary of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”, Dr. Beatrice Groves is exploring links between “Potter” and “Python”. In this first article in a two-part series, she writes about how “Potter” echoes “Life of Brian”.
The Sword Until Recently Known as Gryffindor’s
Dr. Beatrice Groves dissects the moral challenge of the goblin perspective on the ownership of Gryffindor’s sword, which is strongly linked to our popular understanding of Marxism.
Rowling’s Goblin Problem?
With the opening of an exhibition, “Jews, Money, Myth”, at the Jewish Museum London, Dr. Beatrice Groves ponders whether the depiction of goblins in “Harry Potter” is anti-Semitic.
The Alchemical Symbolism of the Deathly Hallows in “Crimes of Grindelwald”
How do alchemical and Masonic symbolism overlap? Dr. Beatrice Groves explores this connection, links it to the quest for the Hallows, and finds an astonishingly vivid parallel between “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” and “The Man Who Would Be King.”