WHO IS THE "HALF-BLOOD PRINCE"?
So, CNN announced the title of J.K. Rowling's next Harry Potter book: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
So the question open for discussion and endless speculation is, who exactly is the Half-Blood Prince?
CNN says that the HBP is neither Voldemort nor HP. My friend Dan suggests it might be my friend Jim, who's leaving for Israel Wednesday despite many pleas from many Jewish women. (Could explain the hasty retreat.) But then again, maybe Dan's saying that to throw us off the fact that Dan himself is the HBP.
At first, I thought this must mean that the prince in question is only half-wizard, like Hermione--this could mean a long-lost relative for good old H. But then I remembered, in HP lingo, someone who is half-wizard and half-Muggle is called a Mudblood.
The real question is, what does the word "prince" mean in the HP-universe? I don't remember royalty being a factor in the previous books.
And then I remembered! I'm 33, and a full-time freelancer. And I need to get some work done. Enough of this narishkeit. I turn it over to you for discussion.
posted by Esther Kustanowitz @ 12:39 PM
14 comments
14 Comments:
Esther--
I'm happy to see that you are "oseket" in HP, but you have the facts a little wrong. Hermione is not half-and-half. Both of her parents are Muggles. That is what makes her a "mudblood." It *could* be that a half-and-half could also be a "mudblood," meaning that they are not a pureblood. But I think it's a fair guess that a "half blood" is someone like Voldemort (yemach shmo). (Technically, I can't imagine that Harry is considered a half-blood, since both his parents were magical. However, the fact that he has a set of Muggle grandparents puts him in a sort of gray area, which is why Voldy thought that he was the one to fulfill the prophecy we learn about in Book 5.
The first theory that comes to my mind is that while England's magical community has a Ministry of Magic, other countries, like Bulgaria for example, might have magical royalty. The HBP might be a foreigner. Remember that Viktor and Fleur have graduated, and Fleur mentioned once that she'd like to improve her English, and so there might be foreign magic folk moving into Harry's sphere of existence.
Off the top of my head, the only half-bloods I can think of who have been mentioned already in the books as such are Voldy and Seamus Finnigan.
Sarah
www.chayyeisarah.blogspot.com
Wow, Sarah. I'm in awe. Awe.
Clearly a re-reading of sefarim 2-5 is in order. Thanks for the correction.
Yes, yes, well I am amazing that way . . . please, no applause necessary.
I thought of one other possible half-blood: Hagrid, who is the child of a magical human father and giant mother. However, since giants are considered magical creatures, I don't know really *what* that makes Hagrid. If he's a half-blood, then Fleur would be a three-quarters blood, being part Veela.
Sarah
My friend, who sent me an email yesterday about the new title, thinks it's Neville.
Hmmm... :)
Neville would be a very juicy choice indeed -- I personally cannot wait for Neville to become the secondary Hero of these books, as indispensable as Ron and Hermione (as he started to do in Book 5) -- but I think it's well-established that both of his parents were magical.
This is such a tantalizing conundrum!
Sarah
HEllo Guys:)
I think probably the " half Blood " prince is Tom Marvolo Riddle.J.k Rowling is trying to decieve us by saying that it is not voldemort like dobby did by shrugging that it was not voldy and hence was giving a hint.The second clue is that it was supposed to be a temporary name for COS and in that part tom was quite an important character of the novel.It makes sense to me. That is all i can say and if it is someone new then no one can guess. And by the way Hagrid is a " Half-Breed" not "Half-Blood", and in giants there is no king but a chief.
Mansoor
The Half Blood Prince could very well be Neville. In the first book Neville says that his family thought he was all muggle until he was 8 when his Uncle dropped him from the 2nd floor window and he bounced all the way down and to the road. I don't remember any passages that talk about Neville's mom's side of the family. They could very well be muggles which would explain why they thought Neville was a muggle and not a Squib like Filch.
Thanks for hyphenating "Half-Blood." I was afraid that I was the only person who thought this was correct.
So we know that there is a "half-blood" prince, but that leads to another unanswered question who are the king and queen? i also think that tom marvolo riddle is the HBP and that J.K is just imitating dobby.
Anyone think it might be Mark Evans? If you remember this is the ten-year-old boy that Dudley and his gang beat up. Lily's maiden (and petunia's as well) is Evans. Mark Evans must be a relation to Harry somehow. Also, by the time of Book 6, Mark Evans would be turning eleven, meaning that he could be receiving a letter from Hogwarts. J.K.R. would not use the same last name if there wasn't a connection. This seems like an interesting option.
My guess is that it's Remus Lupin. There are references to his being a half-blood. In the story of Romulus and Remus...They were twin sons of the God Mars and a latin Princess. Granfather was King Amulis.
Romulis defeated his grandfather and became the first King of Rome. Remus, therefore, was the prince.
Ironically the grandfather was worried that they would try to take his throne and left them in the forest to die. The two survived because they were nursed by wolves...hence Lupin.
JK loves to work historical references into her stories and I think this is as plausable as any.
Morning Fey
Colin Creevy. Am I the only one to think of him, if one considers him half house elf (he's tiny)..and he's introduced in CoS.
I just got done reading everyone's posts. I have some responses.
1. First and foremost, JK confirmed that the Evans kid that Dudley beat up, the name was a coincidence and an accident. She said he's a noone.
2. The problem that I think its not riddle is because Chamber was originally called the HBP right (she confirmed), but she couldn't find a spot to fit the stuff in, so she removed it and wanted it to be in the 6th book. I believe that Riddle is not it either, it would surprise me if it was.
3. Neville is pureblood. Bottom line.
Collin Creevy is a good guess, as well as Hagrid. BUT, keep in mind we are dealing with an author that likes to do things that noone expected is totally off of the wall. Petunia dursley could have been a squib. It would explain her extreme hatrid for Lilly. So what if (I know its out there), the HBP is Dudley. I"m not saying that its true, I'm saying be ready for a twist like that, so you read it and are like, HOLEY CRAP, no way, never thought of that. I think people like that are the suspects so to speak.
I'll bet you Voldemort shagged (hope I'm allowed to write this, sorry if I'm not) a shiksa and got her pregnant, and our brave Harry will now have to contend with the results of not just saying no.
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