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Harry Potter
and The Deathly Hallows Wiki
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final of the Harry Potter novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The book was released on 21 July 2007, ending the series that began in 1997 with the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. This book chronicles the events directly following Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005), and leads to the long-awaited final confrontation between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury Publishing, in the United States by Scholastic, in Canada by Raincoast Books, and in Australia and New Zealand by Allen & Unwin. Released globally in ninety-three countries, Deathly Hallows
broke sales records as the fastest-selling book ever. It sold 15
million copies in the first twenty-four hours following its release,[1]
including more than 11 million in the U.S. and U.K. alone. The previous
record, nine million in its first day, had been held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.[2] The novel has also been translated into numerous languages, including Ukrainian,[3] Swedish,[4] Polish[5] and Hindi.[6]
Several awards were given to the novel, including the 2008 Colorado
Blue Spruce Book Award, and it was listed as a "Best Book for Young
Adults" by the American Library Association.[7] Reception to the book was generally positive, although some reviewers found the characters to be repetitive or unchanging. A two-part film based on the novel is in the works, with part one's release date in November 2010. Epigraphs
For the first time in the series, Rowling placed two epigraphs at the beginning of the book. The first is a passage from the play The Libation-Bearers by the Greek playwright Aeschylus. The second is a passage from More Fruits of Solitude by the Quaker leader William Penn.
Dedication
All the books in the Harry Potter series have dedications. On the dedication page for this book, the unusual layout resembles the shape of Harry's scar.
Plot introduction
Throughout the six previous novels in the Harry Potter series, the main character, Harry Potter, has struggled with the inherent difficulties of adolescence along with being a famous wizard. When Harry was a baby, Lord Voldemort,
a powerful evil wizard, murdered Harry's parents but mysteriously
vanished after attempting to kill Harry. This results in Harry's
immediate fame, and his being placed in the care of his muggle, or non-magical, relatives Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon.
Harry re-enters the wizarding world at age 11, enrolling in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He makes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger,
and is soon confronted by Lord Voldemort, who is trying to regain power
(and a body). Returning to school after summer break, there are several
attacks on students after the legendary "Chamber of Secrets" is thought
to be opened. Harry ends the attacks by killing a Basilisk
and defeating Lord Voldemort's "memory" stored in an enchanted diary.
The following year, Harry hears that he has been targeted by escaped
murderer Sirius Black.
Despite stringent security measures at Hogwarts, Harry is confronted by
Black at the end of his third year of schooling and Harry learns that
Black was framed and is his godfather. Harry's fourth year of school sees him entered in a dangerous magical competition called the Triwizard Tournament.
At the conclusion of the Tournament, Harry witnesses the return of Lord
Voldemort to full strength. When the next school year begins, the
Ministry of Magic appoints Dolores Umbridge
as the new High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. After forming an underground
student group in opposition to Umbridge, Harry and several of his
friends face off against Voldemort's Death Eaters,
a group of Dark witches and wizards, and narrowly defeat them. In
Harry's sixth year of school, he learns that Voldemort has been using Horcruxes to become immortal.
Horcruxes are fragments of the soul that are placed within an object so
that when the body dies, a part of the soul remains and the person can
be regenerated or resurrected.[8] However, the destruction of the creator's body leaves the wizard or witch in a state of half-life, without corporeal form.[9] When returning from a mission to discover a Horcrux, Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster of the school and Harry's mentor, is murdered by Severus Snape,
a teacher at the school with whom Harry is consistently at odds and who
Harry has suspected of being a Death Eater. At the conclusion of the
book, Harry pledges not to return to school the following year and to
search for Horcruxes instead.
Plot summary
Following Dumbledore's death, Voldemort has completed his ascension
to power and gains control of the Ministry of Magic. Harry, Ron, and
Hermione drop out of school to find and destroy Voldemort's remaining
Horcruxes. They isolate themselves to ensure the safety of their family
and friends. They do not have much knowledge about the remaining
Horcruxes except the possibility that two of them are objects that
belonged to Hogwarts founders Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff, and that the third is Nagini, Voldemort's snake familiar.
The locations of the two founders' objects are unknown, and Nagini is
presumed to be with Voldemort himself. As they search for the Horcruxes,
the trio learn details about Dumbledore's past, as well as Snape's true
motives.
The trio recovers the first of Voldemort's Horcruxes, Salazar
Slytherin's locket, by infiltrating the Ministry of Magic. They recover
the Sword of Godric Gryffindor;
it is one of a few objects that can be used to destroy Horcruxes, and
they use it to destroy the locket. In their travels the trio comes
across a strange symbol, which an eccentric wizard named Xenophilius Lovegood
tells them represents the mythical Deathly Hallows. The Hallows are
revealed to be three sacred objects: the Resurrection Stone, a stone
with the power to recall the dead to the world of the living; the Elder
Wand, an unbeatable wand; and an infallible Invisibility Cloak. Harry
learns that Voldemort is seeking the Elder Wand, but is unaware of the
Hallows and their significance. The trio decides that discovering
Voldemort's Horcruxes is more important than procuring the Hallows for
themselves. They break into Bellatrix Lestrange's vault at the Wizarding Bank Gringotts
to recover another Horcrux, the cup of Helga Hufflepuff. Harry learns
that another Horcrux is hidden in Hogwarts, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione
enter the school. They find this Horcrux, the Diadem of Ravenclaw, and
successfully destroy the cup and the diadem.
The book culminates in the Battle of Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and
Hermione, in conjunction with students and members of the wizarding
world opposed to the rise of Voldemort, defend Hogwarts from Voldemort,
his Death Eaters, and various magical creatures.
Several major characters are killed in the first wave of the battle.
Harry discovers that Voldemort inadvertently made Harry a Horcrux when
he attacked him as a baby, and that he will have to die to destroy
Voldemort. Harry surrenders himself to Voldemort, who attacks Harry with
the Killing Curse,
sending Harry to a sort of Limbo between life and death. There, Harry
meets Dumbledore who explains that because Voldemort used Harry's blood
to regain his full strength, Harry is protected from any harm that
Voldemort could commit against him, meaning that the Horcrux inside
Harry is destroyed, but Harry can return to his body despite being hit
by the Killing Curse. Harry then returns to his body, the battle
resumes, and after the last remaining Horcrux is destroyed, Harry is
able to defeat Voldemort.
Epilogue
Nineteen years later, Harry and Ginny Weasley are married and have three children: James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna. Ron married Hermione and has two children, Rose and Hugo. The families meet at King's Cross station, where a nervous Albus is departing for his first year at Hogwarts. Harry's godson, Teddy Lupin, is found kissing Victoire Weasley (Bill and Fleur's
daughter) in a train carriage. Harry sees Draco Malfoy and his wife
Astoria Greengrass (revealed on Rowling's website behind the door) with
their son, Scorpius. Neville Longbottom is now the Hogwarts Herbology
professor and remains friends with the two families. Harry comforts
Albus, who is worried he will be sorted into Slytherin, and tells his
son that one of his two namesakes, Severus Snape, was a Slytherin and
the bravest man he had ever met. He adds that the Sorting Hat
takes one's choice into account, like it did for Harry. The book ends
with these final words: "The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen
years. All was well."
Rowling's commentary and supplement
In an interview,[10] online chat,[11][12][13]
the Wizard of the Month section of her website, and during her 2007
U.S. Open Book Tour, Rowling revealed additional character information
that she chose not to include in the book. The first bits of information
were about the trio and their families, starting with Harry.
She said that Harry became an Auror for the Ministry of Magic, and was later appointed head of the department. He also kept Sirius Black's motorcycle, which Arthur Weasley repaired for him, but he can no longer speak Parseltongue after the destruction of Voldemort's soul fragment within him. She also said that Ginny Weasley played for the Holyhead Harpies Quidditch team for a time, then leaving to establish a family with Harry, and later became the lead Quidditch correspondent for the Daily Prophet. Ron Weasley worked at George's store for a time, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes,
and then joined Harry as an Auror. Hermione found her parents in
Australia, and removed the memory modification charm she had put on them
for safety. Initially, she worked for the Ministry of Magic in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, greatly improving life for house elves. She later moved to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement
and assisted in eradicating oppressive, pro-pureblood laws. She was
also the only member of the trio to go back and complete her seventh
year at Hogwarts. Rowling then went on to explain that Dumbledore's
relationship with Gellert Grindelwald extended beyond mere friendship; indeed, Rowling has revealed that "Dumbledore is gay, actually",[14] and harboured romantic feelings for Grindelwald.[15]
Next, Rowling revealed the fate of Voldemort. After his death, he was
forced to exist in the stunted form Harry witnessed in the King's Cross limbo, as his crimes were too severe for him to become a ghost.
Rowling also explained the fates of several secondary characters, starting with the Weasleys. George Weasley continued his successful joke shop. George married fellow Quidditch player Angelina Johnson
and had two children: a son named Fred, in memory of his late twin
brother, and a daughter, Roxanne. Next, Rowling proceeded to explain Luna Lovegood's
future, saying that she searched the world for odd and unique
creatures. She eventually married Rolf, a grandson of the famed
naturalist Newt Scamander,[13] writer of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. They have twins called Lorcan and Lysander. Her father's publication, The Quibbler, has returned to its usual condition of "advanced lunacy" and is appreciated for its unintentional humour.
Rowling then gave briefer histories on some more of the minor characters, as follows. Draco Malfoy married Astoria Greengrass and had a son named Scorpius. Percy Weasley married a woman named Audrey and had two daughters, named Molly and Lucy. Firenze was welcomed back into his herd, who finally acknowledged the virtue of his pro-human leanings. Dolores Umbridge was arrested, interrogated, and imprisoned for crimes against Muggle-borns. Cho Chang went on to marry a Muggle.[16] Neville Longbottom became professor of Herbology at Hogwarts and married Hannah Abbott, who became the landlady of the Leaky Cauldron.[17] Bill and Fleur Weasley had a total of three children, a younger son named Louis, and two daughters, named Dominique and Victoire.
Rowling also revealed further transformations in the wider wizarding world as follows. Kingsley Shacklebolt became the permanent Minister of Magic, with Percy Weasley working under him as a high official. Among the reforms introduced by Shacklebolt, Azkaban no longer used Dementors. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were also instrumental in reforming the Ministry.[11] At Hogwarts, Slytherin
House became more diluted and no longer held the title as the
pure-blood bastion it once was, although its dark reputation lingered.[11] Voldemort's jinx
on the Defence Against the Dark Arts position was broken with his
death, and there was a permanent Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher
appointed. Harry also is said to come to the Defence Against the Dark
Arts class to lecture several times a year.[10] Lastly, Rowling says that a portrait of Severus Snape,
who briefly served as Hogwarts Headmaster, had not appeared in the H's
office, as he had abandoned his post. Harry then ensures the addition of
Snape's portrait, and publicly revealed Snape's true allegiance.[11]
Background
Choice of title
Shortly before releasing the title, J. K. Rowling announced that she had considered three titles for the book.[11][18] The final title, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released to the public on 21 December 2006 via a special Christmas-themed hangman puzzle on Rowling's website, confirmed shortly afterwards by the book's publishers.[19] Asked during a live chat as to the other titles she had been considering, Rowling mentioned Harry Potter and the Elder Wand and Harry Potter and the Peverell Quest.[11]
Rowling on finishing the book
Rowling completed the book while staying at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh in January 2007, and left a signed statement on a marble bust of Hermes in her room which read: "J. K. Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (652) on 11 January 2007".[20]
In a statement on her website, she said, "I've never felt such a
mixture of extreme emotions in my life, never dreamed I could feel
simultaneously heartbroken and euphoric." She compared her mixed
feelings to those expressed by Charles Dickens in the preface of the 1850 edition of David Copperfield,
"a two-years' imaginative task." "To which," she added, "I can only
sigh, try seventeen years, Charles..." She ended her message, "Deathly Hallows is my favourite, and that is the most wonderful way to finish the series."[21]
When asked before publication about the forthcoming book, Rowling
stated that she could not change the ending even if she wanted. "These
books have been plotted for such a long time, and for six books now,
that they're all leading a certain direction. So, I really can't."[22] She also commented that the final volume related closely to the previous book in the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, "almost as though they are two halves of the same novel."[23]
She has said that the last chapter of the book was written "in
something like 1990", as part of her earliest work on the series.[24]
Release
Marketing and promotion
Jacket art of Scholastic (US) edition.
The launch was celebrated by an all-night book signing and reading at the Natural History Museum in London, which Rowling attended along with 1700 guests chosen by ballot.[25] Rowling toured the US in October 2007, where another event was held at Carnegie Hall in New York with tickets allocated by sweepstake.[26]
Scholastic,
the American publisher of the Harry Potter series, launched a
multi-million dollar "There will soon be 7" marketing campaign with a
'Knight Bus' travelling to forty libraries across the United States,
online fan discussions and competitions, collectible bookmarks, tattoos,
and the staged release of seven Deathly Hallows questions most debated by fans.[27] In the build-up to the book's release, Scholastic released seven questions that fans would find answered in the final book:[28]
- Who will live? Who will die?
- Is Snape good or evil?
- Will Hogwarts reopen?
- Who ends up with whom?
- Where are the Horcruxes?
- Will Voldemort be defeated?
- What are the Deathly Hallows?
Scholastic also hosted "Harry Potter Place"—a magical and interactive
street celebration at Scholastic headquarters in New York City, where
the first U.S. signed edition of Deathly Hallows was unveiled on
20 July 2007. The festivities included a twenty foot (six metre) high
Whomping Willow, face-painting, wand-making, fire-eaters, magicians,
jugglers and stilt-walkers.[29]
J. K. Rowling arranged with her publishers for a poster bearing the face of the missing British child Madeleine McCann to be made available to book sellers when Deathly Hallows
was launched on 21 July 2007 and said that she hoped that the posters
would be displayed prominently in shops all over the world.[30]
Spoiler embargo
Rowling made a public request that anyone with information about the
content of the last book should keep it to themselves, in order to avoid
spoiling the experience for other readers.[31] To this end, Bloomsbury invested GB£10 million in an attempt to keep the book's contents secure until the 21 July release date.[32] Arthur Levine, U.S. editor of the Harry Potter series, denied distributing any copies of Deathly Hallows in advance for press review, but two U.S. papers published early reviews anyway.[33]
There was speculation that some shops would break the embargo and
distribute copies of the book early, as the penalty imposed for previous
instalments—that the distributor would not be supplied with any further
copies of the series—would no longer be a deterrent.[34]
Online leaks and early delivery
In the week before its release, a number of texts purporting to be
genuine leaks appeared in various forms. On 16 July, a set of
photographs representing all 759 pages of the U.S. edition was leaked
and was fully transcribed prior to the official release date.[35][36][37][38] The photographs later appeared on websites and peer-to-peer networks, leading Scholastic to seek a subpoena in order to identify one source.[39] This represented the most serious security breach in the Harry Potter series' history.[40] Rowling and her lawyer confirmed that there were genuine online leaks.[41] Reviews published in both The Baltimore Sun and The New York Times on 18 July 2007 corroborated many of the plot elements from this leak, and about one day prior to release, The New York Times confirmed that the main circulating leak was real.[40]
Scholastic announced that approximately one-ten-thousandth (0.0001)
of the U.S. supply had been shipped early — interpreted to mean about
1,200 copies. One reader in Maryland received a copy of the book in the
mail from DeepDiscount.com four days before it was launched, which
evoked incredulous responses from both Scholastic and DeepDiscount.
Scholastic initially reported that they were satisfied it had been a
"human error" and would not discuss possible penalties;[42]
however, the following day Scholastic announced that it would be
launching legal action against DeepDiscount.com and its distributor,
Levy Home Entertainment.[43]
Scholastic filed for damages in Chicago's Circuit Court of Cook County,
claiming that DeepDiscount engaged in a "complete and flagrant
violation of the agreements that they knew were part of the carefully
constructed release of this eagerly awaited book."[44] Some of the early release books soon appeared on eBay, in one case being sold to Publishers Weekly for US$250 from an initial price of US$18.[45]
In Nurmes,
Finland, a supermarket sold copies of the English edition as early as
19 July, apparently owing to a misunderstanding on the part of an
employee.
Price wars and other controversies
Asda,[46][47]
along with several other UK supermarkets, had already taken pre-orders
for the book at a heavily discounted price. Asda then sparked a price
war two days before the book's launch by announcing they would sell it
for just GB£5 a copy (about US$8). Other retail chains then also offered
the book at discounted prices. At these prices the book became a loss leader.
This caused uproar from traditional UK booksellers who argued they had
no hope of competing in those conditions. Independent shops protested
loudest, but even Waterstone's,
the UK's largest dedicated chain bookstore, could not compete with the
supermarket price. Some small bookstores hit back by buying their stock
from the supermarkets rather than their wholesalers. Asda attempted to
counter this by imposing a limit of two copies per customer to prevent
bulk purchases. Philip Wicks, a spokesman for the UK Booksellers
Association, said, "It is a war we can't even participate in. We think
it's a crying shame that the supermarkets have decided to treat it as a
loss-leader, like a can of baked beans." Michael Norris, an analyst at
Simba Information, said: "You are not only lowering the price of the
book. At this point, you are lowering the value of reading."[48]
In Malaysia, a similar price war caused controversy regarding sales of the book.[49] Four of the biggest bookstore chains in Malaysia, MPH Bookstores, Popular Bookstores, Times and Harris, decided to pull Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows off their shelves as a protest against Tesco and Carrefour hypermarkets. The retail price of the book in Malaysia is MYR 109.90 (about GB£16), while the hypermarkets Tesco and Carrefour sold the book at MYR 69.90 (about GB£10). The move by the bookstores was seen as an attempt to pressure the distributor Penguin Books
to remove the books from the hypermarkets. However, as of 24 July 2007,
the price war has ended, with the four bookstores involved resuming
selling the books in their stores with discount. Penguin Books has also
confirmed that Tesco and Carrefour are selling the book at a loss,
urging them to practice good business sense and fair trade.[50]
The book's early Saturday morning release in Israel was criticised for violating Shabbat. Trade and Industry Minister Eli Yishai
commented "It is forbidden, according to Jewish values and Jewish
culture, that a thing like this should take place at 2 a.m. on Saturday.
Let them do it on another day."[51] Yishai indicated that he would issue indictments and fines based on the Hours of Work and Rest Law.[52]
Publication and reception
Critical response
The Baltimore Sun's critic, Mary Carole McCauley, praised the series as "a classic bildungsroman,
or coming-of-age tale." She noted that the book was more serious than
the previous novels in the series and had more straightforward prose.[53] Furthermore, reviewer Alice Fordham from The Times
writes that "Rowling’s genius is not just her total realisation of a
fantasy world, but the quieter skill of creating characters that bounce
off the page, real and flawed and brave and lovable." Fordham concludes,
"We have been a long way together, and neither Rowling nor Harry let us
down in the end."[54] New York Times writer Michiko Kakutani agrees, praising Rowling's ability to make Harry both a hero and a character that can be related to.[55]
Time magazine's Lev Grossman
named it one of the Top 10 Fiction Books of 2007, ranking it at #8, and
praising Rowling for proving that books can still be a global mass
medium. Grossman compared the novel to the earlier books in the series
thus: "This isn't the most elegant of the Potter volumes, but it feels
like an ending, the final iteration of Rowling's abiding thematic
concern: the overwhelming importance of continuing to love in the face
of death."[56][57] Novelist Elizabeth Hand agreed that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
caps off the series, but also made the criticism that "...the
spectacularly complex interplay of narrative and character often reads
as though an entire trilogy's worth of summing-up has been crammed into
one volume."[58]
In contrast, Jenny Sawyer of the Christian Science Monitor
says that, "There is much to love about the Harry Potter series, from
its brilliantly realised magical world to its multilayered narrative,"
however, "A story is about someone who changes. And, puberty aside,
Harry doesn't change much. As envisioned by Rowling, he walks the path
of good so unwaveringly that his final victory over Voldemort feels, not
just inevitable, but hollow."[59] In the 12 August 2007 New York Times, Christopher Hitchens
compared the series to World War Two-era English boarding school
stories, and while he wrote that "Rowling has won imperishable renown"
for the series as a whole, he also stated that he disliked Rowling's use
of deus ex machina,
that the mid-book camping chapters are "abysmally long", and that
Voldemort "becomes more tiresome than an Ian Fleming villain."[60]
Stephen King
criticised the reactions of some reviewers to the books, including
McCauley, for jumping too quickly to surface conclusions of the work.[61]
He felt this was inevitable, because of the extreme secrecy before
launch which did not allow reviewers time to read and consider the book,
but meant that many early reviews lacked depth. Rather than finding the
writing style disappointing, he felt it had matured and improved. He
acknowledged that the subject matter of the books had become more adult,
and that Rowling had clearly been writing with the adult audience
firmly in mind since the middle of the series. He compared the works in
this respect to Huckleberry Finn and Alice in Wonderland which achieved success and have become established classics, in part by appealing to the adult audience as well as children.
Sales
Lines at Borders at midnight to buy the book
Sales for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows were record setting. The initial U.S. print run for Deathly Hallows was 12 million copies, and more than a million were pre-ordered through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.[62] On 12 April 2007, Barnes & Noble declared that Deathly Hallows had broken its pre-order record, with more than 500,000 copies pre-ordered through its site.[63] On opening day, a record 8.3 million copies were sold in the United States (over 96 per second),[64][65] and 2.65 million copies in the United Kingdom.[66] At WH Smith, sales reportedly reached a rate of 15 books sold per second.[67] By June 2008, nearly a year after it was published, worldwide sales were reportedly around 44 million.[68]
Awards and honours
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has won several awards.[7] In 2007, the book was named one New York Times 100 Notable Books,[69] and one of its Notable Children's Books.[70] Publishers Weekly also listed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows among their Best Books of 2007.[71] In 2008, the American Library Association named the novel one of its Best Books for Young Adults,[72] and also listed it as a Notable Children's Book.[73] Furthermore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows received the 2008 Colorado Blue Spruce Book Award.[7]
Translations
Due to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' worldwide fame, it has been translated into many languages. The first translation to be released was the Ukrainian translation, on 25 September 2007 (as Гаррі Поттер і смертельні реліквії).[3] The Swedish title of the book was revealed by Rowling as Harry Potter and the Relics of Death (Harry Potter och Dödsrelikerna), following a pre-release question from the Swedish publisher about the difficulty of translating the two words "Deathly Hallows" without having read the book.[4] This is also the title used for the French translation (Harry Potter et les reliques de la mort). The first Polish translation was released on 26 January 2008[5] with a new title: Harry Potter i Insygnia Śmierci - Harry Potter and the Insignia of Death.[74] The Hindi translation Harry Potter aur Maut ke Tohfe (हैरी पॉटर और मौत के तोहफे) translated as "Harry Potter and the Gifts of Death" was released by Manjul Publication in India on 27 June 2008.[6]
Film adaptation
A two-part film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is planned, with David Yates directing both parts. Part I is slated for release on 19 November 2010, and Part II on 15 July 2011.[75][76] The script was delayed as Steve Kloves did not start working on it until the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike had ended.[77] Filming began in February 2009 and ended on Saturday, 12 June 2010.[78] |
Art Wallpapers 3d, art Painting Wallpapers
