Harry Potter on the Classics Blogs

Mark Keith, a Latin teacher who blogs on the rather cleverly named Marginalia, has written a rather insightful entry on Authors as Prophets, in which he reflects on a passage from the first Harry Potter book:

"in which Professor McGonagall claims, '[Harry Potter will] be famous -- a legend -- I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future -- there will be books written about Harry -- every child in the world will know his name!' When Rowling was writing this first book, surely she didn't believe that her books would be so wildly successful. She could certainly hope so, but hindsight now proves her prophetic statement to be amazingly correct!"

Mark goes on to refer to Latin authors who have made similar statements in their own works. It's an interesting reflection on the Classical connections in Rowling's work.

I'm sure that many people are going back to re-read the entire series. I've started re-reading it too.

Meanwhile, David Meadows at Rogue Classicism notes that J.K. Rowling's next project may have a direct classical link.