A Lake and Shed Conversation about the Lost Mother Golden Thread in J. K. Rowling’s Work

This is the third of three posts about the Lost Mother Golden Thread in the work of J. K. Rowling. The first, Anne Rowling and the Lost Mother Golden Thread in the Works of J. K. Rowling, reviewed Rowling-Galbraith’s regrets at the death of her mother Anne in December 1990 with a listing with brief discussion of the many Lost Mothers in her twenty-three published books. In the second, The Lost Mother Golden Thread and a Key Reason We are Moved by J. K. Rowling’s Stories, John joined the Lost Mother meme to the Ghosts and Mother’s Love Golden Threads to get at the metaphysical ground and beating heart of Rowling’s work.

In the video podcast above, Nick and John discuss reader feedback to the Hidden Hold of Horrors Golden Thread conversation, John’s two Lost Mother posts, the implications of his findings for the Strike series’ last two novels, and the work being done on interactive Hogwarts Professor talks and online classes. Please share all the Lost Mother characters, mother and child, in Rowling stories that they missed in the comment boxes below, as well as your thoughts about John’s idea that the “Defining Idea and Power of Rowling’s Work is in the Intersection of the Lost Mother, Ghosts, and Mother’s Love Golden Threads Running Through Everything She Writes.”

Before we forget, here are the three things Nick and John promised would be posted ‘Down Below’ in the conversation above:

* A Key to Maternal Love in Harry Potter? Mum Crouch’s Sacrifice in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: The meaning in the middle of the Harry Potter series, the murder of Barty Crouch by Junior, a son saved by his mother’s love, incorporates the key symbolism of Rowling’s work with respect to sin and death as well as virtue, love, and the victory over death in one family. Conversation with Wayne Stauffer, Beatrice Groves, and Louise Freeman with implications for the understanding of the Hogwarts Saga, Cormoran Strike, and The Christmas Pig.

* Death of Eric Wardle’s Mum is first mentioned in Hallmarked Man, Chapter 70:

Wardle drank more lager before answering.

‘I dunno,’ he said. ‘My mum’s just died.’

‘S**t,’ said Strike, who’d had no idea of this. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Yeah. Last month. She was never right, after my brother,’ said Wardle. ‘Broke her heart.’

His words were coming as though each adhered to his throat, and needed to be pulled up, with effort.

‘She chose not to go for a second round of chemo… raised us both as a single mum. We were her life. Terry dying half-killed her,