Rowling, Rowling, Rowling…

BBC: Betting opens on new Potter plot

Bets are being taken on whether boy wizard Harry Potter will die in the final instalment of the series - with his arch-enemy the predicted killer…

William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams said: "JK [Rowling] mentioned that Harry might be killed off and the general consensus seems to be that Harry is the final Horcrux and to ensure that Voldemort dies he will need to be sacrificed."

Close, but no Quidditch Cup, I think.

Ever since JK Rowling mentioned in an interview a couple of books back that she knew how the series would end, and that she had already decided the final book's final sentence, I have been sure that I knew what the ending would be. Those of you who do not want to know the result, please look away now. (To prevent accidental reading, I have cleverly encoded my prediction á la The Mirror of Erised.)

.em dna uoy ekil tsuj ,elggum dlo ,nialp a emoceb dna srewop yldraziw sih pu evig ot eb lliw ecifircas etamitlu sih tub ,tromedloV taefed deedni lliw rettoP yrraH

Remember, you heard it here first.

See also: Pottering

Richard Carter

A fat, bearded chap with a Charles Darwin fixation.

8 comments

  1. .a man a plan a canal panama htiw ti dne dluohs ehs kniht I

    ...suoivbo oot s'taht ebyam rO

  2. The first two sentences ever spoken (allegedly) were both palindromes, viz:

    "Madam, I'm Adam."
    "Eve."

    ...But that's a ridiculous claim, because modern English didn't exist until the Middle Ages. It's like that palindromic, so-called Napoleonic quote, "Able was I ere I saw Elba": Hello? Napoleon? He was French. He wouldn't be speaking in English. Duh!

    I know it's not nice to destroy myths, but someone has to do it.

  3. Ah, sloppy thinking. Maybe modern English wasn't spoken in England until the Middle Ages, but as we all know God is English (that's why his son chose disciples with very English names -- except Judas of course, which just goes to show). In the beginning was the Word, not "le mot". Your basic humans developed the ability to speak with increasing sophistication, until they were capable of speaking the language that had been waiting for them from day one.

    Stands to reason. It also might explain why so many non-native English speakers are so keen to learn modern English today.

    It takes me back to that point Julian Date took up with the Pope as to why he had a discernable foreign accent, when by rights he should have sounded like that nice Emma Freud. It was pretty insensitive to write that to El Papa, when you bear in mind that each night, at his bedside prayers, he would have clearly heard the perfectly enunciated tones of modern English holding up God's half of the conversation.

    So I think you can assume that the Eden palindrone is correct after all.

  4. But hang on a cotton-picking moment, Beholder, you say:

    Your basic humans developed the ability to speak with increasing sophistication, until they were capable of speaking the language...

    But, if, as you claim, the Eden palindrome was correct after all, that must mean that Adam and Eve spoke English, but their descendents didn't. Anyone might think they had some terrible fall from grace, or something!

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