Wet Squibs, Islamic Cub Names, the Seven Strike Series Structure Theories, and How a Human Being Reads a Story

Nick Jeffery and John Granger sat down to discuss four Hogwarts Professor posts. Here are links to those posts with an excerpt from each and the most relevant urls embedded in them. Enjoy!
What is a Squib, Really? And Where Would Rowling Have Met the Word? (hogwartsprofessor.com/what-is-a-squib-really-a…) (John Granger, 27 April 2026)
I confess that I assumed the word for barely magical witches and wizards born into magical families in J. K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, the folk she calls ‘Squibs,’ were given that name because of its onomatopoeic source in fireworks; per the Harry Potter Lexicon invaluable online resource (hp-lexicon.org/thing/squib), a squib is English idiom for “a dud firework that will not ignite properly.” It sounds like its meaning (as does “dud”) and a reader can feel in it the disappointment of magical parents when their child turns out not to have the gift that will make them full members of their community.
I learned this morning, however, that a squib is not a dud firework, or wasn’t originally though it may have that meaning today, and that it is mentioned more than once in one of Rowling’s known literary influences.
* ‘Squibbing’ at the Bridgewater Carnival Fireworks Festival (bridgwatercarnival.org.uk/useful-info/squibbing) (YouTube video (youtube.com/watch?v=Vdx__NX6hVI))
* Toyohashi Tengu: Japanese Quidditch Team (hp-lexicon.org/thing/toyohashi-tengu) (Harry Potter Lexicon)
* en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengu— Japanese Fantastic Beast not in Newt Scamander’s textbook (Wikipedia)
* Toyohashi Tezutsu fireworks 2022 (youtube.com/watch?v=oIpMG55Okrs#ddg-play) (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tezutsu-hanabi — Wikipedia)
* Dimitra Fimi’s ‘A Kind of Elvish Craft’ Substack site (dimitrafimi.substack.com)
* The Fireworks of Gandalf (dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/the-slow-lotr-re-re…): in which ‘squibs’ are discussed (not duds!)
* ‘The Slow (dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/the-slow-lotr-re-re…)Lord of the Rings (dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/the-slow-lotr-re-re…)Re-Read’ (dimitrafimi.substack.com/p/the-slow-lotr-re-re…) Prof Fimi’s Tolkien Reading Day Introduction
* Reading Rowling as Myth Maker and Myth Re-Writer: A Conversation with Dr Dimitra Fimi (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/reading-rowli…)
* ‘Sleep Tight, Evangeline,’ Miniature Psalters, and the Head of Persephone: A Conversation with Dimitra Fimi (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/sleep-tight-e…)
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Ray Livingston's 'The Traditional Theory of Literature (substack.com/home/post/p-195872095):’ Chapter 2: Man, Society, Art (John Granger, 30 April 2026)
In brief, the Perennialist reading of literature begins with a different idea of what a human being is, which reflects the social environment or society and culture that best fosters his achievement of his end or telos, which reflects what role art in general and story specifically plays in his best life. The human being as primarily spiritual, his end as profound communion with what is most Real, and story as non-liturgical sacred art (not necessarily or even usually ‘religious’) which supports him in his vocation to that end are the premises of the traditional or theocentric understanding of man, society, and art.
Which is the title of Livingston’s second chapter and a description of its organization as well as of its contents. It’s not easy reading; the subject matter is quite dense and he covers an enormous amount of ground relatively quickly so he can get to the ‘literature’ in the remaining chapters of the work. Without setting out the premises of the Perennialist understanding with respect to what it means to be human, how a community is designed to make a fully human life possible, and how the art of everyday objects as well as set pieces for appreciation or entertainment — there being no meaningful difference in the value of practical and fine arts here — bring that polity to fruition, discussion of literature from the traditional view would be a waste of time.
The Allegorical Cryptonyms of Hallmarked Man, Part 2 (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-allegoric…): Ten More Cratylic Character Names and Best Guesses about their Embedded Meanings (John Granger, 1 May 2026)
This is the second part of at least a three part series of articles with supplementary video discussion in which I take a long look at Rowling-Galbraith’s choices for character names in the eighth Strike-Ellacott novel, The Hallmarked Man. For the first posts in this series, in which I explain why this is a worthwhile effort, one critical to Rowling’s intentional artistry and complementary to her other Shed tools, see ‘The Allegorical Cryptonyms of The Hallmarked Man, Part One (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-allegoric…)’ and my conversation with Nick Jeffery about it ‘What do Tyler Powell, Rupert Fleetwood, Jolanda Lindvall, and Lady Jensen Have in Common?’ (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/what-do-tyler…)
Almost half of today’s ten posts are about characters named ‘Lion’ or variants on the leonine theme. I think the number of lions prowling through Hallmarked Man, not to mention the dogs from Hell and the bears benign and grizzly, deserve their own post, especially to contrast it with the predominant swan symbolism of the first seven books. Or are they conjoined in Jonny Rokeby, whose middle name is the lionesque ‘Leonard’ and who plays the part of a Jovian swan in the Leda mating that produced Cormoran Strike (we think? (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/is-rowlings-i…)). [Be sure to check out Ed Shardlow’s full catalogue of the lions afoot in the pages of (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/guest-post-th…)Hallmarked Man (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/guest-post-th…)!]
* ‘I’m an Essex Girl’ (youtube.com/watch?v=VYRBK9BvMy0#ddg-play)(YouTube video)
The Literary Alchemy of Hallmarked Man: What Do the Structural Models Tell Us? (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/the-literary-…)Seeking Pointers to the Hermetic Meaning of Strike 8 within (a) the Extended Play and Tetractys Ten Book Series Pictures and (b) the Parallel Series and Reverse Alchemy Ideas (John Granger, 8 May 2026)
There are currently seven theories that I have read about of how best to think of the Strike-Ellacott series structure:
* (1) straight up Decalogy, no structural connection between books;
* (2) Big Ring Composition, Double Wedding Band (fartingsofafaculty.blogspot.com/2025/11/double…) (Louise Freeman);
* (3) Seven book series with Trilogy finale (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/is-rowlings-i…) (Nick Jeffery, John Granger);
* (4) Extended Play theory (hogwartsprofessor.com/strike-extended-play-or-…) (John Granger per ‘Kathleen’),
* (5) Sonnet Corona Form (hogwartsprofessor.com/robyn-gomillion-sonnet-t…) (Robyn Gomillion);
* (6) Tetractys theory (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/publish/posts/d…) (Evan Willis with back-up explanations here (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/is-tetractys-…), follow-up from Evan here (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/evan-willis-r…)); and
* (7) Celtic Cross (hogwartsprofessor.substack.com/p/is-tetractys-…) (John Granger) …