#HtN Symbolism

[eldestsuphering]

𝑰𝒏 𝑹𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑵𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒉

I tried make this as tactile of a project with the stitching as a personal goal, so some of them are semi 3d stitches.

The flowers were picked based on their most popular meanings:

Daffodil (orange), rockfoils and lavender for Devotion

Calla Lily for Love and Rebirth

Gladiolus for Faith, strength and remembrance

Chinese Lantern Lilies for Longevity and Good Luck (Which is guess is more of a wish from me rather than something canonically related to griddlehark)

Sidenote: This was supposed to be for Easter to celebrate some of Tlt's Christ figures but I got distracted, so have a early Labour day celebration.

[gwinwe]

harrow in the muddied river

[thatneoncrisis]

could you explain your reasoning for butch harrow? im asking this in a way a student asks a master

ok so. up top: do i think harrow is butch in canon? no. god no. absolutely not. secret third category of person. not butch or femme shes just like A Guy who really fucking likes black

however i do think that between those two ends of a nebulous spectrum, being butch would be way more comfortable for her than femme, if we think of it in the most traditional sense for both sides. there are literally exceptions to every rule femmes can have short hair and wear pants, butches can have long hair and wear makeup yadda yadda. but the way she interacts with certain elements of her presentation in canon just felt to ME, PERSONALLY, that being traditionally feminine would freak her the fuck out

ive seen people compare her compulsion to wear the skull paint to a need to wear makeup and i. very much disagree. id see it more as like, an overtly religious thing, like a nuns habit or a hijab, its modesty and how she shows respect for her god, also routine, its as natural as putting on pants for her. and also frankly if it was an analog for traditional makeup that would be uuuuh awful. like I genuinely feel terrible for women who cannot even leave the house without foundation or contouring or whatever i dont know shit about makeup but holy fuck. if shes femme in that analog id be shaking her by the shoulders GIRL. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE A NAKED ANIMAL

another thing is her hair. so many people read her having short hair and immediately went to a bob or a pixie cut. and between tamsyns inconsistent description of the length of her hair in book one (saying its stuck to her face with sweat despite them being there for like, a month) and the htn cover being The best image we have of her, i understand that conclusion. but in the beginning of gtn its said its close cropped, tamsyn said on her blog post describing all the characters its "cut short (as benefits someone in a monestary)" which is a very interesting choice of words tbh. like im sute she didnt mean harrow is completely bald in the middle with a ring of hair but that Is the monk haircut. and then finally harrow says to gideon outright "i wont cut you bald-even though your hair is ridiculous- because I know you wont shave it every day" which i always took to mean being shaved down to the scalp is just how the ninth is traditionally. in harrow the ninth its said "occasionally ticklish rasps at your ears or forehead would frighten you numb before you realized ut was your own hair" indicating that she is not used to that length at all. also theres the fact that ianthe made her hair grow faster particularly to fuck with her. in short harrows haircut is shitty and utilitarian and any fussing with it has only been described in relation to her direct discomfort

finally theres that goddamn dress scene. why did ianthe put her in that stupid fucking thing. humilation tactic (im exaggerating but it basically was explicitly and exclusively for ianthes own amusement). shes such a simple girl, she just wanted something that could cover her up. its not impossible to have a longsleeved formless dress, but beyond my own opinion that i think harrow would have been uncomfortable in anything, i think the fact this like, explicit symbol of femininity is used to further degrade her in some sense in a room full of people who font reapect her feels like. intentional on the authors end. it quite literally just isnt her, its not even a true black its like a deep midnight blue. you get the pretty woman makeover scene but harrow comes out of it more miserable and resigned than ever. augustines approval means nothing. she looks in the mirror and sees her mother, a woman she appears to not have a single fond memory about. its all very sad

tldr when i talk about butch harrow its less about her "being butch" and more about how unfemme i think she is. also i want more butch4butch dykes i think gideon and camilla should teach her how to tie a tie.

[fkapommel]

I believe that it is thematically necessary for griddlehark full lyctorhood, or on Harrowhark Christ

Together, Harrow and Gideon complete the symbolism of Christ. You have the obvious Christographic imagery in the start and end of Gideon's life: she is a "virgin" birth, a genetic product of God without any sexual interaction between her mother and father; she was concieved in order to die, specifically to be sacrificed to save the souls - in a literal and metaphorical sense - of the innocent, i.e. non-necros; and she died ultimately by her own choice, dying with the use of pentrative weapons.

But Harrow is literally the "child of man" - she is the cumulation of a generation, not one but many, the many made one. Harrow resembles young Jesus debating and educating the priests of the Temple, already knowing more about the arts of the spirit, of life and death, than his teachers as an infant. Both are prodigies of their craft. She is literally and figurarively carrying her cross all of HtN, the sword physically resembles a cross and is a burden of both her and Gideon's sins. And Harrow, in her soup making era, pulled off the Eucharist, transforming Mithraeum family dinner night into sacrifical, (not metaphysical) cannibalism night. Though both G & H have lain entombed and miraculously resurected, it was Harrow that descended into Hell to interact with the dead (more on this when ATN reveals what she did in Hell).

In one way, this creates friction, a literary rivalry, between the two characters. Who is more Jesus-like? Who is more central to the narrative? I argue that its in merging them that we see a clearer narrative reflection of the scriptural material of both the physical book series and the religio-imperalist model Jod based his empire on. This meta-textual symbolism HAS to be incorporated within the narrative itself given the device of lyctohood, wherein two souls literally meld to become inseperable and indistinguishable. By becoming full lyctors (and seperately i suspect that theyll become perfect lyctor numero dos), the Christographic symbolism embodied by both Gideon and Harrow will become literal and plot relevant, and solidify their lyctorhood not just as a narrative goalpost, a "hell yea" moment for the reader, or a completion of the main narrative conflict of their constant division. Their merging via the Eightfold Path will be semi-prophetic and imbued with religious significance as they both represent a halved Christ.

Gideon and Harrow HAVE to become full/perfect lyctors not just to release the symphonic tension of their constant coming togethers and going aparts, but to complete the image of a divided messiah.

Tldr: yes gideon is jesus, but harrow is jesus too and together they make Double Jesus. Jesus pt. 2 WILL become canon via full or perfect lyctorization!!!

Edit: I do NOT think ATN will /end/ with lyctor!griddlehark; thats just not in character for either of them, nor would that provide a morally satisfying end that is in contrast to Jod's ethos. I believe they will uncover the process and either temporarily inhabit full/perfect lyctorhood, find a way to balance their soul melange equally, or sever their soul bond completely (worst option!) Them uncovering the truth to lyctorhood, however, is necessary to resolve (meta)narrative tension.

[rat-studio]

I’d do anything for twenty bucks I’d sell my sour soul ‘Cause lemonade is bitter ‘till you Sweeten up the bowl

ITS MY FAVORITE GIRL!! PYRRHA!! I LOVE YOU!!

I think this half of the chorus is verrryyy Pyrrha coded-- she's so desperate for love, for any scrap of anything, and she's SO DUMB about it. But it isn't only about Pyrrha!! Wake!! My love-- also desperate af, this fucking sputtering fire of a woman who will blow up her own kid to win.

Part 1 (+explanation of premise)

More thoughts, version without lyrics, and timelapse below cut. Verse 3 Chorus 2/2 Song: Unsweetened Lemonade by Amélie Farren. oh and it’s pretty obvious what the next one’s gonna be if you look at the lyrics…

Ok so honestly I had no idea what to draw for this part going into it, if you watch the timelapse you definitely will get that. But I am very happy with what I settled on. Basically, this is an AU of what could have happened in Pyrrha (not G1deon) had caught up to Wake just as she was going into labour. I think it's really interesting to think of Pyrrha's own relationship to John, to Wake, and to this child that she really has no responsibility for but feels beholden to anyway. John is this symbol of everything G1deon admired, of everything all of them left behind in order to pursue a 'better world', and Wake is the antithesis of all of that: she's likely the descendant of the same billionares that escaped Earth leaving everyone behind, and she is furiously and vengefully mad at all of it. Pyrrha in love with these three people, she hates all three of them in some capacity, she wants to do what's right and she has no idea what that is in almost every situation.

And then there's this kid that's innocent and also tied up in all of it, and there's no guarantee that it isn't actually hers. And she wants to do the right thing-- is that the right thing for millions? A barely thought though plan that could very easily (and does) go astray? Or is that right thing to save this baby? idk, you decide.

I don't know what perfectly cannon compliant Pyrrha would do in this situation, I've read the books three times and I still don't really know, though I'm leaning towards her saving baby Gideon and running off to raise her somewhere (honestly a pretty intriguing story on its own), but for the sake of the AU and the story I am trying to tell: Pyrrha lets Wake go. The mission still fails, the rest of Gtn and Htn and even Ntn continue on as normal, but there is that undercurrent of deeper responsibility that Pyrrha has to Gideon, something that, though I think is present and will be explored further in cannon, isn't incredibly important. I'm a sucker for dad Pyrrha, sue me.

ALSO!! I wrote a fic for this!! Link to it here!

[getthembees]

All right here's the sixths for the warrior cat au

Some more detailed design tidbits

Cam: gives me black cat energy, tried to make her sleek and panther like. I struggled so hard trying to find her eye color and only got a reddit post quoting them described as "sod" so I made them hazel. She has matching nose/chest markings with Pal and many whiskers. Muscular build but idk if it came through because drawing 'muscular' cats is ?? hard.

Thanks @babyprime for cams name, claw for her battle prowess and swift because it implies someone who gets shit done quickly and quietly

Pal: Struggled with him the most, the little glasses markings are doing heavy lifting to actually make this look like palamedes. If I redid this I would make him a bit sleeker/skinnier. He has one curled whisker (and 6 in total lol). Again, matching nose/chest marking with Cam

His name prefix is "Owl" because I was perusing his wiki and the trivia section said something about Athena and I was like oh perfect lmao. -echo because a suffix list said it's for 'wise' characters so again, perfect.

I will be trying to do all house members.... naming is hard because I have just started HTN so there's a lot of characters who aren't fleshed out yet so figuring out Symbols and such is uh. a struggle

[ignylinn]

RE: TLT and catholicism

You know those churches in the Netherlands who ertr sold and now are public buildings , faculties or shops and services ? If you entered them you might not notice their previous use at all but it's very easy to recognize it you're used to churches. There's the nav, the altar, the orientation and of course the shape and the places where the saints and images used to be .

The Locked Tomb Universe is kinda like this . Gaius, a former catholic, created his "religion" based on the rites and imagery he knew but devoid of all the substance of it ... or almost all since the resurrection for them is also a huge point even if it's not The Ressurection we know of .

He got his saints, and the prayers ,and the rites, and specially for the readers who see it from the perspective of the Ninth, even a Holy Mother , that for them is Alecto. In HtN John explicitly says in a way she's everyone's mother .

Lastly Harrowhark devotion for her church and the Body and said Mother resonates a lot with so many catholics including me. Specially by the end of Nona after she has learned the truth about Gaius and decided she was still a daughter of the Ninth and went in search of God by herself after letting the pretender behind .

So yeah, in summary, it's the imagery and Harrowhark devotion and faith that makes these books so Catholic at least for me.

Thank you!

So, the answer turend into some rambling, but anyway)

Yes, I totally agree that John just used imagery he knew to create whatever it was he created without any substance to it. I am not sure whether it is right to call this cultural appropriation, but I guess it is. John appropriated everything, so)

Anyway, I often see familiar Christian/Catholic symbols with wrong denotation in this day and age, so I just thought "aha, here we go again" and stopped thinking about it. I mean, there is an in-universe explanation for this, which I like a lot, but still.

Also, apart from the Ninth House and the Locked Tomb cult I do not remember any forms of organized religion, theology, I do not see genuine religious feeling in anyone but Harrowhark. And as far as I understand, Anastasia was the nun, so it seems fair that she was able to create a genuine religion in the Ninth House. (I mean, their memories were erased, but it looks like personalities, body memories, perhaps sunconscious remained).

And to summarize answers I received, Harrowhark is a Catholic character. I have read the arguments, and yes, I agree. I applied her worldview to my earlier experiences in the Church, and I see similarities.

Thank you again for sharing your personal feelings, I really appreciate that.

[nollypolly]

currently thinking about names in tlt. names are very much a subject that is constantly touched on in the universe- names typically follow which house one belongs to. the most explicit of this is the Tridentati, but that extends to pretty much everyone we meet in book 1. when gideon fully adopts the role of harrowhark's caviler at the end, it's repeated for the second time that nav is a niner name.

and then we find out john changed his lyctor's names post loved-one-slaying. their pre-resurrection names are forgotten, revered as holy even within the private og lyctors. he takes their names, a symbol of where they're from and the earth they failed, and strips them to the bone. he tacks on their cavalier's name on the end as an afterthought, a tribute to the graveyard he turned his friends into. even then, the cavaliers names are lost. he replaces them with what he thinks represents them, despite there being very little chance he was close enough to them to come up with something more than an incredibly shallow understanding of who they are. pyrrha becomes Duty. christabel becomes Joy. we don't know cytherea's saint name, but considering how even john wasnt a fan of loveday, it would make sense why she wouldn't want to use an alias for the most important person in her life. even less so one created by the man who not only lead her to her death, but never even liked her. hell, john doesn't even bother using most of the cavalier's names censored in ntn.

and then we're brought to gideon's first name. she is (unwittingly by the ninth house, in their defense) named after g1. after all, wake's ghost's last words come from right after he pushes her out of the airlock. we know that gideon dies in htn and pyrrha takes over the meatsuit. we know from ianthe's blowup in ntn that john is in active grief. so, now imagine, you just lost every last person you loved, and this sad little girl gets brought to you and she's apparently your long lost totally dead daughter. cool, fine, whatever- you're god, so really death is nothing but some annoying hoops you have to jump through to get what you want. he turns her corpse into a construct, tethers her soul to it, and gives her a bedroom with those glow-in-the-dark ceiling stars and all. luckily there are a lot of newly vacant rooms, haha! and then, as he did with everyone his holy hands have touched, john renames her.

kiriona is pronounced closer to gideon than siri-ona in te reo māori. in typical john fashion, he strips her of her name representing where she is from, blessing her with a new one made in his image. and, once again, he turns her into a tribute for what he lost. g1deon is dead. john honors him by naming his daughter after his best friend, in a dead language, both of which john had a hand in murdering.

she can't be called gideon bc it's a memory of how John failed the person who was most loyal to him. she has to be called something similar as tribute. kiriona isnt his daughter, isn't a person, but instead is a vessel for all of his pain and regret. exactly like the ninth house, kiriona has been transformed into a tomb for her father's grief, and her renaming only cements that.

[notedchampagne]

Pitching my two cents here: taking so many and so throughout notes is very very harrow of you BUT! that's also very sixth of her. Palamedes on the other hand strikes me as someone that doesn't takes to many notes on the moment and rather write things down at a later time (deep confidence in his and Camilla's memory and senses vs harrow's knowledge that her mind is untrustworthy)

On a similar note, I also want to go through the books again and annotate like you did. Do you have any tips or pitfalls to avoid?

i love the sixths insane memory i deeply wish i had it. id use it for useful things like remembering book quotes

one mistake i made while annotating all three books is that i did not plan ahead for what i wanted to highlight and how: the color key is vastly different across my gtn, htn and ntn books and it infuriates me how theyre inconsistent + could be made prettier via color symbolism (ex: i forgot how important of a role ortus was in this, and i wanted a separate color to denote the ninth house, But i already used purple for ianthe, so the purple highlighter ended up being used for ian, ortus, the ninth, and necromantic concepts)

my advice is to list down the characters you want to focus on for the book and determine your color key ahead of time. if you eventually add more characters, stylizing it in underlines/brackets/full highlighting will give you more options with limited colors. if youre not sure what to focus on, id reccommend tabbing your books first with a color key and keeping 'general' highlighted sections such as worldbuilding, character quotes, plot tracking, etc. then you can go back once you have a greater picture

last tip: you should expect to read slowly. i read about a chapter an hour because i scoured every line and wanted to make my things look pretty. if you want to annotate faster then read the chapter first, tabbing/dog earing as you go, then go back and highlight some sections

[going-loud]

V - THE HIEROPHANT

this ended up being one of those drawings that i got stuck hating something about it and it took me foreverr to finish lmao. i had to choose between staying true to the descriptions in htn and.... a good looking drawing lol so some things are a bit untrue but ya know. artistic liberties

the Hierophant represents order in regard to formal institutions and oversees the enforcement or establishment of rules and regulations. specifically what comes to mind when thinking of the Hierophant and tlt is religious fervor, and who else would fit the bill if not Mercymorn? tbh i think Harrow could fight for the Hierophant card but i have some Plans for her later on a different figure... :) Mercymorn created the Eighth House and is just generally insufferable LOL so i think it fits. also, the Hierophant reversed can symbolize snobbishness and well... i think we all know how well that fits

on my next card i'm going to try for a different card format, something other than the border i have now bc i feel like its a bit too much and doesn't leave me a lot of room as far as color palettes. anyways the next card is the Lovers and i'm very excited for that one hehe

[commander--wake]

if you are still doing the "send me a character" meme, nona?

by send me a character meme do you mean this one? aw thank you!!!!

sexuality headcanon: agender lesbian if it's not too precious and 2020s-discourse-tumblr-coinage to say. she's obviously a lesbian bc she loves women in the gay way but ...

gender headcanon: to continue from above, I think she is genderless. or rather forcibly gendered by society seeing her teeny weeny frail long-braided body and calling her "she" and sexually harassing her. but her real gender is ocean

a ship I have with said character: um who DON'T i ship her with. crown, camilla, pyrrha, pash, hot sauce, the angel... the girl falls in love with everyone in a 100 meter radius and i for one support her #nonafucksagenda

a BROTP I have with said character: I love her with the gang T_T they're so cute together... and if you think their sections are a waste of time or something you're missing half the freaking story and hashtag symbolism. it's literally like people's scorn for the townie eps of steven universe, those people are equally dumdums and fools

a NOTP I have with said character: well. it does exist and I have clicked on a fic with it but the fic was very well-tagged so whose fault is that. (it's not anyone you're thinking of)

a random headcanon: what headcanon could be more random than her actual canon? lol eating sand and being the manifestation of a living planet. and so on. idk nona's not really the type to accumulate headcanons to me, her life is so short and yet so complex and rich that there's plenty to dive into in the text itself

general opinion over said character: precious and deserves protecting and to throw as many tantrums as she feels like. on a doylist level greatttt storytelling device too, the TLT motif of "important stuff happening around the uncomprehending POV character" gets stronger and stronger on the gtn -> htn -> ntn spectrum and I think it makes ntn a great book that deeply rewards a reread

thanks a mill for the ask, pardner!!!

[lifetooshortlovetoolong]

Also, when considering this moment in the context of HtN, I can’t help but notice Gideon kissed the spot that would be the closet to where the most common type of lobotomy, a transorbital one, would be performed (though an eye socket closet to the nose, hence very close to that juncture).

So put aside Harrow’s spooky necromantic process of scrambling her prefontal cortex, and the symbolism of the act she commits grows tenfold. Gideon’s kiss, her moment of tenderness and total devotion is replicated, in a manner, by Harrow with her lobotomy. Thus, the juncture on Harrow’s body becomes another symbol of the girls’ love for each other.

It’s no wonder Harrow’s naked face is so unnerving to her in HtN. Not only does it sever all her house connections, but it lays bare the very spot Gideon chose to love her and Harrow (symbolically) chose to save her cavalier’s soul. It puts the very thing she wishes to forget front and center.

anyways. im normal about them.

I know I’m probably in the minority here but the pool scene, Gideon giving Harrow a kiss at the juncture of nose and forehead , infinitely more romantic and tender than on the mouth for a moment like that. It was perfect.

[zenosanalytic]

Harrow the Ninth: The Ending

OK this one’s pretty short it’s just a breakdown of how I read the ending.

So we’ve got two bits: we’ve got three people taking care of an invulnerable amnesiac in a conflict-ridden city on a world with a carbon economy, and then we’ve got Harrow in the River.

First Bit

I think this one’s rather clear. Camilla(the one who looks after me), Corona(the one who works for me), and Judith(the one who teaches me[only one who can do necromancy]), are taking care of Harrow’s body and whatever/whichever soul(s) are currently inside it. I’m pretty sure it’s Gideon, but with amnesia from the trauma of being deep within, and somehow exiting, The River. I feel like the last bits of Chapter 52 are clear that Gideon didn’t die even if she THINKS she did, if you read between the lines. The last section starts with

“...if you die by drowning your whole life flashes before your eyes?”

and that doesn’t happen for Gideon. Instead, she sees a fading visitation by Alecto(did Alecto perhaps come back to her in those final moments and push her out of The River?), and then Camilla trying to save her life(and apparently succeeding). Also as I’ve written before(and wrote after reading Gideon the Ninth but cant seem to find X| X| X| probably did it on Twitter their search function is CRAP >:( >:() I really don’t see Muir killing Gideon off.

It could also be a merger of Gideon and Harrow’s souls, but I don’t think that’s the case. To begin with the treatment here isn’t nearly commiserate to that particular development, and I trust that if Muir went in that direction, she’d do it justice(I mean: Look at Harrow the Ninth; it’s all ABOUT doing justice to characters and premises). More practically tho Chapter 52 brings up the concept in discussing “life flashing before your eyes” and dismisses it. There IS the implication that the person can do Necromancy, which points in that direction, but the above, combined with my reading of Harrow’s situation, makes me doubt this outcome.

The last possibility is that it could be Alecto in Harrow’s body; there is that vision, and the necromancy(and given Alecto’s ease navigating The River, I’m assuming she’s Necromantic[as are all Planet-Souls hinthinthint]). I doubt this mainly cuz as above I don’t think Muir would kill off Gideon like this and if it were Alecto then where’s Gideon? I suppose it COULD be a triple-soul bodysharing and/or merging situation though.

Second Bit

Harrow chose not to go to her body because she KNEW Gideon was in her body currently and this would displace her, leading to Gideon’s consumption and making all she’s done to keep Gideon alive for naught. She chose NOT to stay in her Dream-Bubble because this is Harrow: OF COURSE she wouldn’t take security, surety, and comfort over the Hard, Chancy, Self-Risking, “Right” course. So:

Harrow destroys her Dream-Bubble(don’t try to argue with me that’s absolutely what it is >:|)

She goes into The River

Then a flash of her hallway, the same one from Ch. 33 when traveling back to her body

Then she’s back in her memory of Gideon dunking her. To be clear: this is a baptism analog.

Then she breaks the surface of the water and she’s back in Drearbruh, back at it’s heart, back in The Locked Tomb; finally “Home”

Alecto’s tomb is Bare(She is Risen!), a two-hander lies within the hollow of the bier, and so does Gideon’s fantasy of a Cohort titty-mag.

I think there are three possibilities here.

One: The Tomb represents her mind/soul and she’s in a modified version of the position Gideon was in throughout Harrow the Ninth. I don’t think this is likely because Harrow explicitly rejected returning to her body, and going into The River was presented as a separate choice from returning. HOWEVER the Hallway(returning to her body) and the dunking(Gideon was underwater, “surfacing”; now she’s pushing Harrow underwater) can be read as evidence of it. As to the Alecto set-dressing, I don’t really think these signs of escape really subtract from this idea as we know Alecto has a spiritual connection to Harrow, and they could be read as symbolizing that.

Two: Harrow has traveled through The River back to Alecto(so to Drearbruh since that’s where Alecto is), through an act of spirit-projection similar to what Alecto was doing with her throughout the book. I think this is a more plausible read given the setting and the possible explosion(the sounds of Alecto escaping), but there are a couple facts which push me in another direction; some quotes I’ll bring up later, the sword(why would Alecto leave her sword?), and Frontline Titties of the Fifth. As has been repeatedly belabored; that’s not even a real publication, Griddle!(though I will say, if she’s spirit-projecting she’s probably in some extra-liminal space btw The Shore and the world of The Living, and maybe thoughts&desires can manifest as spiritual objects within that place. Given all the similarities The River has to The Immaterium in the Warhammer universe and how that plane is directly shaped by thoughts, it’s not entirely out of the question)

The reading I hold to most strongly is this though:

“floundered not to the shore but to the island in the center...”

The Shore has been mentioned throughout HtN as a sort of transitional part of The River which the living arrive at when they either die or project to The River, and here the book is explicitly saying she’s refusing to return to The Shore. She swims across the water to a place on the other side of it; an “island in the center”. And, while the place she arrives is familiar and sentimental to her, it is also, explicitly and textually,

“faraway in a land she had never traveled”

Drearbruh is her home; she opened The Locked Tomb when she was 10; the scene Harrow is in is as familiar as it can be for her and yet the book calls it “a faraway land she [has] never traveled”. She’s home yet she’s faraway. She’s laying in a tomb of ice, glass, and iron and yet it’s warm and soft as cotton bedding to her(someone who has refused such comforts her whole life). It is COMFORTING and COZY to her! A two-hander lays within

“that final resting place of Harrowhark’s one true love”.

Which is HILARIOUS and sneaky ambiguity if you ask me. I mean: obvsl the surface read is Alecto’s “final resting place” cuz that’s literally what it is in the story, but it is the sword that is “finally resting” there now; the sword that can represent both Alecto and GIDEON(and, if we want to go even further beyond getting super-symbolic with it, the hard path of conflict, justice, and suffering Harrow has ALWAYS chosen throughout her life[1]). Anyway the more immediate point is: this is the grave/home/bed of her Love. She finds a magazine that doesn’t exist there; one made up by Gideon which warmly recalls Gideon to her mind as she drifts to her rest.

This book is HEAVY with Christian, specifically Catholic, reference and symbolism. In Christianity God is Love and God’s Home(Heaven) is a “Home of Love”. In Christianity Heaven is(among other things) a place of rest; when one goes there one’s burdens stay behind. This is the first place we’ve ever seen(aside from her “warm” attraction upon meeting BARIstar Gideon) where Harrow’s emotional and physical state is described as “warm” and “comfortable” and the Christian Heaven is a place of comfort. Drearbruh is Harrow’s Home; “Home” is a common Christian synonym for Heaven and “coming Home” is a common Christian synonym for going to Heaven. 

Harrow has Crossed the River, and come Home, to Rest, in a Heaven of her own making.

[1]And also, just cuz I refuse to be unthorough, European two-handers are perennially cruciform. Harrow, by embracing it, is, by necessity, embracing a cross.

[gallpall]

the tridentarii and “posters of their face”

“Why do you keep [Cyrus and Valancy’s portraits] around?”

“It is the type of energy I wish to take into my future,” Ianthe had said. (htn ch. 29)

So I think there’s a lot to be said in itself for Ianthe’s obsession with these paintings, but it also parallels really well to Corona’s relationship and resemblance to Wake. We see Corona fawning over Gideon Nav’s features early on (”You’re a ginger!” in gtn ch. 22). Silas points out that Wake’s red hair was “Unusual... perhaps she was Third” in ch. 28. I think that’s a bit of foreshadowing for the point in HtN where it’s Silas who pushes Corona’s ‘ghost’ off the docks, like he’s blessing her new fate in opposition to the Ianthe and/or the Empire.

Coronabeth’s ‘ghost’ (ch. 37):

her riot of hair—half-caught in a fillet, half-escaping—was soaking wet, a dark and crinkling amber in the rain.

vs. The Sleeper’s corpse (ch. 49):

A bound-back mass of hair had been tucked into the collar, but some strands and wisps had escaped and plastered themselves in red whorls on the forehead and cheeks.

I made a separate post that goes into Corona’s ghost simulacrum a little ‘cause it’s my favorite symbolism right now but it’s just Neat how Coronabeth and Commander Wake are both described as charismatic, beautiful, have big fat beefs with necromancy, and are gung-ho on getting some really crazy revenge. 

The last time we see Coronabeth (ch. 34) she has “burnished” hair, she’s kicked the door closed on the shuttle with Wake’s portrait watching over her. I love Coronabeth “worse twin” Tridentarius and I can’t wait to see her go absolutely FERAL at Ianthe’s expense (and, tbh, the expense of anyone who gets in the way of that vengeance) in atn

[pyrrhadves-hole]

i wanted to do a longer post explaining all the similarities + textual evidence (including bible verses) because im so insane about harrow also being jesus, but the most telling textual similarities are under the cut:

prophesy: both harrow and jesus are subjects of prophesies / both their births fulfilled a prophecy. for harrow its about the unbroken line of descent, and for jesus, his followers believed him to be the savior who was prophecied.

virgin birth: both are conceived divinely/ supernaturally.

massacre of the innocents: King Herod ordered the massacre of all male children under two in the vicinity of Bethlehem in an effort to kill Jesus before he rose to power. The mass death of children surrounding Jesus’s birth is similar to the genocide of children required for Harrow’s birth. (connection pointed out by @melannen) .

child prodigy: this is where i see the most similarity between the two, plus, Luke 2:41-52 (Boy Jesus at the Temple) was my favorite new testament story as a kid. they both have immense understanding/capabilities in the practice from such a young age (due in part to circumstances of their birth/ innate divinity)

religious leader: this one is self-explanatory. but im also thinking of the religious symbolism of Harrow’s congregation throwing themselves at her feet and kissing the ground she walked on, cause the same thing happened to Jesus when he’d walk through crowds. and Tazmuir certainly wanted us to get that imagery because she included that exact scene. that’s how important of a religious leader Harrow is.

baptism: this is very interesting to me as someone raised baptist. it’s the ritual and spiritual purification, how different harrow is after Gideon baptizes her, etc. this amongst other things is why i associated harrow w/ Jesus before gideon came to be associated with Jesus. (Jesus was baptised by his cousin John the Baptist).*

the last supper: both make everyone partake of their body at a final dinner—harrow literally, jesus metaphorically. this similarity is pretty big can’t believe i missed it my first few times around, tazmuir works it into the plot in an insane way (via soup).

carrying the cross: both carried their cross on their backs. the cross symbolizes sacrifice. for Harrow, it’s Gideon’s two-hander. for Jesus, it was the wood that would build his cross. the point is that carrying the cross is a labor of devotion, but they both endure it.

gethesmane: harrow begs John to remove her suffering twice, just as Jesus did. first, at the start of HTN asking John to undo what she did. then again asking God to intercede with G1deon. (Matthew 26:36-46)

tomb: i could go on forever about the religious symbolism of the tomb. arguably the most important symbol in a series named for it. what’s important here is that they both rest in the tomb. harrow sleeps in the tomb while Alecto is in her body.

Another damning similarity is the order of events. The above events are ordered roughly chrononologically, and occur in this exact order for Jesus.

Here are some other similarities:

walking and talking with God: Harrow’s alone time with John spent walking and talking with him (NTN) is so insanely Jesus coded. Jesus spent a lot of alone time with God. And the alone time with God/closeness to him is often referred to as walking/talking with him, pretty sure there’s a bible verse where Jesus uses those exact words.

tested in the wilderness: Jesus is tested in the wilderness. Harrow is tested at Canaan house, which, for all intents and purposes, is the wilderness because it’s surrounded by an earth that hasn’t been inhabited in millennia. this one is more of a stretch but i still see it lol, and it fits the chronology.

immaculate conception: Tazmuir flips this on its head to such an extreme, i have to mention it. where Mary is believed to be free from sin from moment of her birth, Harrow’s mother does a catastrophic sin (genocide) to birth Harrow.

descent from theological founder: Jesus descended from Abraham, founder of Judaism (and other abrahamic religions). Harrow descended from Anastasia.

miracle-workers: i almost didnt include this because Harrow’s necromancy is not unique. but she is uniquely powerful and skilled because of who she is (circumstances of her birth, child of anastasia, etc.) and that’s similar to Jesus.

lead religious cult that broke off from main religion: Harrow leads the ninth whose religious practices/beliefs differ from the main religion, and are seen as a cult to outsiders. Jesus also did that.

calvary: calvary translates to “place of the skull.” that’s dreahbruh. and it’s interesting to me that Harrow’s spirit returns to Dreahbruh (the tomb) at the end of HTN. so you could say that she carried the cross to calvary. also a stretch but im just having fun at this point.

And guys, I had to stop myself because I need to sleep, but I’m sure there are many more similarities. This is just what I remember from bible study which I haven’t done in almost a decade. Hope I convinced ya’ll that Harrow also symbolizes Jesus, as much if not more than Gideon. Tamsyn is just more subtle with it. And it’s fitting that both Gideon and Harrow would symbolize Jesus because they’re one in the same, one flesh one end and all that.

Don’t even get me started on the tangle of religious symbolism that is the divine quartet (my name for John, Alecto, and Griddlehark). I also wonder what calvary/drearbruh means for book #4. Someone’s probably dying there like Jesus did.

* Harrow’s baptism mirrors Jesus’ because they are both baptised by someone less qualified than them and are nevertheless both cleansed. For Jesus it’s moreso a symbolic cleansing that pleases the Lord, but still very important. And for Harrow, it’s a spiritual cleansing as well as ritual because she gets so much off her chest and Gideon’s forgiveness. Her sins are washed away (by Gideon at the very least), and that’s the whole point of baptism. It’s a committment to do better.

everyone in the fandom thinks gideon is lesbian jesus. but nobody understands, griddlehark is jesus! they’re jesus TOGETHER! see, when harrow was a child she was a prodigy prophesied to lead her people to salvation, just like *gunshot*