My apologies if this topic has been discussed in another thread already, but this has been bugging me ever since I finished DH.

For anyone who owns or has seen the adult cover versions of the HP series, I can't help but notice that the one for DH is the odd one out:

Philosopher's Stone: we actually get a picture of the Philosopher's Stone itself

Chamber of Secrets: we get the doors in one of the tunnels in the Chamber itself

Prisoner of Azkaban: we see a picture of the wizard prison Azkaban

Goblet of Fire: just like with PS, we see the Goblet itself

Order of the Phoenix: we don't see order members, but we do get a golden Phoenix statue surrounded by flames

Half-Blood Prince: we get the the Prince's famous Advanced Potions book

Deathly Hallows: one of LV's Horcruxes ( )

Why, for Deathly Hallows, do we not get one of the actual Hallows? All of the other objects had a direct connection to the title, after all. If the intention of the locket was to mislead us into thinking that the Hallows were the Horcruxes (which I admit worked on me), then why not give us the one Horcrux that was both a Horcrux and a Hallow? It's not like we didn't know about the ring to begin with, and it would be too easy to aim the symbol of the Hallows on the Stone away from view to avoid any possible plot-line spoilers. IMO, the ring would have been a far more suitable object of the cover art, and I can't understand why the publishers would go this route.

I thought they chose that design because then people would want to buy the jewelery. I guess that is evil of me to say, but it does look like the slick cover for a Jewelery magazine. Now where is the price? I am sure there are plenty of woman who wouldn't mind that around their necks, even if it contained a bit of an evil soul in it.

I would have preferred it to be more a link to the Hallows, or even an engraved symbol of the Hallows.

I think the locket was highly symbolic to DH. In a big way, a piece of Voldemort was locked inside Harry, and wouldn't be released until Harry let go of it, himself. Lockets often hold things that are precious to the wearers: a lock of a lover's or child's hair, a portrait of a loved one, a love note...something that the wearer wants to keep close to her/his heart. The heart is sometimes compared to a temple of the soul, but in Harry's case, his soul was being held hostage within himself, and to set it free, he had to let go of the greatest and most precious gift he was given, his life. This is a very adult concept, and it echoes of a popular saying which was familiar in my younger years:



Harry's life and purified self were returned to him intact when he let it go . The scene in which Ron struggles with his own feelings of inadequacy with the Slytherin Locketcrux brings him back to Harry, because he is finally able to share and let go of those feelings which made him feel less than what he was truly worth. Those inadequacies didn't come back to him, because they weren't his to begin with.

To me, the Resurrection Stone/Ring would have drawn too many connections with LotR, when Harry Potter stands on its own in its unique message of love and letting go. I think that the locket was a very wise choice for the adult cover.

You know, that was my biggest arguement pre DH that 'Deathly Hallows' was a new name for the Horcruxes. I just wonder though what could you put there that wouldn't give the game away? Xeno's neck piece perhaps.

Yes, the cover art for DH does look like the "odd one out" in terms of not offering a pictorial representation of the title. I suppose the artist could alternately have chosen to depict the ring, the Elder Wand, Harry's invisibility cloak, or even Hermione's book with the Deathly Hallows symbol on its spine.

I think, though, that the locket has turned out to be a suitable subject of the cover art after all. Out of all the horcruxes, the locket gave the Trio the most grief, took them the longest to destroy, provided them with the biggest learning experience, and ultimately best represented their struggles throughout DH. It represented both the reason they came together for that mission (destroy all the horcruxes as a team), the reason they temporarily broke apart (locket playing on everyone's fears, aggravating Ron's paranoia to the breaking point), and the reason they got back together and back on track for good (Ron saving Harry from drowning after the locket tried to strangle him, destroying the locket--and his own insecurities with it--for good). In this way the locket, though neither a Hallows nor a pictorial representation of the book title, still represents a vital element of the story.

They could have put the wand. If they did that, everybody would have thought that Ravenclaw's wand was a horcrux.(If you remember that was a hot theory.) That was also a big argument for me.

As said above it took the most grief of any horcrux. It also signifies the choice of horcri over hallows. And after all it looks cool. (Looks at avy)

Well the locket summed up the redemption theme which was brought to fruition in the final book. Kreacher, Snape, we finally find out what happened to Regulus. The Hallows were never anything but a distraction. What does Harry do with them in the end? What does he do with the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone? The setting to rights of individual lives and the magical community as a whole was the important thing. The locket symbolised that nicely when you consider the story of Kreacher, going from to

Actually that works better than I thought. We all obsessed over the Deathly Hallows as well when the book title was announced, we went off on the wrong track just like Harry did!

I agree with what everyone is saying about how the locket is representation of everything the trio went through to find the horcruxes, and the redeeming qualtities in several major characters, but couldn't one argue that the Hallows symbolize one of the most important qualities that Harry posseses - the acceptance of death? We are lead to believe that the Hallows themselves are not main focus; it's the quest one undertakes to both find them and understand their true meaning that's important.

Harry displays this acceptance best in what Jo calls the most important chapter of the series; when he goes into the Forest (using the Cloak and ring, no less) to sacrifice himself so that LV would be immortal. This is the one point in the series in which Harry has the power of all three Hallows working for him, and as a result, he is able to bravely face his own death.

I also have to argue Harry's use of the actual Hallows not only in the final book, but the whole series. Other than the Forest scene that I've already talked about, Harry doesn't use the ring or the wand's power too much, but all throughout the series, the Cloak has been one of Harry's most valuable tools. As Hermione rightly says when they are at Xenophelius' house: "It's helped us rather a lot, in case you haven't noticed!". And although Harry doesn't physically use the Elder Wand (except to repair his old wand), he is able to take huge advantage of its allegiance to him, surviving LV's AK in the Forest (which was also made possible by Harry's willingness to sacrifice himself for everyone else; i.e. his understanding of the what the Hallows represent), and defeating LV shortly afterward.

Back to one of my main arguements for this post: the locket, despite representing a lot of the seventh book's symbolism, does not relate to the actual title, whereas the other six objects of the cover art do. If the cover art is supposed to outline an important theme or plotline, then why do we see a statue of a Phoenix for OotP? Off the top of my head, I cannot think of a specific item that would truly reflect the ideas of the book (except for maybe the list for the DA or something - I don't think it would spoil the plot because the OotP adult cover art was released after the other versions were released), but surely a Phoenix statue doesn't really represent what the trio was going through when they had to put up with the Ministry's injustice, and the constant worry of LV?

By using the ring for the cover art, not only do we get the symbolism of one Harry's strongest character traits, but we also get a piece of the battle directly against LV (although most of the ring's usefulness took place in the previous book), and a direct connection to the books title (which is consistent with the other adult cover art in the series).

This is really an excellent topic you have brought up. I have wondered the same thing, even though I own the HP series in audiobook format; friends of mine own the books. There could be several explanations to the cover art. Since Deathly Hallows was such a highly anticipated book, and probably the most anticipated of all, and, combined with all of the secrecy as to how the series would end, I believe those are the reasons why the Hallows themselves weren't incorporated onto the cover. The reader is supposed to be introduced to these objects in DH, and well into the book have an understanding of what they are. The cover might have revealed too much.

As to why a locket on the cover, my belief is the following; Deathly Hallows is really the second half of Half Blood Prince. It is a continuation of that book. Since the locket doesn't become an object of significance until HBP (well, technically we are introduced to it in OOTP, but I totally didn't pay attention to that at the time), I believe that a locket on the cover was thought to represent the link between the two books, and not to be used as a reference to the locket as a Horcrux per se. It's also a link in the sense that at the end of HBP, Harry discovers that the locket is a fake Horcrux and his mission with Ron and Hermione is to find the real one. So again, I just think the locket on the cover is meant to be the link between the two books.

I hope this isn't a dumb thought; it's almost 2 in the morning and my brain cells are screaming for sleep!