RAB revealed?
Following the release of the sixth Harry Potter book, rumors have been abuzz concerning the identity of RAB, the mysterious character who left a note in the cave in the novel's closing chapters. So far, JK has remained relatively tight-lipped on the subject, although she said Regulus Black, Sirius' brother, was a "fine guess" in the MN/TLC interview last summer. Subsequently, (highlight)-->"Arcturus"<-- was suggested by fans as the late Death Eater's middle name after the name of a certain star.
Now, the Portuguese HP translator, Isabel Nunes, has reportedly confirmed this in an interview with a Portuguese fan site. Apparently, before Book 6 hit shelves, she contacted Jo about the character's gender, and was told the full name as well as the gender. Her reason for shedding light on the topic at this point is to "keep awake" the excitement for the seventh book. In the past, Nunes also clarified that Blaise Zabini is a man and Professor Sinistra is a woman.
EDIT: Some readers have written in letting us know that the interview where Nunes said this was conducted last November - you can see it here, page 15. Also, according to commenter Ismara, "A translator doesn't have to sign a contract of confidentiality... Translators can share that type of information as long as it's public. If JKR told her the middle name and the gender, it's public information." Jo hasn't confirmed or denied this - let's hope she doesn't so as to leave room for more conjecture - but take that for what you will!
Now, the Portuguese HP translator, Isabel Nunes, has reportedly confirmed this in an interview with a Portuguese fan site. Apparently, before Book 6 hit shelves, she contacted Jo about the character's gender, and was told the full name as well as the gender. Her reason for shedding light on the topic at this point is to "keep awake" the excitement for the seventh book. In the past, Nunes also clarified that Blaise Zabini is a man and Professor Sinistra is a woman.
EDIT: Some readers have written in letting us know that the interview where Nunes said this was conducted last November - you can see it here, page 15. Also, according to commenter Ismara, "A translator doesn't have to sign a contract of confidentiality... Translators can share that type of information as long as it's public. If JKR told her the middle name and the gender, it's public information." Jo hasn't confirmed or denied this - let's hope she doesn't so as to leave room for more conjecture - but take that for what you will!
Posted by Ciaran on Oct 9th |
305 Comments
Visitor Comments
Happy Birthday MuggleMage, i hope that its a good 1
hey does anyone listen to evanescence
so RAB is Regelus Black.....didn't we decide that, like, 12 monthes ago
Ah man, this really debunks my theory that RAB is Dobby...
Arcturus was his grand father's name so I could see that, but his name came from his father's line, I can see him being named for his mother's brother Alphard. And since he had a change of heart while on the dark side, wouldn't the new use of his middle initial, be an alright way to connect him back to the good side, which I supposed Alphard was on. I've had twenty bucks on his middle name being Alphard, with my roommate since the day HBP came out.
can you say "rumor"?...though, I do hope it's true so that we have SOME info. on book seven.haha.
"Dobby found Horcrux, Harry Potter, Sir! And now Dobby is freeeeeeeeee from death!" --A direct quote from Dobby.
I heard this theory a while back. I think it sounds very possible, but maybe they'll have a discussion about it on next week's MuggleCast.
I think it is a rumor
Hahaha umm yeah right. If that is true that lady's a moron for telling... but yeah right, I seriously doubt that's true and why would JKR tell her anyway?
i really don't want to have ANY information of book seventh, not even a little thingy. i want to read book seventh just knowing obviously things like R/H and you know, things you {kind of} discover throughout the books. instead, i want as much information of the movie as possible. you know those are two VERY different things. ACCIO PICTURES!
wwwwwwwoooooowwwwwwwww... .........
hooray! one of my theories might be right! finally!
ACCIO NEW NEWS!
*******************SPOILE RS*************** The name in the article is "Regulus Arthur Black", not "Arcturus". And the full name was sent by JKR herself, although what the translators asked was simply the gender of the person. The article was very interesting, I missed it at the time it came out.
ACCIO ANDREW SIMS!
Where'd you get that informatiom Dharma?
hello? Anybody there? hellooooooo........*echo*
OH MY GOD! WHERE ARE THE PEOPLE?!?!?!?! AAAAGGGHHH!!! LORD VOLDEMORT IS ATTACKING!!!!!! HELP! hello? hellllooo??
so alone........so alone.........
Do they give a prize for being the LAST PERSON to comment? Seriously guys. There are almost three thousand people logged on to this site right now. Talk to me!
whats up ww
I'm sure that three thousand people don't sit around in the comments (that don't work very well any more anyway) waiting three minutes before they can post again. The site is huge and I'm sure most of them are up to other stuff.
i totally doubt all that, y would JKR tell that to her, oh ya by the way, the layouts look cool
OMG!!! I am soo excitied for Book 7!!! I don't know why i'm saying that cause everyones' excited for book 7!!!! I do wish we would not have so many rumors, and could just know the facts!!! But then that would spoil everything for book 7!!!
Flaming_Red_Hair....i'm just as excited as u are!!!! i think its only 9 months till it finally comes out....... yay!!!
oh and by the way, amandeep_sagoo....i know this is late but i love evanescence
Ooowww i'm counting down the days!!!
hmm *is suspicious* that would be kind of weird of Jo to tell anyone that...
ayah_braceface and amandeep_sagoo: I just have to say that i love evanescence too!!!!!!
Hey did u guys get her new cd....its so awesome!!! amy lee rocks
okay, so... wut is this news thing actually saying??? maybe i'm just tired, but it doesn't seem to give a straight answer as to whether she's saying that regulus is rab or not... it says "confirmed this", but not wut the "this" is, and did she get the full name of regulus or the full name of rab?... and the news article is in portuguese, which really doesn't help... i can read a little of it, but not enough to know wut she's saying... anyways, wutever the translator is saying, i agree with the dozens of people who pointed out that she shouldn't have told everyone about wut jkr told her... there's a reason why jkr told her and not the fans... >sigh
ayah_braceface: no i didn't i want it soo bad though!!!! I agree she Does rock!!!! I love how we're talking about music on a Harry Potter site!!! lol!!!
Lesson learned today? Never trust a translator...especially if they love Harry Potter. HEY! You never know, the guy probably wanted to spice things up.
i dont think that its regalus black..it seems kinda too obvious or sumthing...i dunno
The whole idea of Regulus being the one to have stolen and maybe destroyed the horcrux, is a little incestuous; it really isn't Jo's style. But, the fact that she has constantly mention a certain R. Black in her stories, does suggest that he has a larger role to play; and that is definately Jo's style. My opinion is that before we all jump to conclusions, we should wait until indeed, Jo's rumours section is updated.
I believe its perfectly plausible, if not quite probable, the the R.A.B. in question is Regulus Black. I noticed while reading OotP on pg 116 while Molly, Sirius, and Harry & Co. were cleaning out the Black's living room they found a heavy locket that none of them could open. Isnt it a strange coincidence that Sirius had a brother Regulus Black (R.A.B.) who was in the service of Lord Voldemort, and an impenetrable locket just happened to be found in a house that is unplottable by muggle and wizard alike? Kind of a convenient hiding place if you ask me. Regulus was killed by Lord Voldemort as Sirius describes on pg 112 of the OotP: "Was he killed by an Auror?" Harry asked tentatively. "Oh no," said Sirius. "No, he was murdered by Voldemort. Or on Voldemort's orders, more likely, I doubt Regulus was ever important enought to be killed by Voldemort in person. From what I found out after he died, he got in so far, then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out. Well, you dont just hand in your resignation to Voldemort. Its a lifetime of service or death." Regulus wasn't important enough to be killed by Voldemort in person...unless he knew about the Horcrux.
R.A.B is without a doubt Regulus Black, I mean the info has been leaked already on the Lexicon then taken down mysteriously and apprently it was from a "well informed source". But remember, when that happened Jo didn't say anything. I don't think she will this time ether. Keep in mind that to readers who ARN'T as obsessed as us, Regulus A Black probably never even occured to them (I have more then a few friend who think I'm a genius for naming Regulus as R.A.B), I think for their sake, Jo is going to keep tight lipped, but for us crazies she KNOWS we know.
Mboone2 u just totally convinced me that RAB is regalus black!!well i hope it is...=)but then again i want someone completly unexpected! someone whos like out of the blue ppl yadig?
oh man i didnt wanna know until book 7 actually came out. especially not find out like that. if she wanted to keep the excitement, she wouldnt have told us cuz now all the theories on who it is will die since all will know......this sucks. jkr shouldnt have trusted her if it is true.
Mboone: ya thats pretty convincing...it most probably is Regalus Black.
Ok this is kinda unrelated but for all you MuggleCast fans: Check out this link: http://www.signonsandiego .com/uniontrib/20061009/n ews_mz1b9teens.html. Its a short but very nice article about Andrew Simz, one of the hosts from mugglecast!!! I saw it in the paper today and thought it was really cool. I sent it in as news but i don't know if they will put it up or not. They should, Andrew ROCKS! Ok hope you guys check out the article! Oh and I think that even if the RAB info wasn't a secret she should have kept that to herself.
I've just translated the article making these claims (no I do not speak portugese, I use babelfish), but still I am unconvinced. Maybe this is because the translation was rough and I couldn't tell every word but it had some conflicting messages in my opinion and I wouldn't be so sure yet. For one thing the article called Isabel Nunes a man, for another the article refered to Regulus' middle name as Arthur. Also, I could find no information about the newspaper it was published in. Stick to the cardinal HP fan rule, never believe anything for sure until its out of JK's mouth or in one of the books.
I am extremely disappointed at the "news" that some idiotic translator (and I don't mean she's an idiot in that she does that, I think you'd need some brains to do her job) has done this. Yes, we all like speculating, and yes we're all very sure RAB is Regulus, but do you think we really want to know? Even if RAB doesn't play as big a part as we all think, it's still very disappointing when we find things like that out from someone other than JK herself. It's times like these I wish I'd never started going into sites that speculate and stuff, because it would have been safer and possibly mre exciting to only speculate with my friends.
ont base your decision on a portuguese article...use your common sense. I would reiterate all of the points I made before but thats too much work. I will say that the proof that I've given for the probability that R.A.B. is Regulus Black fits in to JKs intricate plot lines and the fact that she does give clues...we just have to look for them.
I'm in no way saying it's not Regulus Black, in fact about an hour after finishing Prince I made that conclusion like the rest of you, I'm simply saying that I have doubts as to the reliability of this particular information.
wasnt there something in a paper or online which debunked the rumor that R.A.B ISNT regulus black? i do remember reading it somewhere * looks through books quickly* well i do remember reading it SOMEWHERe, but if it is true, y did she have to ruin it for everyone?????? it is the LAST book! dont spoil it!!
as much as we hp fans want book 7 news, that translator shouldn't have given out that info. jk told her that in confidence, and it wasn't her place to blab. she doesn't need to keep book 7 excitement going - if you're a fan you're excited every day book 7 gets closer to release!
Keep awake the excitement o.O ... I don't know, that just doesn't seem like it makes much sense. Like there is any dying excitement. If anything the excitement is increasing as the days go by and as more people are sucked into Harry Potter addiction. I think its a crock personally.
Can we just clear all of this up? The woman is bad news for saying it, despite whether or not what she's telling everyone is true. Of course we want to know, but we also don't want her spoiling it for us! We want information from JKR, not some big ole translator. Goodness me.
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