Throughout the Group Adventure in Charting the Parts of Hallmarked Man, Ed Shardlow consistently saw the lions in Strike 8 that the rest of the Charters missed or passed over. Their ubiquity and Ed’s skill in spotting the ones no one else saw moved me to invite him to catalog the full set for us in order to open the gate for discussion of why Rowling-Galbraith made ‘lions’ what ‘floating eyeballs’ were to Deathly Hallows. Ed, as always, Exceeds Expectations, which is extraordinary given the high bar he has set for attentive reading. Enjoy! [John]
Lions in The Hallmarked Man
Lions are a recurring motif in The Hallmarked Man. A lion hallmark, specifically a lion passant, is the indication that an item is made of silver and of a degree of purity to qualify as sterling silver.
The lion is also a symbol of masculinity and of Britishness, both of which are themes in the book. These both also connect to another recurring motif – St George and his flag.
And when Strike first tells Robin about Decima’s choice of name for her baby, her response is, ‘As in Aslan?’ This should alert any clued-up reader to the Christian symbolism of the lion.
Leading Lions
Lion Fleetwood Mullins. The first lion we encounter, and one central to the assignment given to Strike and Ellacott, is Decima’s baby, Lion. His existence is what elevates Decima’s concern for Rupert above being merely forsaken by her boyfriend. Rupert is the father of her child, and by her account was looking forward to fatherhood. That was of course before he made the discovery which he kept from Decima, and which prompted him to perform his disappearing act: that Decima is in fact his half-sister and their child is the product of unwitting incest.
Rupert’s White Lion t-shirt. Lion is named Lion because Rupert had a lucky t-shirt for the Eighties band White Lion. He associates this with his deceased supposed father Peter Greenwood because he has a video of Peter singing him a White Lion song – Little Fighter. He then tears the t-shirt up before disappearing, presumably because he has learnt that Peter wasn’t his biological father, and is distraught at discovering who is, and what that means for him and Decima. The song Little Fighter is quite apt for a father to sing to their child, being one of encouragement to a “little fighter” who wants to change the world for the better. White Lion’s biggest global hit, “When the Children Cry”, is also from the perspective of an adult or parent singing to a child.
Dick de Lion. One of the candidates for the body in the vault is the porn star Dangerous Dick de Lion. It turns out that his name is actually Danny de Leon and the trail leads our detective duo to Sark where they meet both Danny and his brother Richard de Leon. There’s a particular resonance here to Richard the Lionheart, King of England, and perhaps also a nod to Daniel in the lion’s den.
William Wright asks about lions passant at Ramsay Silver. This might be dismissed as a passing reference if it weren’t for the fact that the Lion Passant is a silver hallmark, and so it links lions to the hallmarking of the corpse and hence the title of the book.
Incidental Lions
There is a plethora of lions that pop up incidentally throughout the book. These should be approached with caution. In some cases they will doubtless be an indication of purity or significant in some way, but I expect some of them are just adding to the tally of lions.
Tyler’s weights bear the Wolverhampton Wanders emblem of a wolf’s head against a golden circle, which his neighbour Hussein Mohamed mistakes for an image of a lion.
Hafsa – Hussein Mohamed tells William Wright that his daughter’s name means “lioness cub” and lions are his lucky animal. Wright then mentions that Al-Assad (which means “the lion”) is known as the Lion of Syria. Strike later recalls this as evidence that Tyler took an interest in current affairs.
The Craft Beer Co pub where Strike meets Todd has a Royal Standard over the door, featuring one lion rampant and three lions passant.
Amid a scattering of other symbols, a banner bearing the Lion of Judah is seen in Temple 17 at Freemason’s Hall. The Lion of Judah is both the symbol of the tribe of Judah and also a symbol for Christ.
The Flag of Sark combines to elements that are symbolic of Britishness and masculinity. The St George’s cross with two lions passant in the upper left quadrant.
At Dino’s the picture of the Fleetwoods at Gravensteen features a yellow flag with a black lion. This is the flag of Flanders.
The dog which Plug is keeping in the allotment shed seems to be some sort of wild beast, creating the impression that it could be a lion, or at least that the huge canine resembles a lion
When Strike goes to see Rokeby, he notes that his doorknocker is not the typical lion’s head, but a guitar instead.
Rokeby tells Strike about his friend Leo helping him out when Rokeby Sr kicked Johnny out at the age of 15.
When Strike FaceTimes Zacharias Lorimer, there’s a painting of a lioness behind him.
Hidden Lions
Just as Decima’s baby, Lion, is concealed in the scene where Strike meets her, there are several other lions in the book that take a little more detective work to find.
The first photos of Tyler that Robin gets from Instagram include one of him in an England shirt, which would feature the three lions on the kit badge.
The Peugeot that Griff and Medina use as their getaway car is not just significantly silver in colour, but the Peugeot emblem is a lion.
One of the curious youths at Magdalen place is wearing a Millwall shirt. The club are know as the Lions.
Johnny Leonard Rokeby. Although not mentioned in this book, Rokeby’s middle name is Leonard.
Chloe’s last Instagram post has a quote from Sylvia Plath, and then Griff impersonating her opens the new account with another Plath quote. Although neither of these are from her book Ariel, that anthology is one of her most famous, and Ariel means Lion of God.
The terrorist attack takes place on Westminster Bridge. The bridge features a large statue of a lion known as the South Bank Lion at its eastern end.
One of the witnesses to Dino cheating Peter Fleetwood out of the nef on the backgammon table is Angus Lyall. One of the meanings of Lyall is lion.
The Riccis make an appearance at Brian Judge’s scrapyard, also known as Barnaby’s. Their family emblem the lion’s head ring.
Ian Griffiths has a potential lion link with the Griffiths family coat of arms bearing a lion or lions.
At one point when tailing Mr A.’s ex-wife, she “throws back her mane of professionally blow-dried hair”. Both lions and horses have manes, so it’s not necessarily implying that the ex-Mrs A. is leonine rather than equine.
That’s all the ones I could find. They roam wild through the book. Are there any I’ve missed? What do you think they symbolise and signify?
Lion rich indeed!. I also reckon Lambs/Sheep were prevalent symbols too. Lions and Sheep share mythical/biblical connotations. I had looked up Ghent Univ of Belg, which was mentioned when poor Robin sat through the Arsenal vs Liverpool with the Murphys. The U of Ghent coat of arms has a lion rampant (argent - so silver or white). But as for sheep - there's the Ramsay silver, the Golden Fleece pub, the doomed Todd (cleaner) leaving a place called Black Sheep Coffee, Lambeth (the location of the seedy Branfoot place). Importantly, the silver sheep charm, a cast bronze statue of a ram somewhere far north which reminded Strike of Robin, The "hanged for a sheep" expression. Lions and lambs.
I think I found another one!
When Strike and Robin are trying to work out Semple’s code they think it might reference the date 25th of June 2016. Strike googles the 25th of June 2016 and tells Robin five new species of orchid were found in the Phillipines. Googling reveals that the researcher for this project is Miguel David de Leon
https://www.eaglenews.ph/new-orchid-species-found-in-philippine-forest-guerrilla-zone/