The Blood of Slytherin
The Half-Blood Prince may be Salazar Slytherin. A fair few things hint in that direction. Consider the fact that Tom Riddle is Slytherin’s true heir. One might presume that the Slytherins have all been purebloods and who then is more likely to be his true heir than the one that is like himself? Voldemort marked Harry, whom he considered half-blood, his equal.
Rowling has told us that the working title of
The Chamber of Secrets was
The Half-Blood Prince and that its name was changed because she couldn’t work it into the story, but she admits that we almost touch the subject in the book. You should note that the chamber is called The Chamber of Secrets, not The Chamber of the Secret or The Secret Chamber. She uses plural, suggesting that there is more to the chamber than what we’re told. She describes a huge statue of Salazar Slytherin where he kept his Basilisk. The huge statue might be a symbol of Slytherin’s real status and you should also take into account that the Basilisk is the king of serpents, which hints towards royalty.
Voldemort had found out a lot about the Chamber of Secrets and he made himself a lord. It seems to me that he thinks Slytherin above himself and lord ranks lower than a prince. Voldemort alludes to that Slytherin is royal by speaking of his noble work.
One could argue that it is more likely that Godric Gryffindor is the Half-Blood Prince; the ruby set sword, the Gryffindor lion and the combination of gold and scarlet. Red was considered a king’s colour and lion is a symbol of power that often appears in connection with royalty, i.e.
Norway’s coat of arms (Norway is a monarchy). The obvious conclusion is that Gryffindor, not Slytherin, is the prince, which I think is too see-through for such a clever writer as JK Rowling, who loves to surprise us. I think what mentioned above speaks of a king, not a prince. Also: a prince is second to a king like silver is to gold.
On the grounds of Voldemort ennobling himself in honour of a half-blood Slytherin, that one of the chamber’s secrets is that its one of a prince and that the hints dropped on Gryffindor symbolises a king is a design to distract us from the real object, I’d say Slytherin might just be the prince.
~*~
Sources:
+ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
+
Cappelen-krefing.no
+
www.jkrowling.com