I en nyligen utkommen bok av David Langford, "The end of Harry Potter? [An
unauthorized guide to the mysteries that remain.]" (2006) diskuterar
författaren på s.44f. namnet Slughorn:
"Horace Slughorn. A wonderful surname which in fact has nothing to do with slugs or, for that matter, horns. It’s an old spelling of ´slogan`, which before it became a word for an advertising catch-phrase meant a battle cry. I´m prepared to bet that J.K. Rowling is fond of Robert Browning’s dark fantasy poem, ´Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came` (1855). In the final
cliff-hanger of this mini-epic, when the Childe, or Knight, issues his
challenge to whatever unknown evil awaits in the Tower, Browning is clearly
under the impression that a slug-horn is something like a hunting horn:
… And yet Dauntless the slug-horn to my lips I set, And blew. ´Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came.`Perhaps there’s a hint here that Professor Slughorn, amiable fellow though he is, is rather too fond of blowing his own trumpet. He doesn’t do it in an obvious way, like Gilderoy Lockhart endlessly singing his own praises, but he’s fond of cosying up to people with fame and status, hoping that a little of their glory will rub off on Slughorn himself."