Hello, and welcome to the Museum of Literary Wonders! I see you already have a ticket, right this way! I am Rinn, the curator and your tour guide for today. The museum holds many wonderful objects from many different worlds and universes, preserved in this museum because of their importance – perhaps they hold a lot of meaning, perhaps they’re important plot points or maybe just because they’re pretty… For whatever reason, they have been carefully stored in the museum collection so that generation after generation can learn about them. And now, onto our first exhibit…
This strange object is known as a Golden Snitch. It is reportedly used by wizards in their popular sport, ‘Quidditch’, and this particular Snitch has great value, being the first one caught by the infamous Harry Potter. It also played a crucial part in the search for the Deathly Hallows, by Harry Potter himself, along with his friends Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger – the very same search that resulted in the death of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named… oh, okay… Lord Voldemort. I know what you’re thinking: how can we lock it up like this? Don’t worry, we let it out of the case at night, to fly free around the museum! It can be a bit of a pain getting it back in though…
And this, lovely literary enthusiasts, is no other than the One Ring, the very one that Frodo Baggins carried through Middle-earth and threw into the fiery heart of Mount Doom! Don’t ask how we got hold of it. We have our ways… yes we do, precious… Er, yes. Anyway. It is particularly important to the curator here, because The Lord of the Rings is one of her absolute favourite books of all time, and apparently many others too, being the second best-selling book of all time. This iconic artefact is known all over the world – do you know anyone who hasn’t heard of The Lord of the Rings? (if you do, I suggest throwing a copy of the book at them as punishment for their blasphemy. Preferably a copy of the three books in one.)
Perhaps some of you have heard of the great detective, Mr. Sherlock Holmes? Maybe some of you have even used his services… well here on display we have his beloved Deerstalker hat, which is often teamed with a cape and pipe to create his iconic image. Unfortunately some vandal has scribbled all over this specimen, tsk! Sherlock Holmes has been an inspiration for many a detective over the past century, rightly so as he is a brilliant, witty and incredibly intelligent man able to deduct information from the smallest of clues. In fact, considering that I’m amazed he hasn’t realised that we’ve stolen his hat.
Rinn Reads 
“…yes we do, precious.” AHAHAHAHA
Rinn, this is brilliant! I love all the little cards you made for each item, too! You genius, you! ❤
Yay, thank you Paola!! ❤ I just suddenly had the idea at work and had to scribble it down before I forgot everything. Then I cleverly left the piece of paper at work… but luckily I remembered ;D
I'm having fun picking out the objects, and also making up the finds numbers… some are obvious, some are a bit more sneaky. This will definitely be a regular thing, but not on a set day =)
Rinn, this is awesome and I’m so glad that you posted a Harry Potter artefact in the first feature post. Yay! =D
Thank you Sana! And of course, the Snitch was one of the first things I thought of =D
Awww, I wish this museum was real! How cool would THAT be? Awesome post, Rinn! ❤
Hehe, thank you Cayce! =D And with my plans, it will definitely need TARDIS technology to store everything…
Um, miss? My kid just went under the rope because he wanted to touch the snitch. Um, ya, I am not sure where it flew to.
Sorry.
Oh dear! I hope all the inside doors are closed, as the museum uses TARDIS technology and we’ll never find it otherwise! =o
Bah! People and their destructive ways. How could someone do that to such of an extraordinary hat?
I know, such vandalism! >=( Obviously now the object is worth much less!
*sobs* considering that I am currently doing an MSc in museum anthropology, I am dying, DYING I SAY for the greatness of this post, the material culture of fantasy novels. gosh can I stalk thee. Well you can do so much more material culture wise from the above books, but the hobbit (sting maybe) is a good one. A song of ice and fire (so much material culture in those series…)… I’m supposed to be planning my thesis now. Thanks for completely taking me off track <3!!!
Eeek, I’m so happy to find a fellow museum geek AND book lover! I’m glad you like this post, I’ll hopefully have the next one up soon =) And yes, I shall have to perhaps… ahem… ‘get hold’ of those items for the museum’s collection… 😉