Exhibition reveals the history behind the magic
Anew exhibition celebrating the magic and folklore behind the phenomenally successful Harry Potter series has opened at the British Library in London, featuring fictional and “real” magical creatures from Japan.
These include pictures of “kappa” (river demons) in a 160-year old illustrated history of the Tone River, and a “mermaid” allegedly caught in Japan in the 18th century that is actually half-monkey, half-fish.
Curators have combined original Harry Potter drafts and illustrations with manuscripts and magical objects from the British Library’s collection to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, the first in a series of seven books.
“We’ve put together an exhilarating, engaging and, dare I say, enchanting exhibition about Harry Potter framed in the history, tradition and mythology of magic,” explained the lead curator Julian Harrison at a recent press preview for the event.
The first book in the Harry Potter series was published in 1997, sparking a global publishing phenomenon. The seven books in the series have since been translated into 79 languages, with more than 24 million copies sold in Japan and 450 million globally.
Written by Joanne Rowling under the pen name J.K. Rowling, the books tell the tale of the young wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron and Hermione as they attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The story matures and darkens as Harry grows older and is forced to tackle both adolescence and Lord Voldemort, the evil wizard who orphaned Harry as an infant.
At the exhibition, visitors first descend stairs overhung with “flying” keys into a series of rooms, each dedicated to different Hogwarts subjects, including “Defense against the Dark Arts” and “Care of Magical Creatures”.
For example, a panorama of “Diagon Alley” (a magical shopping street) and a draft of the “Sorting Hat Song” in the Charms room sit alongside real ancient divination runes and the first recorded written example of the abracadabra spell, which was originally intended to be worn as protection against malaria.
Other “real magic” highlights include the Ripley Scroll, a 6m-long manuscript that describes the correct method to make the philosopher’s stone and thus find the key to the elixir of life, as well as the world’s oldest surviving atlas of the night sky — a Chinese scroll dating back to 700 AD.
J.K. Rowling applauded the exhibition after her own personal sneak preview, saying, “The British Library has done an incredible job. Encountering objects for real that have in some shape or form figured in my books has been quite wonderful and to have several of my own items in the exhibition is a reminder of 20 amazing years since Harry was first published.”
A grainy film in the final room of the exhibition shows young children dressed as witches and wizards excitedly queuing up at midnight outside book shops for the release of the next Harry Potter book, a nostalgic reminder of the books’ popularity long before they were adapted into the movies that turned Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson into stars.
Running until the end of February, the exhibition has sold 30,000 advance tickets and is expected to be one of the British Library’s most popular ever shows.