The time-turner from the fairy-tale world of Harry Potter

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

In 2004, the long-awaited third film about the adventures of the young wizard Harry Potter and his friends was released. This part of the famous epic introduced viewers who had not previously read books about a boy wizard to terrible and ruthless creatures that devour all the good and bright feelings of people, leaving only melancholy and hopelessness in return. No less than these monsters, the audience was impressed by the first appearance in this part of a magical item called the flywheel of time.

What is this magic device

Time-turner, also called the time-turner, or the flywheel of time, is a magical device that allows its owner to return to the recent past. This device looks like a small pendant on a gold chain with a tiny hourglass attached to a rotating rod.

With its help, only the one who wears this device around his neck can go back a few hours (one turn - one hour). If you put a time flywheel chain on several people at the same time, they allcan also go back in time. The edges of this artifact are decorated with an inscription that reads: “I measure every moment and hour, but I have not yet been able to overtake the sun. My price and strength, everything is for you, so that you can do everything on time.”

Using time gate has a number of caveats. The person using it should not meet with himself in the past, otherwise the consequences can be the most unpredictable. Despite its power, this device cannot return the life of a killed person, but only provides a chance for the flywheel user to prevent death. In addition, not all events in the past can be changed with impunity, so you need to carefully weigh all your actions, otherwise a catastrophe may occur. Thanks to the flywheel of time, you can move into the past no more than five hours. What this restriction is connected with is not clear, but there are cases in history when people moving into the past for a longer period of time changed the matter of time in a terrible way, aged for many years in just a couple of hours, and also caused death of people in the future.

How and when did the time-turner appear in the world of Harry Potter

The origin of this device is shrouded in mystery. Most likely, the time gate was created in ancient times by powerful wizards, but no data has been preserved about this. Almost all such devices are under the careful control of the Department of Mysteries of the Ministry of Magic. In the third film and the Potter book, Harry's best friend Hermione, an honor student, becomes the owner of a pendant-sized time-wheel. She manages to get it from the dean of herfaculty in order to be able to attend classes that are scheduled at the same time. Since the diligent girl in the first two years of study was able to establish herself as a responsible person, she was entrusted with such a dangerous artifact. Being extremely careful, the student managed to hide her time travel even from her closest friends, until she received permission from the headmaster of the school of sorcerers to use the time-turner to save her godfather Harry from certain death.

Later, the girl returned the device to the school authorities.

The next time the time-turner appears in the fifth part of the epic, when a group of students of the school of magic penetrates the Department of Mysteries to interfere with the plans of the main villain of the entire epic. In one of the rooms, the teenagers discover many huge time gates, much larger than Hermione's time-wheel. It is quite possible that these devices are capable of sending people to a more distant past, unfortunately, this topic does not find further development, since due to the battle that took place in the department, all devices are destroyed and are not mentioned further. It is worth noting that in the film adaptation of the third part viewers weren't shown this episode, leaving people who haven't read the books with a lot of questions about this magical device.

JK Rowling on the flywheel of time

Popular British writer JK Rowling, who gave the whole world the story of a wizard boy left an orphan, in many interviews told fans of her work what she thinksabout this beloved artifact. So, the writer noted that she does not regret that she “gave” such a wonderful device to her heroes, although later she had problems with it. After the success of the third book, she realized that in the next parts of the cycle she needed to somehow explain to readers why Harry and his friends, knowing about the magical device, did not dare to use it to prevent the death of the same godfather Harry or the headmaster of the school of wizards.

So Joan "destroyed" all the flywheels in the Department of Mysteries and described the disastrous consequences of mindless games with time in the past.

Pendants in the shape of the flywheel of time

Along with the release of the books and movies of the epic, many fans of the story often hosted entire fan conferences and reenactments of the events of the books and movies. It has also become fashionable to dress up as epic heroes for holidays and carnivals. So costume shops and online stores were filled with all kinds of costumes, magic wands and other attributes of the fairy-tale world. Jewelry described in books or appearing in films has gained immense popularity.

So pendants with symbols of the deathly hallows, the logo of all four faculties of the school of magic, a map of marauders and a ticket to platform 9 and ¾ began to be purchased not only by avid fans, but simply by lovers of original jewelry. But one of the most popular pieces of jewelry was the time-wheel pendant.

Manufacturers supplemented it with their own details, made it from different metals, and also covered different types of sand from beige to pink. In addition to pendants, earrings and bracelets decorated with tiny time gates were and are still being produced.

DIY flywheel of time

The popularity among fans of this artifact is so high that many have tried to recreate this device with their own hands. It is worth noting that in most cases they do not copy the device described by Rowling in the book, but its embodiment in the film adaptation.

So, the elements were crocheted, embroidered and made from wire and beads.

The most common homemade time flywheel is fairly easy to make. Two beads of medium size are put on a thin wire along with three rings of different diameters. Having carefully fixed everything, the structure is spray-painted with golden paint, and a pretty good copy of the time-turner is obtained.

Along with such magical items that won the hearts of fans of the epic, such as the marauder's map, magic wands, the invisibility cloak and others, the time flywheel has gained the most popularity. Harry Potter, due to the complex storyline, was never able to sufficiently take advantage of all the benefits of this artifact. But his fans liked this device so much that many of them even got tattoos with a time turner. Perhaps the secret of the popularity of the flywheel of time is not only in the thoughtful and elegant design, but also inthat, having put on such a medallion, every person at least for a moment begins to believe in a fairy tale.