Articles

History of the Golden Snitch
Meg London

Beginning in the 1100s, Snidget-hunting was an extremely popular sport. The minuscule bird was very hard to capture, due to its speed and small size. In 1269, a Quidditch match was attended by the Chief of the Wizards’ Council at that time, Barberus Bragge. Bragge took a caged Snidget out to the field and told the players that the first to catch the Snidget during the game would be awarded 150 Galleons – equivalent to over 1 million Galleons today!

All of the players were eager to catch the Snidget, and once it was released, they all abandoned their position on the field to join the chase. However, a witch by the name of Modesty Rabnott, who was staunchly against the hunting of Snidgets, summoned the Snidget to her and let it escape.

The release of that Snidget into the game sparked an idea that changed the whole game of Quidditch. Before long, Snidgets were being released in every game of Quidditch. One player on the team, then called the “Hunter,” had the job of catching and killing the bird. Once it was killed, the game ended and the team that caught the bird was awarded 150 points, in memory of the 150 Galleons promised by Bragge.

However, in the middle of the 1350s, the number of Snidgets was so low that the Wizards’ Council agreed to make them a protected species, and a substitute for the Snidget in Quidditch was searched for urgently. Finally, Bowman Wright, a skilled metal-charmer, introduced a golden ball with wings that exactly mimicked the Snidget’s behavior patterns. He named his creation the Golden Snitch.

Quidditch as we know it had begun.

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Reference: Quidditch Through the Ages by J.K. Rowling