The Cup, the Locket, the Sword, the Journey

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182594

Lenore wrote:
> Pippin's post got me to thinking about some of the deep symbolic
> meanings in the horcrux artefacts which have been haunting me for
> some time.  I tend to see everything in the context of our spiritual
> Journey, including everything I read. <snip>
> 
> The first horcrux we encounter in the books is actually the Wound,
or Scar.  But since we aren't aware of that at the time (and this fact
is spiritually significant as well), the first one is the Diary. <snip>
>
> The Sword, for me, is a Sword of Discerning.  It is very handy for
> cutting through the illusion and exposing it, so we see it coming
into use at many of the stages of the Journey. <snip>

Carol responds:

Forgive me for pointing this out, but the Sword of Gryffindor is not a
Horcrux. Voldemort may well have intended or hoped to make it one, but
he never succeeds.

Instead, the sword, once it's been steeped in Basilisk venom, becomes
a kind of anti-Horcrux, a weapon that can be used to destroy
Horcruxes--not the diary, which is destroyed by a Basilisk fang
(another ironic instance of the Heir of Slytherin's weapon, the
Basilisk, being used against him), but the ring, the locket, and the
snake.

I don't want to get into the question of the hero's journey or a
spiritual journey or any other sort of journey (even the journey to
adulthood that constitutes the Bildungsroman).

I just wanted to point out that the sword is not a Horcrux, accidental
or otherwise. It's not even a Hallow. It's the sole surviving relic of
Godric Gryffindor (not counting his hat, which now contains the
"brains" of all four Founders), which comes to the aid of Gryffindors
under certain conditions of "need and valor," cannot be reclaimed by
Goblins despite Griphook's attempt, and becomes, through Harry's
actions, capable of destroying Voldemort's Horcuxes, including the
other Founder's objects. (It could have destroyed the Hufflepuff Cup
and the Tiara, but Harry had lost it or perhaps forfeited it, and when
it again goes to a Gryffindor, that Gryffindor is not Harry but Neville.)

I'd be interested in hearing more of your interpretation of the other
objects, one at a time, with canon support and analysis to show that
there's something more to it than the way you read every book. (Not to
question the validity of your interpretation for you, but would it
work for readers who don't habitually read this way?)

Carol, who would have liked to know the powers of the cup and the
locket before they were Horcruxified (we know the power of the ring
and the powers attributed to the diadem) and also what curses LV put
on the cup (which may have poisoned or possessed anyone who drank out
of it)