Of the three Deathly Hallows in the Harry Potter novels and films, the highly-coveted Elder Wand is recognized as the most powerful in magical history.
Its transaction from one wizard to another, right from its conception, has painted a rather bloody history, and it was almost always acquired by someone bent on establishing a reign of terror. Ultimately, Albus Dumbledore acquired the mighty wand to end one war and died to ensure that it never created another.
The history of the Elder Wand
If The Tale of the Three Brothers is to be believed, the Elder Wand was created by Death himself for Antioch, the eldest Peverell brother when he and his two younger siblings bested the entity by not falling to their deaths. But Dumbledore found it to be a mere fable and instead believed that Antioch was merely a very gifted wizard who succeeded in the creation of the Elder Wand.
Whatever the exact origin of the Elder Wand is, it almost always found a new owner upon the death of its previous. It started with Antioch, who boasted so much about the wand’s powers that he was murdered by an unknown wizard seeking to get his hands on the wand. Since then, the wand has appeared intermittently throughout the decades.
Since no one wanted to give up the wand easily, murder became the easiest way to own it, thus perpetuating the misconception that killing its user is necessary to assume full ownership. Sadly, almost all of its owners used the wand to strike terror in the hearts of their opponents and further their tyrannical exploits.
How did Albus Dumbledore get the Elder Wand?
While the historical presence of the other two Hallows ⏤ the Resurrection Stone and the Invisibility Cloak ⏤ has been pretty much nonexistent, anyone who became the Elder Wand’s master would show off its powers. Thus, even though it has gone MIA often, whenever the wand resurfaces, it isn’t difficult to trace its whereabouts.
After changing hands from one wizard to another, the wand finally landed in the possession of wandmaker Mykew Gregorovitch in the nineteenth century. Like everyone else before him, he spread the rumor that he was the master of the most powerful wand ever.
This led Gellert Grindelwald, Dumbledore’s former best friend and an infamous dark wizard, right to his doorstep (window, to be precise). Upon following the trail of the boastful stories of the wandmaker, Grindelwald, who had been obsessed with uniting the Deathly Hallows, broke into his workshop and stole the Elder Wand. When Gregorovitch tried to stop him, he stunned him and jumped from the window, thus winning the ownership of the wand. This is the first noted instance of the wand changing owners without the previous user’s death.
After acquiring the wand, Grindelwald became the most powerful dark wizard of all time, raised a formidable army, and carved a path of destruction in the name of “the greater good” across many countries. But he never dared to attack Britain, as he feared Dumbledore despite possessing the Elder Wand.
But just as he reached the peak of his power and would have embarked on a mission of world dominance, Dumbledore shed his reluctance to face his former friend. In an iconic duel in 1945 that earned the Hogwarts Headmaster a top rank in the list of most powerful wizards ever, Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald, who was then incarcerated in his own prison, Nurmengard.
Though Dumbledore became the new master of the Elder Wand, he never bragged about its powers.
“I was fit to own the Elder Wand, and not to boast of it, and not to kill with it. I was permitted to tame and to use it, because I took it, not for gain, but to save others from it.”
That’s why when Voldemort starts hunting for the wand, he can only trace its whereabouts to Grindewald ⏤ who refuses to spill where it was ⏤ and the Dark Lord eventually finds the wand in Dumbledore’s grave in Hogwarts. While Dumbledore planned to end the wand’s power with his death, Draco Malfoy disarmed him, thus becoming the new owner. It was enough to thwart He Who Must Not Be Named, as the wand refuses to be his even when he kills Snape.
Hopefully the wand, which was desired by many wizards and became the reason for countless deaths, will end up losing its power, as Harry Potter (its new master) plans on dying undefeated. But as he continues to be The Boy Who Lived and is also an Auror now ⏤ thus threatening the existence of many nefarious wizards ⏤ it remains to be seen whether his plan proves to be a success.
