Ever since the late nineties, the Harry Potter series has been entertaining people with fantasy, wonder, and a whole lot of fascinating spells. In order for a wizard to become proficient in those spells they certainly require a quality education at a school like Hogwarts, but even before that, a wizard needs a wand.
Not all wands are created equal, and while they do choose their wizard, that doesn’t always mean the wand in question is their original spellcaster. The wide world of Harry Potter is filled with dozens of interesting artifacts and weapons, but perhaps none are quite as intriguing as the Elder Wand.
What Is The Elder Wand?
The Elder Wand is a special wand of such extraordinary power, that it is said that those who wield it would become unbeatable in a duel. It’s a tool of many names, as the many wielders over the years have all used it in varying ways, some corrupting, and others less so. At one point, the elder wood and Thestral-tail-cored wand even went by the name the Deathstick.
Due to the wand’s immense strength, it is sought after by the most powerful, and most evil witches and wizards across the wizarding world. The Elder Wand is so powerful that it even seems to have a mind of its own, often deciding to give its allegiance to the most powerful wizard around.
Who Created The Elder Wand?
The creation of the Elder Wand is a bit murky, with the actual creation of the object either being from the first wielder of the wand, Antioch Peverell, or the embodiment of Death. The reason for this confusion is due to the “Tale Of The Three Brothers” a prominent and quite important story from the Harry Potter series. Within the story, Death gives Antioch the Elder Wand as a dangerous gift, though Death also gives other equally dangerous magical artifacts to Antioch’s younger brothers Ignotus, and Cadmius.
If the story is true and not simply the wizarding world equivalent of a tall tale, then that would mean that Death was the true creator of the Elder Wand, something that makes the powerful artifact all the more dark and terrifying. It’s possible that the “Tale Of Three Brothers” is exactly that, a tale, meaning that Antioch Peverell somehow managed to craft one of the most dangerous and most coveted artifacts in the wizarding world.
Who Has Held The Elder Wand?
The history of the Elder Wand is spotty at best due to the violent and mysterious nature of the artifact. It is clear that Antioch Peverll is the first wielder of the mighty wand, though unfortunately, he didn’t manage to keep it for all that long. Within the classic “Tale Of The Three Brothers,” Antioch uses the wand against a wizard, only to go on to brag about his coveted artifact, something that led to his death and the Elder Wand’s first theft. After Antioch’s death, it seems that the wand’s history was shrouded in mystery for a while, with little information on Antioch’s murderers' use of the wand.
At some point, a fiendish dark wizard known as Emeric the Evil managed to get his hands on the Elder Wand during the Middle Ages. While he was likely a terror with a name like Emeric the Evil, he was eventually slaughtered by a wizard known as Egbert the Egregious. After these two wielders, the history of the wand became clouded again, only for it to resurface roughly over one hundred years later.
The wizard Godelot is the next known master of the Elder Wand, though he wasn’t getting up to anything nicer than the previous wielders. He is known to have held the wand during his writing of a book of dark magic known as “Magick Moste Evile.” Unfortunately for Godelot, his own son Hereward, took matters into his own hands and locked the wizard in his cellar, eventually leading to his death and making Hereward the next master.
Moving on to roughly the eighteenth century, the Elder Wand finally reappeared, this time loyal to Barnabas Deverill. While Deverill was said to be a fearsome wizard, he would be murdered by the wizard who named the Elder Wand the Deathstick, Loxias. Like many others, Loxias was happy to be a vile wizard, and seemingly so vile that it isn’t actually confirmed who the wizard that struck him down was. It is believed that either the wizard Arcus or the wizard Livius was the one to defeat Loxias, but after that, the history of the wand goes dark until around the time of the twentieth century.
When the wand reappeared once again, Mykew Gregorovitch, a simple wandmaker, was the master of the artifact. It doesn’t seem like Gregorovitch got up to anything all that evil during his time with the wand, aside from trying to make another one, but word did eventually begin to spread that it was in his possession. Luckily for Gregorovitch, he wasn’t murdered for the wand, and instead, Gellert Grindelwald stole the wand. He stunned Gregorovitch in the process, something that transferred mastery to the soon-to-be-famous dark wizard.
The Elder Wand proved so powerful in the hands of Grindelwald that he became a menace across Europe, creating his own powerful army to do his bidding. The events of Grindelwald’s mastery of the Elder Wand is well-known thanks to The Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them series, and though he would do many terrible things with the powerful wand, he would eventually be defeated in 1945 by one of the most famous wizards of all time, Albus Dumbledore.
Much like Grindelwald, Dumbledore’s time with the wand is well-known thanks to the mainline Harry Potter series. He’d serve as headmaster of Hogwarts with the trusty wand by his side for years before he would eventually be disarmed by Draco Malfoy in the Hogwarts astronomy tower. Malfoy didn’t know he was the master of the Elder Wand, wrongly believing Snape was due to him killing Dumbledore, but that didn’t matter, since Voldemort would claim the wand regardless.
Voldemort was also wrongly under the assumption that Snape was the wielder of the wand, but after Harry Potter disarmed Malfoy at Malfoy Manor, he became the true master of the wand. Harry would then go on to defeat Voldemort, repair his own wand, and then return back to Dumbledore’s resting place.
A final wrinkle was thrown into the lineage of the wand when Harry Potter And The Cursed Child was released because it’s possible that Voldemort’s daughter Delphini became the true master of the Elder Wand after disarming Harry in a duel. It is also true that Harry and the other wizards end up defeating Delphini, but the exact way in which wand loyalty switches is cryptic and the Elder Wand only makes things even trickier.
Whether Delphini or Harry Potter are considered to be the latest wielder of the Elder Wand, that is every known master of one of the most powerful wands in the wizarding world.
The Harry Potter films are available to stream on HBO Max.