The Elder Wand is a very powerful wand purportedly created by Death to reward Antioch Peverell.
History[]
Origins[]
According to The Tales of Beedle the Bard, the Elder Wand was created by Death at the request of Antioch Peverell. Antioch and his brothers had cheated Death when they used magic to build a bridge over a perilous river. Death offered the brothers a reward each. Antioch asked for a wand more powerful than any other in existence which was guaranteed to win duels for its owner. Death broke a branch off an elder tree nearby and fashioned the Elder Wand.[1]
Albus Dumbledore proposes that the Elder Wand was actually crafted by Anitoch, who was a gifted wizard like his brothers.
The first thing Antioch did is track down a fellow wizard that he was arguing with. With the Elder Wand, he could not lose and he killed his enemy. At a nearby inn, he bragged loudly about his powerful wand and his supposed invincibility. That night while he slept, he was killed by a thief who wanted the wand.[1]
Disappearance[]
After the death of Antioch, the Elder Wand disappeared. When a book by Beedle the Bard with The Tale of the Three Brothers was published, the general wizarding population started to believe it was not real. There is no clear record of the fabled wand but there are few wizards who have claimed to own a wand of elder over the centuries.
The first was Emeric the Evil in the Middle Ages. Emeric claimed the wand had "particularly steong and dangerous powers". He was killed in a duel by Egbert the Egreious. It is unknown what happened to Egbert but it is presumed he died young. A wand of elder does not reappear until a century later when Godelot wrote of his "wicked and subtle friend, with bodie of Ellhorn". Godelot studied advanced Dark Magic and described the Elder Wand like it was an instructor "who knowes ways of magick moste evil".
Godelot was locked in his own cellar by his son, Hereward. It is presumed the mad wizard took his father's wand because he did not try to escape with it. After this, it wasn't until the eighteenth century that an "Eldrun Wand" resurfaced in the possession of Barnabas Deverill. Deverill carved out a fearsome reputation with his wand until Loxias killed him. He rechristened it "the Deathstick" and killed anyone that upset him. It is unknown who killed Loxias and so the Elder Wand disappeared for another century.
Discovery[]
In the nineteeth or early twentieth century, the Elder Wand fell into the possession of Mykew Gregorovitch. A skilled wandmaker, Gregorovitch studied it to try and duplicate its qualities. A rumour eventually started that he had the Elder Wand, which Garrick Ollivander thought Gregorovitch had possibly started himself to boost his business. When a young Gellert Grindelwald heard the rumour, he broke into the workshop to steal it. Gregorovitch caught him but was subdued with a Stunning Spell.[2]
Grindelwald had previously developed a fascination with the Deathly Hallows and had persuaded his close friend, Albus Dumbledore, to help him find the Hallows. They were going to use them for the purposes of taking over control of the wizarding world and putting the Muggles in their places "For the Greater Good". Dumbledore ultimately did not join Grindelwald on his quest, but did carry on with his deep interest in the Hallows.
Grindelwald used the Elder Wand during his war for world domination for which he adopted the sign of the Deathly Hallows. Dumbledore avoided Grindelwald until he couldn't ignore him any longer. In the 1940s, Grindelwald and Dumbledore fought each other in what is considered the greatest duel that ever happened. Dumbledore emerged victorious and with that obtained the ownership and loyalty of the Elder Wand.
Over the course of the next four decades, Dumbledore demonstrated great skill and power with the wand. Unlike his predecessors, he was known to use the Elder Wand for good rather than evil. He used the wand during the First and Second Wizarding Wars. Dumbledore hoped to die undefeated by planning his own death with Severus Snape because he thought if he were to be willingly killed, the ownership of the Elder Wand could not be transferred. The plan was inadvertently thwarted by Draco Malfoy who disarmed Dumbledore in the Astronomy Tower.
Draco did not know that the wand was the Elder Wand. It was buried with Dumbledore in his tomb. Voldemort was searching for the Deathly Hallows and interrogated Gregorovitch for its location. He learned that it was stolen and used legilimency to discover who it was. Voldemort later realised it was Grindelwald and that he was defeated by Dumbledore centuries earlier. He broke into Dumbledore's tomb and took the Elder Wand.
Voldemort grew frustrated with the Elder Wand because it would not fully perform for him. When he realised that he had to defeat the current owner to transfer its loyalty, he incorrectly presumed that he had to kill Snape who had ended Dumbledore's life nearly a year earlier. Shortly before the Battle of Hogwarts, the true owner, Draco was disarmed by Harry Potter. Thus during the battle, the Elder Wand worked in Harry's favour.
Voldemort demonstrated incredible skill and power during the Battle of Hogwarts but still felt that it was holding back even after he killed Snape. Harry and his friends, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, had spent the past year trying to hunt down the Dark wizard's Horcruxes so he could be finally be killed. After he learned that was an accidental Horcrux that Voldemort did not know he had created, Harry faced him in the Forbidden Forest prepared to die so that piece could be destroyed. Voldemort killed Harry with the Elder Wand unaware that was also the "Master of Death" as he was in possession of the three Deathly Hallows. Because he intended to die, the Elder Wand let Voldemort cast the Killing Curse at him.
Harry returned to life and faced Voldemort for a final duel in the Great Hall in front of an audience. Harry revealed that he was the true owner of the Elder Wand but it did not prevent Voldemort from trying to kill him with another Killing Curse. Upon producing it, the Elder Wand made the curse backfire and Voldemort was killed for good. Harry took the Elder Wand but only used it for one purpose; to fix his own broken wand. After the repair, he told Dumbledore's portrait that he also intended to die a natural death to break the Elder Wand's power. He was going to return it to Dumbledore's tomb. The portrait approved of the plan.