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The most powerful artifacts in the Harry Potter universe are the Deathly Hallows and one of those is the Elder Wand, passed on to different Elder Wand owners throughout history. While not all wands are bound to their specific owners, the Elder Wand can only be truly mastered by its rightful owner. Early on in the Elder Wand's existence, the legendary nature of its powers made it a coveted object for power-hungry wizards. This led to the belief that a wizard must murder the current owner to master the Elder Wand. Instead, the ownership of the Elder Wand can be passed from one wizard to another through simple disarmament.
The Elder Wand has become a fascinating point of lore in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Rowling's book series has become one of the biggest franchises in existence thanks to the fandom surrounding the novels and subsequent movie adaptations. The original Harry Potter franchise consists of eight movies released from 2001 to 2011. Warner Bros. continued to make new movies set in this world, with the Fantastic Beasts series exploring the Wizarding World several decades before Harry Potter's story. Even those movies feature the famed Deathstick as one of the Elder Wand owners appears in them.
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Antioch Peverell |
Creator of the Elder Wand. |
Murdered in his sleep by an unknown assailant. |
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Emeric the Evil |
Unknown. |
Killed in a duel with Egbert the Egregious. |
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Egbert the Egregious. |
Defeated Emeric the Evil in a duel. |
Killed in a duel with an unknown opponent, possibly Godelot. |
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Godelot |
Unknown - possibly defeated Egbert the Egregious. |
Killed by his son Hereward. |
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Hereward |
Killed his father, Godelot. |
Unknown. |
|
Barnabus Deverill |
Unknown, acquired the Elder Wand at some point in the 18th century. |
Killed by Loxias. |
|
Loxias |
Murdered Barnabus Deverill. |
Murdered by an unknown assailant, possibly his own mother, Arcus, or Livius. |
|
Arcus/Livius |
Unknown, but possibly murdered Loxias |
Murdered by an unknown wizard. |
|
Mykew Gregorovitch |
Unknown, acquired the Elder Wand in the early 20th century. |
Stolen by Gellert Grindelwald. |
|
Gellert Grindelwald |
Stole the Elder Wand from Mykew Gregorovitch. |
Defeated by Albus Dumbledore. |
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Albus Dumbledore |
Acquired the Elder Wand after defeating Gellert Grindelwald |
Disarmed by Draco Malfory shortly before his death. |
|
Draco Malfoy |
Became the rightful owner after disarming Albus Dumbledore. |
Never technically possessed the Elder Wand. |
|
Lord Voldemort |
Stole the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's tomb. |
Was killed by Harry Potter — technically was never the true owner of the Elder Wand. |
|
Harry Potter |
Disarmed Draco Malfoy, took the Elder Wand after defeating Voldemort. |
Destroyed the Elder Wand. |
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1 Antioch Peverell
The Creator Of The Legend Of The Elder Wand
While the Peverell name died out, it remains one of the most famous families in the Wizarding World due to their notable power and aptitude for magic during the middle-ages. As established in the Harry Potter books, the three Peverell brothers — Antioch, Cadmus, and Ignotus — are widely believed to be the three wizards responsible for the Deathly Hallows.
Antioch Peverell is the original Elder Wand owner. While the legend states that Death created the powerful wand for him, other wizards, such as Albus Dumbledore, believed that Antioch made the wand himself at some point in the 1200s. However, it's also possible that the Elder Wand existed prior to Antioch acquiring it.
The pure-blood wizard's time with the Elder Wand quickly led to him killing someone with whom he got into a fight. During the celebration of his victory, legend said Antioch got drunk and spread the story that the Elder Wand was created by Death itself. This boasting led to another wizard killing Antioch in his sleep to take the Elder Wand for himself, but the killer's identity is unknown.
2 Emeric The Evil
He Used The Elder Wand To Terrorize England
Emeric the Evil was a powerful Dark Wizard during the Middle Ages, although the exact years of his date of birth, death, or the time he was active and gained his reputation and place in the history books are unknown. It's also not known what exactly he did to gain the name Emeric The Evil, with his only mention in the Harry Potter books beyond his association with the Elder Wand being that the Hogwarts history teacher, Professor Binns, consistently gets him confused with a contemporary wizard named Uric the Oddball.
However, it is established that Emeric the Evil was the next named owner of the Elder Wand after Antiocuh Peverell. He came into possession of the Elder Wand at an unspecified time but used it throughout the early portions of the Middle Ages to attack England. The specifics of his conquests are not known, but he was eventually killed in a duel with the Elder Wand's next owner.
3 Egbert the Egregious
He Gained The Wand When He Killed Emeric
The next wizard to take command of the Elder Wand was another figure from the Middle Ages — Egbert the Egregious. Egbert was another Dark Wizard who lived at the same time as Emeric the Evil, though there is even less revealed about his life. Egbert the Egregious became the owner of the Elder Wand following his slaughtering of Emeric. It's insinuated that the duel between Emeric and Egbert was especially fierce.
Egbert the Egregious mastered the powerful wand, but Harry Potter lore hasn't revealed much about what he did with it. Dumbledore suggests that his time with the Elder Wand didn't last very long. It isn't confirmed who defeated the evil wizard to take the Elder Wand immediately after him. However, a key detail to note is that Egbert is the only known owner of the Elder Wand to acquire it after defeating the previous holder in a direct duel, with the only other to do so being Albus Dumbledore.
4 Godelot
He Wrote A Book About The Elder Wand & Horcruxes
The history of the Elder Wand isn't well documented, and details about how the next owner, the Dark Wizard Godelot, acquired it aren't well known (or, at least, aren't revealed in the Harry Potter books or movies). Godelot became one of the Elder Wand owners sometime later, making it possible that he was the one who killed Egbert. However, given that his time with the wand is documented to happen around a century after Egbert the Egregious, it's also likely there was one (or several) other owners during this time.
Unlike most of the past owners, Godelot didn't use the Elder Wand for conquests. Instead, he wrote the book "Magick Moste Evile" (the book that taught Voldemort about Horcruxes) after learning about their powers and filled the book with information on dark magic. Godelot died during the Middle Ages in a cellar after being locked in it by the Elder Wand's next owner, his son, Hereward.
5 Hereward
He Killed His Father To Gain The Elder Wand
In Rowling's wealth of Harry Potter lore, the next owner of the Elder Wand is Hereward. While very little is known about Hereward, his time with the Elder Wand marks one of the darkest turns in the Harry Potter canon, and seems almost a juxtaposition to the relatively family-friendly tone of the rest of Wizarding World lore. Hereward is the son of Godelot who locked his father in a cellar and leaving him to starve to death to gain ownership of the Elder Wand.
Hereward's accomplishments with the Elder Wand have not been explored in any Harry Potter material thus far. However, since he was alive during the Middle-ages, it's entirely possible he used it for some incredibly nefarious purposes, since what's been revealed about the Wizarding World during this time is incredibly dark compared to the modern day in Harry Potter. Hereward eventually lost the Elder Wand, but it is unknown who took it from him or how he was defeated.
6 Barnabas Deverill
He Used The Elder Wand To Become A Fearsome Warlock
The history of the Elder Wand is near-blank for the next few centuries, with nothing revealed about the next owners after Hereward until several centuries later, when it came into the position of a warlock named Barnabas Deverill. Barnabas Deverill came to own the Elder Wand in the eighteenth century. His time with the wand helped gain him the reputation of a "fearsome warlock," according to Albus Dumbledore.
The term Warlock is a little hazy in the Wizarding World, as it's sometimes incorrectly used as an alternative to Wizard. It's widely accepted that, in the case of Barnabas Deverill, it's the traditional meaning that denotes a wizard of great, albeit fearsome, skill. However, it is not known what Barnabas did with the Elder Wand that brought him such fame. The only concrete detail about Barnabus' time with the Elder Wand was that he lost it after being murdered by the next owner, Loxias.
7 Loxias
Loxias Was The First To Call The Elder Wand The Deathstick
Loxias became the owner of Harry Potter's infamous Elder Wand after murdering Barnabas Deverill in the eighteenth century. Like the rest of the Wand's previous known owners, Loxias was an evil magic user who sought the legendary wand to morally dubious reasons. The Dark Wizard Loxias came to master the wand and used it to kill any enemy who dared stand in his way.
Like Barnabus Deverill, little is known about Loxias' life or what he got up to while being the wielder of the most powerful wand in the Wizarding World. However, it is known that Loxias is responsible for coining the Deathstick name for the Elder Wand. It is unknown how many people Loxias defeated with the Elder Wand or who specifically killed him. Many wizards claimed to be responsible for his death, including his mother. According to the historian Xenophilius Lovegood though, the most likely candidates are Arcus or Livius.
8 Arcus Or Livius
Their Time As Elder Wand Owners Remains A Mystery
The fact that the history of the Elder Wand is mysterious is embodied by the fact that, following Loxias, the next owner could have been one of two people — and there have been literally no details revealed about either beyond their names. According to Xenophilius Lovegood, Loxias' killer and the next Elder Wand owner was likely either Arcus or Livius.
There is not much known about either possible owner of the Elder Wand. It's not even established if they were Dark Wizard's or not, and it's entirely possible that they defeated Loxias to end his reign of terror instead of wanting to acquire the Elder Wand for themselves. It's also not clear what their relationship with one-another was, or why Xenophilius Lovegood is so certain that it was one of the two of them (suggesting that they may have taken down Loxias together). Both of them were killed by an unknown wizard, allowing the Elder Wand ownership to pass.
9 Mykew Gregorovitch
He Sold Wands To Many Powerful Wizards
Following the wand's time with Arcus or Livius, there's a small gap where it passed on to an unknown owner. However, following this, the history of the Elder Wand becomes documented in much clearer detail. The next owner was the wandmaker Mykew Gregorovitch. Gregorovitch (who probably sold Gellert Grindelwald his very first wand) became the owner and master of the Elder Wand sometime in the 1900s.
He was an expert wand maker and became quite knowledgeable about wand lore. He eventually came into possession of the Elder Wand through unknown means. Gregorovitch attempted to duplicate the Elder Wand's power for some time and then tried to use it to improve business at his shop. However, this led to the Elder Wand being stolen by Gellert Grindelwald, who become the rightful owner after stunning Gregorovitch as he escaped.
10 Gellert Grindelwald
Grindelwald Used The Elder Wand To Gain Great Power
The man who stole the Elder Wand from Gregorovitch was Gellert Grindelwald, who is perhaps the most prominent Dark Wizard to ever live with the exception of Lord Voldemort. Gellert decided to steal the Elder Wand as part of his desire to obtain the Deathly Hallows, and deduced that Gregorovitch was the current owner due to the latter's boastful nature and experiments with duplicating its power.
The stunning spell Gellert cast on Gregorovitch was enough to make him the new Elder Wand owner. Grindelwald owned the Elder Wand for decades and used its powers to terrorize Europe. His use of the wand in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore allowed him to reanimate a dead Gillin to choose him at the Wizarding election. Gellert continued using the Elder Wand beyond this point, leading to a confrontation with Albus Dumbledore. Albus defeats him in combat, leading Gellert to return to Azkaban.
11 Albus Dumbledore
Dumbledore Used The Elder Wand For Good
Albus Dumbledore achieved ownership of the Elder Wand after the legendary duel with Gellert Grindelwald. He is one of the few owners who didn't use the Elder Wand for evil, and also never seemed to reveal that it was in his possession. Albus possessed the Elder Wand for the next 40 years of his life and took it with him to his grave. However, it should be noted that this wasn't the reason Dumbledore was such a powerful wizard, as he was known as having an incredible aptitude for magic even before defeating Grindelwald.
During his time with the Elder Wand, Albus used its magnificent powers for good and helped earn him the reputation of the world's most powerful wizard. He used the Elder Wand in several instances during the Harry Potter story, including duels with Voldemort in the Ministry of Magic Atrium and saving Harry from the Inferi. Although the Elder Wand was with Dumbledore in his grave, it switched owners before he died.
12 Draco Malfoy
Draco Gained The Elder Wand By Accident
Of all the known owners of the Elder Wand, Draco Malfoy stands out as something of an anomaly, as he was perhaps the only one to gain the right to wield it completely unintentionally. In fact, it's entirely possible that Malfoy didn't even know the Elder Wand existed, and may have only been aware of it due to the legend of the Deathly Hallows.
Draco Malfoy was not the one who killed Albus Dumbledore, as Severus Snape intervened. Still, he did become the rightful owner of the Elder Wand after disarming the powerful wizard. Draco was unaware that he was the true owner of the Elder Wand at that moment and never wielded it.
13 Lord Voldemort
Voldemort's Pursuit Of The Elder Wand Led To His Downfall
The most infamous owner of the Elder Wand was undoubtedly Lord Voldemort, and possession of it was a key part of his plans to become the most powerful wizard who ever lived. Voldemort was searching for the Elder Wand even before Dumbledore's death, and his search for the wand led him to meet and kill Gregorovitch and Grindelwald for information.
This led Voldemort to eventually learn it was Dumbledore's, and he broke into his grave to steal it. Voldemort knew that Snape was responsible for killing Dumbledore and set out to kill him so that he'd become the rightful owner of the Elder Wand. Although he successfully killed Snape, Voldemort was unaware Draco had disarmed Dumbledore moments before and that Draco, as one of the Elder Wand owners, prevented Voldemort from successfully using it.
14 Harry Potter
Harry Potter Was The Last Of The Elder Wand Owners
Like Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter was one of the only owners of the Elder Wand who came to possess it completely unintentionally. Harry Potter became the owner of the Elder Wand after a skirmish with Draco led Harry to rip Draco's wand from his hand. Even though this was not the Elder Wand, the disarmament of Draco in any fashion still meant that the Elder Wand's ownership had now secretly passed to Harry.
He didn't realize what had happened until his final duel with Voldemort at Hogwarts. With the wand's allegiance to Harry, Voldemort's attempt to use the Killing Curse on Harry backfired and killed him instead. Harry repairs his original wand and then breaks the Elder Wand in half, making him the last Elder Wand owner.
The Elder Wand’s Powers Explained
The Elder Wand is described in the Harry Potter books as the "most powerful wand in existence." The wand is made from the wood of an elder tree with the hair of a Thestral's tail as the core. The Thestral hair core is said to be incredibly difficult to tame and deeply unlucky. Somehow, it works for the Elder Wand, whose allegiance to its user is total. The only way that the Elder Wand can be won is through a disarming charm, theft, or by taking it out of the wizard's hands. The legendary Deathly Hallow isn't given a list of powers, per se, but it has been shown to perform incredible feats.
It's said to perform the most complicated of magic, even if the Elder Wand owners aren't all that capable. It can also mend wands, as Harry fixes his own in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. That doesn't mean that the Elder Wand can do everything, though. For example, while under Dumbledore's possession, the wand couldn't un-petrify the students during Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It also couldn't fix Dumbledore's withered hand or counteract the effects of Voldemort's potion in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. So, while the Elder Wand is a mighty tool of death and destruction, it does have its limitations.
Harry Potter Canon Is Really The Journey Of The Elder Wand
When one looks at the Harry Potter series in its entirety, the whole story could be considered a journey of the Elder Wand and the Deathly Hallows. From the beginning of the book series, Dumbledore had the Elder Wand. He also had the second piece of the Deathly Hallows, the invisibility cloak, which he saved for when Harry got to Hogwarts. The Hogwarts headmaster came in possession of the final Deathly Hallow when he acquired Voldemort's Horcrux ring, which held the resurrection stone.
Dumbledore knew from the beginning, or at least guessed, that the only way Harry could live would be to have all three Hallows in his possession. Though the Elder Wand was only introduced in the last book, Dumbledore always intended it to be passed on to Harry. While it took a while to get there, the Harry Potter canon hinges on the possession of the Elder Wand, and Harry becomes the complete master of death.
Will Fantastic Beasts Ever Get To Show The Famous Dumbledore/Grindelwald Duel?
Custom image by SR Image Editor
In the Fantastic Beasts franchise, Gellert Grindelwald is the holder of the Elder Wand. Anyone who has read the Harry Potter series knows that Dumbledore defeats Grindelwald in a legendary battle, therefore becoming the Elder Wand owner. Fantastic Beasts 3's ending saw a small scrimmage between the two, but certainly not the harrowing battle that legend speaks of. By the end of the movie, Grindelwald is still holding the Elder Wand. The Fantastic Beasts series was supposed to have five films.
Due to the poor critical reception of The Crimes of Grindelwald and The Secrets of Dumbledore, a fourth installment might not happen. Coupled with this are the numerous controversies surrounding Johnny Depp and Ezra Miller. People will not get to see the legendary fight between Grindelwald and Dumbledore. Instead, Warner Bros. is going back to the well and creating a 10-season Harry Potter series for Max, which will re-tell the story from the books in a long-form format, where much more of the lore can play out for fans to see.
You Can Now Hold The Elder Wand In Hogwarts Legacy
Players of the Harry Potter game Hogwarts Legacy can now become one of the Elder Wand owners. They don’t have to defeat Albus Dumbledore or Harry Potter himself to do it either. There are a few different ways to access the Elder Wand, and they go against the lore of it from the books and the movies somewhat. After all, there’s no battle to gain it from an enemy.
Instead, in Hogwarts Legacy, if players have their WB Games account connected to a Wizarding World website account, they’re able to gain the Elder Wand through their participation in the Sorting Ceremony quiz. There, the Elder Wand, though with a possibly different core material, ends up in their possession. The only other way to become one of the Elder Wand owners in the game is a temporary one. As part of the game’s story, a Hogwarts Legacy player can wield the Elder Wand during one of the game’s final trials, but possession only lasts during the trial itself.
An approximation of the Elder Wand can also be created when the player gets their wand from Olivander’s. All the player has to do is use the same specifications as the Elder Wand: Elder wood type, fourteen and a half inches in length, unyielding flexibility, and a ringed/dark brown wand style. The core can be the player’s choice. It’s an interesting choice for Hogwarts Legacy since the Deathly Hallows have such an intricate mythology connected to them in the Harry Potter books and movies. The mythology is largely absent from the Harry Potter game. Instead, the Elder Wand is simply a very powerful object.
What's Known About Who Owned The Other Deathly Hallows
The Elder Wand is arguably the most powerful magical artifact in the Harry Potter universe. However, it's one of three Deathly Hallows, and the other two - the Resurrection Stone and The Cloak of Invisibility - are incredibly useful in their own right. Each has also been possessed by several well-known witches and wizards, just like the various owners of the Elder Wand.
The Cloak of Invisibility is, of course, Harry Potter's invisibility cloak. Invisibility cloaks are commonplace in the Wizarding World, but none hide their wearer as efficiently as Harry's Cloak of Invisibility. As far as the Harry Potter canon goes, only two wizarding families have possessed the Cloak of Invisibility - the Peverells (starting with Ignotus Peverell), and the Potters.
The Peverells owned the Cloak of Invisibility until the 20th century when, by means unknown, it came into the possession of Henry Potter, Harry's grandfather. Henry passed it down to his son, James Potter. Upon James's death, the Cloak of Invisibility was owned (but never used) by Dumbledore who, as every Harry Potter fan knows, gave it to Harry during The Boy Who Lived's first year at Hogwarts.
While certainly a dramatic moment, this was the closest that the history of the Resurrection Stone or the Invisibility Cloak came to the bloodsoaked past of the Elder Wand
The history of the Resurrection Stone is a little less documented. Dumbledore believed that the Resurrection Stone was created by Cadmus Peverell, one of the three Peverell brothers. The stone was possibly attached to a ring by Cadmus Peverell, though this isn't confirmed. Waht is known is that, at some point, the Resurrection Stone was passed down from a Peverell to a member of the Gaunt family.
Exactly when this happened hasn't been confirmed by J.K. Rowling, though presumably the heirloom was with the Gaunts for several generations before being passed down to Marvolo Gaunt, the grandfather of Lord Voldemort/Tom Riddle. However, the ring didn't pass directly to Voldemort as it had his ancestors.
After Marvolo Gaunt's death, the Resurrection Stone was handed down to Voldemort's uncle, Morfin Gaunt. Tom Riddle Jr. stole the ring after framing Morfin for the murder of several Muggles (Voldemort's non-magic family members specifically). While certainly a dramatic moment, this was the closest that the history of the Resurrection Stone or the Invisibility Cloak came to the bloodsoaked past of the Elder Wand in Harry Potter.
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Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a multimedia franchise about an orphaned boy who enrolls at Hogwarts School of Wizardry, where he learns the truth about himself, his family, and the terrible evil that haunts the magical world. Adapted from the novels, Harry Potter is an eight-episode film saga that follows the journey of Harry Potter and his friends, Hermoine Granger and Ron Weasley, as they navigate the tricky world of growing up, school life, and magic. Starting from year one and moving to their seventh year, the films chronicle the students' time at Hogwarts while unfurling a sinister plot that centers around the unsuspecting Harry. With the return of the dark wizard, Voldemort, the students and professors at Hogwarts will fight to carry on as the world around them may change forever. Harry Potter has expanded beyond the world of its films and novels with several video games, a spin-off film series titled Fantastic Beasts, and even attractions at Universal Studios.
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