Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video- we’re going
to be discussing two of the most important characters in the entire Harry Potter series-
Dumbledore and Voldemort. By the time the books begin- Dumbledore and Voldemort already
have quite an established relationship- both acting as the magical powerhouse for their
respective side in the the wizarding power struggle.
However, Voldemort and Dumbledore go WAY back- as it was Dumbledore himself that first visited
Voldemort in Wool’s Orphanage- revealing to him the magical world and helping to ‘normalize’
his magical abilities so that he could feel that he was a part of something. In the Half-Blood
Prince, we see Dumbledore visiting Voldemort through the pensieve- and it is in this moment
that we first get a glimpse at the troubled young boy that was destined to wreak havoc
in the magical world. When Dumbledore shows him magic for the first time, he’s in awe,
and it’s not long after that Dumbledore formally invites him to Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft & Wizardry. However, at this point in time Voldemort went by another name- Tom
Marvolo Riddle- with ‘Tom’ coming from his father Tom Riddle Sr, and ‘Marvolo’
coming from his maternal grandfather Marvolo Gaunt.
The truth is that before even beginning at Hogwarts Tom knew that he was different. He
caused massive amounts of trouble at the orphanage where he lived- and he could do things that
other children couldn’t- triggering an identity crisis of sorts.
Because Tom was conceived via a love potion, he was incapable of feeling certain emotions-like
love- and this was ultimately one of the main reasons that he went down the path that he
did. As he grew older, Riddle-in a cloud of darkness- began to obsess over his identity
and where he had come from. He started researching his family history, and eventually came to
understand his relationship to Hogwarts founder, Salazar Slytherin. He also connected the dots
and was able to figure out who his blood family members were. This eventually brought him
back to Little Hangleton, the same town that his father, Tom Riddle Sr, as well as the
Gaunts lived. Riddle, angered by the way that he and his mother had been treated, ended
up murdering his, in his own words, ‘filthy muggle father’, and this truly cemented
the dark path that he was to follow. After returning to Hogwarts, Riddle ended up setting
the Basilisk loose on the students of the school, and it was at this point that he had
fully adopted his new name: Lord Voldemort. Intent on putting that part of his existence
behind him entirely- he created his new ‘persona’ in order to escape his past and start anew.
Tom hated his name and loathed when it was used- however one man, the same man that found
him as a troubled young boy in a quiet orphanage- never stopped using it.
The name Voldemort is of particular significance to his character as, broken apart to ‘vol
de mort’ it literally translates to ‘theft of death’ or ‘flight of death’ in French.
Many believe that this choice of name is in reference to Voldemort’s evasion of death
via the use of Horcruxes. By splitting his soul in to pieces, Voldemort effectively achieved
immortality, subsequently stripping death of the capacity to take Voldemort’s lifeforce
or soul.
The very name ‘Voldemort’ incited fear in the hearts of wizardkind- a well earned
reputation on Voldemort’s part through incessant acts of tyranny and murderous tendencies.
However, his name also seemingly had power beyond that- power that no other dark wizard
had held over the general population. Wizardkind feared uttering the dark lords name entirely
which resulted in workarounds like ‘you-know-who’ and ‘he-who-shall-not-be-named’- but-
WHY was it so powerful?
Many have speculated that the practice of saying ‘You-know-who’ and other workarounds
in place of Voldemort began during the First Wizarding War-and it’s all because of something
called the ‘taboo’ curse. The taboo curse is a particularly powerful bit of magic as
it is able to designate a word as a key that reveals the speaker’s location. This meant
that whenever Voldemort’s name was uttered - it would alert Death eaters and snatchers
to the location of the speaker. A good example of this taboo curse in action is in the last
book when the trio are camping and Harry says Voldemort’s name out loud. This ultimately
causes them to get caught by the snatchers-shortly thereafter being taken to Malfoy Manor. So,
unsurprisingly, most witches and wizards did not want that happening- they didn’t want
to deal with Voldemort, Snatchers or Death Eaters. Makes sense- HOWEVER- my issue with
this is that Dumbledore was always such a strong advocate of using his name:
"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All
this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense - for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people
to call him by his proper name: Voldemort." Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore,
who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if
we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying
Voldemort's name."
"I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring.
"But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, Voldemort,
was frightened of."
So why did Dumbledore- taboo curse and all- encourage people to say Voldemort’s name?
Was he purposely endangering people?
The following exchange between Harry and Dumbledore helps to illustrate this:
“Sir?” said Harry. “I’ve been thinking… sir — even if the Stone’s gone, Vol-,
I mean, YouKnow-Who —”
“Call him Voldemort, Harry. Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases
fear of the thing itself.”
As we can see here- the reason that Dumbledore wants people to call him by his new name-
Voldemort- is because he wants to take away the fear associated with it. In Dumbledore’s
view- the fear associated with Voldemort’s name only increases his level of power and
influence. By openly using his name, and getting others to use his name, this overarching fear
is taken away, and would likely result in more people joining together to stand against
him. Voldemort thrives on inciting fear in the hearts of witches and wizards, and without
that same level of fear his power is stripped in a way. All Voldemort ever wanted was to
be special- powerful, out of the ordinary- and that’s part of the reason that he got
rid of his old identity. So what, you may ask, is the best way to strip him of that
new power? Acknowledge him as if he never changed- as if he was still the same little
confused boy in the orphanage- Tom. Voldemort never liked any of his names, and was very
open about it from a very young age. In the Half Blood Prince Riddle even says to Dumbledore,
very irritably, ‘there are a lot of Toms’.
With an active taboo- it’s hard to ignore the element of fear associated with the name,
however, the truth is that if everyone were to say it, and it became commonplace, then
noone would be anymore targeted than if noone said it at all. It’s shaky territory- particularly
if you find yourself feeling brave and ahead of the curve- but it’s a necessary risk.
However, despite encouraging people to use the name ‘Voldemort’, Dumbledore himself
would often call Voldemort by his real name - ‘Tom’. Not only did this strip him of
his power, but it annoyed him to no end, as in Voldemort’s eyes it was blatantly disrespectful
to the transformation that he had undergone. In my eyes, I think that it would have been
more powerful if Dumbledore had in fact encouraged people to call him ‘Tom’ or ‘Tom Riddle’
instead of Voldemort, as this would have humanized him- the very thing that Voldemort always
tried to escape. The problem with this is that not many people knew that Voldemort was
in fact Tom Riddle. Voldemort was a well known name across the wizarding world- Tom Riddle
was not, and to try to educate everyone on his former identity instead of simply leveraging
his new identity may have been a wasted effort. Additionally, I would imagine that a large
consideration for Dumbledore would have been Voldemort’s awareness regarding the security
of his horcruxes. If Dumbledore had openly discussed Voldemort’s childhood name, it
would have placed attention on his upbringing- more specifically the aspects of his upbringing
that may be related to his horcruxes. The last thing that Dumbledore would have wanted
is for Voldemort to become extra-protective of his them, as this would have invariably
made his defeat much more difficult.
And that’s it for this video! If you guys have any questions about this or things to
add then comment them down below. Until next time,
There is no good and evil. There is only power... and those too weak to seek it.
Who said that? Comment down below.