- Hey, brother!
The Sword of Gryffindor, Ben,
yet another magical object shrouded in mystery.
For example, what does the Sword of Gryffindor
actually look like?
This is probably what you think of first.
This is how it looks in the movie after all.
And yet, this does little to nothing
to answer the actual question.
The only real descriptions we get are silver,
encrusted with rubies,
and that it says "Godric Gryffindor" on the blade.
And other than that,
it's really open to artistic interpretation.
For example, the very first image
most people ever saw of the sword
was right here on the cover of "Chamber of Secrets."
And it is plainly different than this,
largely because it looks so plain.
For one, there's no rubies at all.
It's got that knuckle bow on the handle,
and it has a fully circular crossguard
instead of just a single straight one like this.
And then it gets even worse.
If you open the book and look at the chapter art
for Chapter 18, Dobby's Reward,
where Dumbledore is holding the sword.
Now it has giant rubies, a curved blade,
and yet another variation of the crossguard.
But then on the original UK "Deathly Hallows" cover,
it's more of a dagger.
The illustrated version of "Chamber of Secrets"
has a full page spread of the sword,
but it's got way more gold in the handle
than is ever described.
Like, can anyone agree what this thing
is supposed to look like?
Actually, there are some theories out there
that suggest the sword changes its length, weight, and style
to best fit the Gryffindor in question
that it's presenting itself to.
And personally, I totally subscribe to that.
But that's only one mystery of the sword.
Today, I want to get to the bottom of a different one,
which is where does the sword go when it's not in use?
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- [J And Ben] Hey, brother!
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Hey, hey, remember when Voldemort walked into Hogwarts
and prematurely declared victory,
but then Neville pulls out the Sword of Gryffindor
and kills Nagini and Harry wakes up
and finishes off Voldemort?
Oh man, that was foolish.
(sighs)
But seriously it's Wednesday morning, where's the sword?
Michigan, Nevada, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia?
Anyway, let's first give a brief refresher on the sword.
It first shows up in "Chamber of Secrets"
when Harry is in the chamber of secrets.
Fawkes brings Harry the Sorting Hat.
He has no idea what to do with it,
but he slams it on his head,
and voila, the sword appears.
Harry picks it up, slays the basilisk,
and the rest is history.
And so the immediate questions are,
why did that come out of the hat?
And where was it before it came out of the hat?
It just doesn't seem safe to keep a sword in a hat
when that hat is going to be tried on
by a bunch of 11-year-olds every year.
It just seems like simple safety precautions.
Well, the first one's pretty easy.
The hat and the sword actually share a bit of a connection
because they were both owned by the same person originally,
Godric Gryffindor.
Or, well, I guess it kind of depends who you ask.
The goblins who made the sword would certainly tell you
that Godric Gryffindor had never truly owned the sword
and that he was only ever really renting it from them.
And that upon his death,
the sword should have been returned to them,
which personally, I always love the injection
of this viewpoint into the story because it presents Harry
with such an interesting moral dilemma.
Like who has the ultimate claim, the creator,
or the person who purchased the creation?
I mean, personally, I think you can separate
creator from creation, but that's just me.
Anyway, Godric clearly added some sort of magic
linking the two artifacts,
but that still doesn't answer where the sword goes
when no one's using it.
And you might think, well, J, it doesn't go anywhere.
It's just exactly where the last person had it.
I mean, after all, Harry pulls it
out of the hat in year two,
and then it just happily sits in Dumbledore's office
until Dumbledore himself needs it in year six
to destroy the ring.
And that's true, but let me fast forward you
to another moment with the sword
after Harry and friends break into Gringotts.
Griphook, the goblin, manages to steal the sword from them,
but then he gets struck down dead by Voldemort,
and whoosh, sword is gone.
So where is it then?
Where is it before it comes to Harry?
Well, believe it or not, we actually get
a pretty direct answer to the question
where do vanished objects go?
That question is one of the riddles offered by
the Ravenclaw common room door for them to gain access,
and Professor McGonagall answers it correctly.
"Where do vanished objects go?"
"'Into nonbeing, which is to say, everything,'
replied Professor McGonagall."
And guys, I don't know about you,
but that basically cleared up everything for me.
End of video.
Where is the sword?
Everywhere and nowhere.
Now, never, never anything was never not anywhere.
Why, how?
Because he's on third. Who's on third?
No, Who's on first. What?
Yeah, so I guess in the Wizarding World,
vanished objects are just in the ether,
but honestly that's not where I think the sword goes
because I don't think it's just
vanishing into the nothingness as much as it
is returning to a home base.
In fact, the author has even shared
some thoughts on the sword.
"Gryffindor's sword owes something to
the legend of Excalibur, the sword of King Arthur,
which in some legends must be drawn from a stone
by the rightful king.
The idea of fitness to carry the sword is echoed
in the Sword of Gryffindor's return
to worthy members of its true owner's house.
There is a further illusion to Excalibur
emerging from the lake when Harry must dive
into a frozen forest pool
to retrieve the sword in 'Deathly Hallows.'
For in other versions of the legend,
Excalibur was given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake,
and was returned to the lake when he died."
Ooh, okay, lots of interesting stuff in there.
First, I never really thought about it,
but yeah, I guess there are two versions
of the way in which Arthur gets Excalibur.
Sometimes it's the sword in the stone,
and sometimes it's given to him by the Lady of the Lake.
But then in some versions of the story, he gets two swords,
but only one of them is Excalibur.
And then in other version still,
he gets Excalibur twice, both ways,
and it's just never explained why it had
to be given to him twice.
Also, this is weird.
Merlin, who is known to have been a real wizard
within the world of Harry Potter,
was in Slytherin House and would have been alive
during the time that the stories
about King Arthur were being written.
But those stories don't take place in the present
of when they're being written.
They take place like 500 years before Hogwarts was founded,
but Merlin is in those stories,
so I don't exactly know how that works.
But all that is to say it's possible
that within the Wizarding World,
the Sword of Gryffindor literally was Excalibur,
the very sword upon which it was based,
which kind of feels paradoxical, if you ask me.
Honestly, it's not that important.
I just thought it was a fun aside.
The important part is that the author specifically says
the Sword of Gryffindor takes a lot of cues from Excalibur
and that Excalibur returns to the lake after Arthur is dead,
which to me means that the sword also returns
to some sort of home base.
Then there's also that notion of fitness to carry the sword
as it returns to worthy Gryffindors,
which seems to explain how characters
are able to pull it from the hat.
But I think there's another layer to this one,
which we actually get to see firsthand
when Ron rescues Harry from the freezing pond.
Afterwards, Harry tells Ron,
"'Because you got the sword out of the pool.
I think it's supposed to be you.'
He was not being kind or generous.
As certain as he had known that the doe was benign,
he knew that Ron had to be the one to wield the sword.
Dumbledore had at least taught Harry something
about certain kinds of magic,
of the incalculable power of certain acts."
In that moment, Ron is the master of the sword
because he's the one who jumped into the pool
and saved Harry and retrieved it,
which is why Ron is the one who has to use it
to destroy the horcrux,
which then of course begs the question,
what would have happened if Ron hadn't been the one
to try and destroy the horcrux?
And honestly, I think like if Harry had tried to do it,
it would have just disappeared again.
Every time we see the sword used as a sword,
like to actually swing and kill something,
it is being used by the current master of the sword.
Harry pulls it out, kills the basilisk.
Neville pulls it out, kills the Nagini.
Ron retrieves it from the pool, saves Harry,
destroys the horcrux.
In the meantime, though, there are no examples
of the sword being used as a sword by other people.
Sure, they can hold it.
They can examine it.
They can move it around if they want to.
But no one else actually tries to use it as a sword.
And if they did, I don't think it would have worked
based on what Harry tells Ron
after they get out of the pond.
But wait, you might be saying,
didn't Dumbledore use the sword to destroy the ring
and he didn't pull it out of the hat.
Actually, yes, you are right, he does do that.
But that's next week's video.
But this is why the sword is able to just remain
where it is in the physical world
for such long stretches of time,
because the master isn't actually changing.
I mean, you basically need to have the Sorting Hat,
and the Sorting Hat just sits in Dumbledore's office.
The demand for the sword out in the world
just isn't very high or, well, I guess it could be,
but the way in which it could be supplied is very limited.
But based on what we know, it makes sense to me
that if a non-master of the sword tried to wield it,
or if the sword just found itself completely lost,
it can always just vanish itself back to its home base,
which is where?
Well, believe it or not,
and it's actually not very hard to believe,
Hermione actually comes very close
to solving this exact problem
when she suggests they go to the very place
I'm sure you're already thinking of, Godric's Hollow.
Other than Hogwarts, it's the only other place
really associated with Godric Gryffindor.
And while Hogwarts, or I guess inside the hat,
are plausible answers,
Godric's Hollow is definitely the best option.
And as I said, it is in fact, the location
Harry and Hermione go looking for the sword
on Christmas Eve during "Deathly Hallows."
But the first hint that this is the real hiding place
of the sword comes in the name itself, Godric's Hollow.
Hollow can mean several different things,
most commonly, just something that is,
I guess, void on the inside, which feels like
a really dark way to describe something hollow,
but it can also refer to a V-shaped ravine or a valley,
or a place to cover, conceal, or save something.
And, oh my gosh, that's exactly what we're looking for,
a hiding place.
Godric's Hollow, Godric's hiding place.
But where in the town?
Well, my bet is that your first guess is
buried with him and you would be dead right.
Now to be fair, we don't actually know for sure
where Godric Gryffindor is buried.
We know that he was born in the town
and that's why the town was eventually named after him.
But I think he and the sword are also here.
I mean, first of all, this is a famous wizarding graveyard.
It's got the Peverells and the Dumbledores,
and the Potters, and the town is named after him.
That's a good start.
But two is the church the graveyard is attached to.
We finally learn in "The Cursed Child"
that the name of the church is St. Jerome's Church.
And that's significant here because I looked up St. Jerome,
and let me ask you if any of this sounds familiar.
St. Jerome is known as one of the four great
Latin fathers of the church,
and is often depicted in artwork,
accompanied by a, wait for it,
lion and the color red.
Like what?
But just wait. It gets better.
Remember how we were talking about Excalibur earlier?
Well, (clears throat) "In Robert de Boron's 'Merlin,'
the first tale to mention the sword and the stone motif,
Arthur obtained the British throne
by pulling a sword from an anvil
sitting a top of stone that appeared in a church yard
on Christmas Eve."
Are you kidding me?
I mean, Harry, the "The One," and Hermione
are at Godric's hollow looking for the sword
on Christmas Eve.
- [Hermione] Harry, I think it's Christmas Eve.
- Like, I'm sorry, but that is just not a coincidence.
Now granted, the sword isn't actually there
while Harry and Hermione are there,
but they do read this inscription,
and maybe this is just a coincidence,
on Kendra Dumbledore's grave.
"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
Now, in case you don't know,
that is a Bible verse, Matthew 6:21,
and it is normally interpreted as a warning,
not to have all of your love and attention
be on earthly matters because if it is,
that's where your treasure will be
and it won't be where it's supposed to be, on God.
But I can't help but notice
that in this very specific situation,
the treasure Harry is looking for, the sword, isn't there,
but we know it is at Hogwarts,
the place Harry Potter's heart always is.
But there you go, guys.
That is the hiding spot of Godric Gryffindor's sword
when it's not in use.
If not buried with him in the cemetery,
then at the very least, somewhere in that church.
But Ben, my question for you and everyone else is,
do you agree?
Is this the actual hiding spot of the sword?
If you have your own theories,
I would love to hear them in the Towel Section down below.
Guys, thanks as always for watching today's video.
Don't forget to leave a like on it if you haven't already,
and subscribe so you don't miss
any future Harry Potter action from us.
If you want to see our video about the missing horcrux
Voldemort must have had with him
when he was going to kill Harry as a baby,
you can check out this video right here.
Hint: it's also the sword.
But otherwise, Ben, until next time,
I will see you in another life, brother.