Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In this video, we’re going to be
discussing what dark arts spellbook ‘Magick Most Evile’ describes as follows:
"Of the Horcrux, wickedest of magical inventions, we shall not speak nor give direction —"
I am of course talking about Horcruxes.
Pottermore describes Horcruxes as follows:
A Horcrux is created when a wizard takes an object and binds a piece of their soul to
it. The purpose is immortality, with the logic going that as long as a piece of your soul
survives within the object, then you can never truly die. It’s magic so Dark, so heinous,
that it was kept a secret from most of the wizarding world. Yet despite many trying,
there are only two known wizards to have discovered how to perform it: an Ancient Greek Dark wizard
called Herpo the Foul, who created one Horcrux; and Voldemort, who mastered the spell and
created seven.
But, what I’ve always wondered, is why the death eaters didn’t follow in Voldemort’s
footsteps and create horcruxes for themselves? Surely Voldemort would have entrusted someone
like Bellatrix with the knowledge of how to create one, wouldn’t he?
Dumbledore once described Tom Riddles school gang as “a mixture of the weak seeking protection,
the ambitious seeking glory, and the thuggish seeking a leader who could show them more
refined cruelty”. It was these same students that are considered to be the forerunners
to what-would-become the Deatheaters that we see later on in the books and films. Deatheaters
are pure-blood radical supremacists that cast unforgivable curses without remorse, and torture
muggles, half-bloods, and blood-traitors alike. Death eaters murder people willy nilly, so
it’s not unreasonable to expect that they would be willing to MURDER to achieve immortality.
Furthermore, the death eaters were hellbent on maintaining pure magical bloodlines in
the wizarding community, and one very effective way of doing that would be to remain immortal
AS a pure-blood. So, is it just that the Death Eaters were left in the dark by voldemort-unaware
of what it was that he had achieved- or was it that the creation of a horcrux was just
too imposing. After all, horcrux creation was even too dark to be properly mentioned
in a book ABOUT the dark arts.
The following quote from Voldemort suggests that at least some of the death eaters knew
SOMETHING about what he had done:
"And then I ask myself, but how could they have believed I would not rise again? They,
who knew the steps I took, long ago, to guard myself against mortal death?"
He says it right there: ‘who knew the steps I took’ - surely this suggests that he had
educated them on the process. Here’s what I think: I think that Voldemort
told his followers about Horcruxes, but I don’t think that he ever delved in to the
specifics. And I think that the reason that he never delved in to the specifics wasn’t
to hide the process from them, but because he didn’t believe that they were strong
enough to go through with it. Creating a horcrux is one of the most difficult, extreme and
unknown magical processes known in the wizarding world, and if it was hard-going for someone
like VOLDEMORT, one of the most innately powerful wizards of all time, then how can we reasonably
expect that the death eaters would be successful. Why would he encourage and risk-losing his
followers to a process that he knew that they wouldn’t be able to handle? I think that
if he were to have trusted anyone with this knowledge, it would have been Snape, as he
was arguably the most powerful death eater.
JK Rowling described the process of creating horcruxes as ‘dangerous’ and ‘highly
inadvisable’:
“Yeah, but I would imagine that other people, you know, other people are going to have tried.
I think it would be naive not to think that people have been trying for a long time, and
thought they succeeded and hadn't, or else, or else you know maim themselves or kill themselves
in the attempt. It's such a dangerous thing to do.”
Additionally, Voldemort didn’t want the world to know how he was immortal. If Voldemort
told everyone about Horcruxes, and it became common knowledge what they were, he would
be exposing his achilles heel.
So, why didn’t the death eaters create horcruxes? Because it was too much for them to handle.
Even Grindelwald, who is in contention with Voldemort as the most powerful dark wizard
of all time, never created a horcrux. Grindelwald was so so knowledgeable and versed in the
dark arts that I have no doubt in my mind that he knew what they were. SO I think the
fact that he never created one says something. However, I think that I might reserve the
rest of my thoughts on Grindelwald and horcruxes for another video.
The creation of Horcruxes is nothing to scoff at, and Slughorn encapsulates the risk well
with the following quote:
“Few would want to live in such a form and death would be preferable to most”
And that’s it for this video! If you enjoyed it, please like the video and subscribe to
the channel! Until next time, YER A WIZARD ARRY.