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Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video, we’re going
to be discussing two of the darkest, most powerful wizards that the wizarding world
has ever seen. I am of course talking about Voldemort and Grindelwald. More specifically-
I’m going to be discussing Voldemort’s wild goose chase in tracking Grindelwald down,
and WHY he did it. Grindelwald was famously defeated by Dumbledore in 1945, and that news
was spread far and wide- so what could Grindelwald possibly offer Voldemort? Why would he still
possess a certain wand?
Voldemort and Grindelwald, during their respective pursuits of power over the course of history,
were each able to shake the wizarding world to its core. However, it should be noted that
these men did actually have quite different objectives. Grindelwald wanted to obtain the
Deathly Hallows, overthrow the statute of secrecy, and establish wizarding dominance
over the muggle world- with no particular goal to ‘eradicate’ muggles or muggle-borns.
Voldemort’s objective was much simpler - exterminate and enslave anyone that either opposed him
or didn’t come from a pure magical blood line. In this way, though they are both undoubtedly
evil, Voldemort was a lot more sinister.
And by the time 1945 rolled around, and Grindelwald’s own reign of terror was brought to an end-
Voldemort was just getting started in his own dark pursuits. The defeat of Grindelwald
only meant that were would be a brief pause in Tyranny, as in 1970 the first wizarding
war officially began.
At one stage in Voldemort’s resurgence, he becomes obsessed with acquiring the fabled
Deathly Hallow- The Elder Wand. This is because he knows that his current wand is tied to
Harry’s, which prevents him from killing Harry. However, he didn’t want just any
old wand. Voldemort had a massive ego, he knew that he was immensely powerful, which
prompted him to seek out a wand that he felt was befitting of him.
Voldemort first becomes obsessed with the notion of acquiring this wand after torturing
Ollivander. He does this after the wand that he borrows from Lucius ALSO fails to kill
Harry. It’s at this time that Ollivander discloses
a rumor to Voldemort which suggests that Gregorovitch may have the Elder Wand.
Voldemort then tracks down Gregorovitch, and- via torture and Legilimency, figures out that
the wand was stolen by an unidentifiable thief. It’s not until Voldemort later arrives at
Godric’s Hollow that he finds a picture of the same ‘thief’ in Bathilda Bagshot’s
house- finally uncovering the thief’s identity- Gellert Grindelwald.
This prompts Voldemort to visit Grindelwald at Nurmengard where he was imprisoned. The
‘cryptic’ conversation between the two is shared intermittently during the Malfoy
Manor scene.
Closing his puffy eyes, he allowed the pain in his scar to overcome him for a moment,
wanting to know what Voldemort was doing, whether he knew yet that Harry was caught.
. . .
The emaciated figure stirred beneath its thin blanket and rolled over toward him, eyes opening
in a skull of a face. . . . The frail man sat up, great sunken eyes fixed upon him,
upon Voldemort, and then he smiled. Most of his teeth were gone. . . .
“So, you have come. I thought you would . . . one day. But your journey was pointless.
I never had it.”
“You lie!”
As Harry spoke, his scar burned worse than ever, and for a few seconds he looked down,
not upon the wandmaker, but on another man who was just as old, just as thin, but laughing
scornfully.
“Kill me, then. Voldemort, I welcome death! But my death will not bring you what you seek.
. . . There is so much you do not understand. . . . ”
He felt Voldemort’s fury, but as Hermione screamed again he shut it out, returning to
the cellar and the horror of his own present.
At once, Harry’s scar felt as though it had split open again. His true surroundings
vanished: He was Voldemort, and the skeletal wizard before him was laughing toothlessly
at him; he was enraged at the summons he felt—he had warned them, he had told them to summon
him for nothing less than Potter. If they were mistaken . . .
“Kill me, then!” demanded the old man. “You will not win, you cannot win! That
wand will never, ever be yours—“ And Voldemort’s fury broke: A burst of green light filled
the prison room and the frail old body was lifted from its hard bed and then fell back,
lifeless, and Voldemort returned to the window, his wrath barely controllable.
So after a wild goose chase Voldemort visits Grindelwald and ends up killing him. But my
question is- why did he bother? Couldn’t he have already REASONABLY deduced that Grindelwald
was no longer in possession of the wand? Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s duel was FAMOUS.
“He (Harry) had never thought to ask Dumbledore about his past. No doubt it would have felt
strange, impertinent even, but after all, it had been common knowledge that Dumbledore
had taken part in that legendary duel with Grindelwald, and Harry had not thought to
ask Dumbledore what that had been like, nor about any of his other famous achievements.”
Grindelwald doesn’t give him any new information about the wand, and even goes as far as to
LIE about ever possessing it. What was the point of that trip to Nurmengard? Didn’t
he clue in to the fact that Dumbledore was the wands owner?
I think that ultimately, what this boils down to, is the fact that there’s no way that
Voldemort could have known whether or not Grindelwald was still master of the elder
wand during his duel with Dumbledore. He likely deduced that Dumbledore had become the true
owner of the wand after Grindelwald’s defeat, but this was something that he couldn’t
be certain of.
Therefore- the most rational course of action before jetsetting straight to Hogwarts would
be to visit Grindelwald and confirm his suspicions. By visiting Grindelwald, who was still very
much alive, he could save valuable time and energy by simply extracting the information
straight from the mouth of a man that was still living and breathing.
To add to this- Voldemort likely couldn’t resist an opportunity to visit a former dark
lord and assert his superiority. Voldemort was more powerful than ever, and Grindelwald
was a skinny old man rotting in a prison cell. Sure, Grindelwald was ONCE a powerful and
intimidating figure- but those days were long gone.To Voldemort, who pursued power above
all else, this display of dominance would be a veritable treat. It was a passing of
the torch.
Furthermore- it’s unlikely that Voldemort could have known about the methodology behind
the Elder Wand’s ownership- and the fact that ‘killing’ is not necessarily required
in order to become its true master. He probably thought that you HAD to kill in order to truly
own it- and when he saw that Gregorovitch was still alive, he was at a loss for who
the wands true owner actually was. This also likely means that Voldemort didn’t purely
travel to Nurmengard in order to question Grindelwald- but also had intentions to kill
him. By murdering Grindelwald, it eliminated the possibility of him somehow being the wands
true owner in the event that he did finally come across it.
I always find it interesting that Voldemort, being the intelligent wizard he was, got so
confused by the rules surrounding ownership of the Elder Wand. Voldemort was a beacon
of knowledge when it came to all different areas of magic, but it just so happened that
‘wandlore’ was his achilles heel.
And that’s it for this video!
Before I go- be sure to also check out my video where I discuss who is the more powerful
dark lord- Voldemort or Grindelwald.
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Until next time
Remember
It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.