Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In this video, we’re going to be
discussing and comparing two of the darkest wizards to have ever disgraced the wizarding
world - Voldemort and Grindelwald. Each man truly made his mark on the world of magic-
and during different periods of history were able to instill fear in to the hearts of wizardkind
as a whole. During Grindelwald’s reign of terror, there wasn’t a witch or wizard that
didn’t know his name, and it wasn’t until the year 1945, when Grindelwald was defeated,
that the wizarding world could finally sleep easy. However, it just so happens that in
that same year, 1945, Voldemort was finishing up at Hogwarts- meaning that he had already
begun to walk down the very dark path that he would eventually follow. Though the pair
never simultaneously terrorized the wizarding world, the end of Grindelwald only meant that
there was a brief pause in tyranny- as the first wizarding war began in 1970, when Voldemort
began his own reign of terror. 1970 marked Voldemort’s proclamation that
he was the new ‘Dark Lord’, and it was in this same year that he started to openly
perform acts of evil around Europe. Though Voldemort was eventually defeated by the Potters
in the year 1981, his regime lasted an impressive 11 years- a true testament to the power of
Voldemort and his followers. Dumbledore,who is widely considered to be the greatest and
most powerful wizard of all time, led the primary opposition against both wizards, and
in response to Voldemort’s assumption of power in 1970, Dumbledore formed the Order
of the Phoenix in 1971. Dumbledore, Grindelwald and Voldemort were
all immensely powerful wizards-uncomparable to anyone else, with the exception of perhaps
some of the fabled wizards of history. And while Voldemort and Grindelwald both led impressive
regimes, the light did eventually prevail over each of them. But while both dark wizards
eventually fell, there is much debate surrounding Grindelwald and Voldemort - who was actually
more powerful? Both were immensely talented from an extremely young age, and each of them
had exposure to Dumbledore- who is said to have been able to do things with a wand that
no one else could. To better compare them, let’s take a brief look at each of their
histories, and see if we can pick up any clues along the way.
We’ll start chronologically, and begin with Gellert Grindelwald.
Grindelwald was born in the year 1883, and in his younger years he was a student at Durmstrang
institute. While attending the school, Grindelwald began to demonstrate exceptional magic ability
at an extremely young age. However, his sadistic nature also quickly shone through, as not
far in to his studies he was expelled for experimenting with twisted and dark magic.
Grindelwald was a man that continually pushed the limits of his magical abilities and he
didn’t let ethical considerations of ‘good’ vs ‘bad’ magic stop him in his magical
endeavours. After being expelled, Grindelwald was intent
on achieving higher and higher levels of power, this mission for power eventually landed him
in Godric’s Hollow, England. What drew Grindelwald to Godric’s Hollow in the first place was
its connection to the fable of the Deathly Hallows- a story following three brothers,
Antioch, Cadmus, Ignotus, and their first hand experience with the personification of
death. After ‘cheating’ Death, Death, under the guise of congratulating them, awarded
them with 3 gifts: The elder wand, the resurrection stone, and the invisibility cloak. Long story
short, each brother chose one of the gifts that death had presented them. Ignotus (the
youngest) chose the invisibility cloak, Cadmus (the middle brother) chose the resurrection
stone, and Antioch (the eldest) chose the elder wand. It was expressed that any witch
or wizard that came in to the possession of these three Hallows would become the ‘Master’
of death - an all powerful witch or wizard that could achieve levels of power thought
previously unattainable. I think that you can probably imagine why a young Gellert Grindewald
would be interested in that.
When he first arrived in Godric’s Hollow he met Albus Dumbledore, and the two were
inseparable. As each young man was immensely magically talented, they were able to learn
a lot from one another, reaching new heights with regards to magical ability. They had
a lot in common, each as ambitious as the other. Not only that, but both boys shared
a common goal: to seek out and acquire all 3 of the deathly hallows: the cloak, the wand,
and the stone. Not only that, but their plan was to lead a wizarding revolution that would
effectively put an end to the international statute of secrecy, breaking down the ‘secretive’
divide between muggle and magical world. They didn’t want to hide in the shadows, they
wanted wizardkind, who they felt was superior to humankind, to take charge. However, things
didn’t go exactly according to plan, and Grindelwald and Dumbledore eventually parted
ways. At this point in time Grindelwald left Godric’s Hollow and embarked on his mission,
alone. Shortly after leaving, Grindelwald was actually able to obtain one of the hallows-
stealing the fabled elder wand from wand proprietor Mykew Gregorovitch. This was the beginning
of his regime which operated under the slogan ‘for the greater good’.
Grindelwald grew immensely in power over the years, and the public opinion quickly became
that Dumbledore would be the only man capable of stopping him. However, Dumbledore was reluctant
to pursue Grindelwald, mainly due to their history together. Dumbledore’s unwillingness
to fight Grindelwald stemmed from a blood-pact that the pair had entered in their youth,
in which each young man vowed never to fight the other. However, it has been expressed
that eventually, Grindelwald’s actions became just too terrible for Dumbledore to ignore-
not only that, but his power was reaching new heights. To let him get to a point at
which he could no longer be stopped would have been massively irresponsible.
Voldemort’s youth was not all too different from Grindelwald’s and both boys grew up
without a sense of what having a normal family was like. Voldemort was born in the year 1926,
to a muggle father, Tom Riddle Sr, and witch mother, Merope Gaunt- the daughter of Marvolo
Gaunt. Voldemort’s conception was very unusual, as the only reason that his parents ended
up together was because his mother used a love potion on his father. Merope suppressed
her magical abilities for many years, but when her father was imprisoned, she felt liberated,
and created said love potion.
Shortly after he drank the potion, Tom Riddle Sr became infatuated with Merope,and just
a few months later, the two were married and Merope was pregnant with Tom’s child. This
child would later go on to become Lord Voldemort. Eventually the effects of the love potion
wore off, which we assume Merope let happen naturally in the hopes that he had genuinely
fallen in love with her, he fled, and this led Merope down a very dark path.
She fell in to a deep, dark depression, and on new years eve in the year 1926, she went
to an orphanage and gave birth to her son, Tom Marvolo Riddle, Voldemort. Merope died
shortly after Riddle was born, after suffering from a broken heart, and because she was not
there to give Tom love and care, he grew up without any concept or notion of love. In
the year 1938, Dumbledore sought out a young Tom Riddle at Wool’s Orphanage in London,
and brought the troubled young magical prodigy to Hogwarts. From an extremely young age,
Riddle showcased intensely powerful innate magical abilities, he was a magical prodigy
if you will, and as he grew older,he began to harness his abilities. In fact, he became
unimaginably powerful-performing feats of magic that people thought previously impossible.
And he knew it too, proclaiming to Harry in The Heir of Slytherin that he was ‘The greatest
sorcerer in the world’. But, was he really? Or was he ousted out of that title by Dumbledore
and Grindelwald?
Voldemort went on to achieve some extremely impressive feats of magic, the most notable
of which was probably his creation of horcruxes. Whether creating horcruxes is actually difficult
or just very morally frowned upon,is unclear, but I expect that it probably involves a bit
of both.
So, both Voldemort and Grindelwald were magical prodigies from a young age that led their
own tyrannous regimes - but who would have been harder to stop? Let’s see what they’re
capable of. With his innate magical capabilities, and thirst for knowledge, Voldemort achieved
many impressive feats of magic over the course of his life. Including, but not limited to
things like unsupported flight, legilimency, horcrux creation, and mastery of offensive
spells like fiendfyre and avada kedavra. At least, these are the things that we see on
display coming from Voldemort.
While Voldemort’s skills were impressive, from the outside perspective it really does
seem as though Grindelwald knew more. Grindelwald had an extremely impressive magic arsenal,
and though some of the spells that he cast were also achievable by Voldemort, there were
also plenty of spells that I don’t think Voldemort ever knew. Both mastered the unforgivable
curses- crucio, imperio and avada kedavra, and both men were masters at transfiguration.
However, Grindelwald’s collection of offensive spells really seems to dwarf Voldemort’s.
Similar to Dumbledore, Grindelwald was a master of elemental magic, and in the Fantastic Beasts
films that we’ve seen so far, he has produced all sorts of lightning bolts, white elemental
blasts, tempest jinxes, and even Grindelwald’s piece de resistance- protego diabolica. I
honestly don’t think that I’ve ever seen a spell as overpowered as protego diabolica-
and if you can’t remember what it is, I’ll give you a quick reminder.
We first see Grindelwald use protego diabolica in the Lestrange mausoleum. Protego diabolica
is a dark spell that creates a ring of protective black fire around the target. Anyone who is
an enemy of the caster will be instantly incinerated when they try to enter the circle. The possibilities
of this spell seem endless, as it is not just a static circle of flames. We see Grindelwald
controlling the spell like a weapon, extending tendrils of black flames towards his enemies.
With these tendrils, Grindelwald was able to prevent aurors from escaping the mausoleum
via apparition. The spell eventually escalates in to what can only be described as a fiery
winged-demon, similar to fiendfyre. It’s a completely ridiculous spell that is simultaneously
offensive and defensive, and outclasses any other spell that we’ve seen before in Harry
Potter. That spell alone really gives him some extra points against Voldemort.
However, what should be mentioned is that the Grindelwald we see in the films possessed
the elder wand. Voldemort didn’t have the elder wand until the end of the HP films,
and even then, he wasn’t the true owner, and couldn’t properly master the wand. Grindelwald
was the genuine owner of what is considered to be, historically, the most powerful wand
in history, and so it only makes sense that with it he was able to produce magic previously
unheard of. Is this the sole reason that he could produce such absurd magic? That’s
anyone’s guess, but it’s definitely a consideration that needs to be made when comparing
these two dark wizards.
A counter-argument for this is the fact that Voldemort, who didn’t even possess the elder
wand, was able to effectively duel Dumbledore (supposedly the most powerful wizard of all
time), WHILE he bore the elder wand. And given that an elder-wandless Dumbledore defeated
an elder-wand BEARING Grindelwald, this seems like a point for Voldemort.
In the Harry Potter films, after Harry is finished looking in to the pensieve observing
Dumbledore’s first interaction with a young Tom Riddle, he has the following exchange
with Dumbledore:
"Did you know, sir? Then?..."
"Did I know that I had just met the most dangerous Dark wizard of all-time? No."
Whether or not this is an admittance that Voldemort is the most dangerous wizard of
all time is not 100% clear, but I’m willing to bet that there’s some truth behind Dumbledore’s
statement. ‘Most dangerous’ doesn’t necessarily mean most powerful, as one could
be less powerful and more destructive, but I think that this honestly might be another
point for Voldemort. And this is where the two dark wizards differ quite a lot. Voldemort
was certainly the more ‘destructive’ of the two, but again, this doesn’t mean that
he was more powerful. Grindelwald had a lot more humanity than Voldemort, and, while he
was ‘evil’ to some degree, he did have a concept of things like love and happiness.
Voldemort’s only joy came from doing terrible things. He was never happy or loved, even
in childhood, and so when he got older had no concept of either.
Grindelwald on the other hand, did find love in his life, and his ambitions of establishing
a new world order were not primarily driven by notions of evil or darkness- even if it
looked that way at times. Grindelwald genuinely felt that what he was doing was important
for the world, and that is why his slogan was ‘for the greater good’. He recognized
that a lot of his actions were wrong, but ultimately believed that his mission to establish
the global wizarding hierarchy was important for wizardkind. He felt that he was just helping
his people, even if it did oppress another people. This is perhaps the only reason why
Grindelwald never created horcruxes- he enjoyed life, and wanted to preserve his humanity,
but wasn’t preoccupied with the pursuit of immortality. Producing dark magic like
a horcrux comes at a price, and Voldemort was willing to do whatever it took. Here he
says it himself:
“I have experimented, I have pushed the boundaries of magic further, perhaps, than
they have ever been pushed.”
I think to truly determine which of these two wizards is more powerful, we first need
to see how exactly Dumbledore defeats Grindelwald. We know that there are 3 more Fantastic Beasts
films on the way, and that Dumbledore eventually beats him- but whether he received external
help or not is unclear. If Dumbledore is genuinely able to defeat an elder-wand wielding grindelwald
without possessing the elder wand himself, then I think that it would definitively mean
that Vodlemort is more powerful than Grindelwald. However, I’m far more impressed with the
magic that I’ve seen from Grindelwald- he just seems so in tune with his abilities.
He’s cool, calm and collected, and he seems to always have things under control. Voldemort,
at least later in life, always seems like he’s being bested and outsmarted by other
people, and in that respect, Grindelwald seems like he’s more on top of things. For now,
I’m going to just have to say that I think that Grindelwald and Voldemort are equals,
and I’m going to have to revisit this topic at a later date, when we see just a little
bit more of Grindelwald on screen. I always used to be of the impression that Voldemort
was just the most powerful, period, but I just can’t ignore what Grindelwald was able
to achieve in the latest films.
What do you guys think? Who is more powerful, Voldemort or Grindelwald? Let me know down
in the comment section below. Until next time
YER A WIZARD ARRY