DD's defeat of Grindelwald

[justcarol67]

Jeremiah wrote:
 
> Hitler? Well, that's a well and good to speculate but i was asking
if Voldemort had any ties with Grindewald. The correlation to WW2,
IMO, is secondary. I am of this mindset because there isn't a
correlation between current events (meaning the events in the Muggle
World within the books) do not match up with things from WW2. So
having WW2 be a mirror/twin of Harry's current struggle isn't working
for me.
 
> However, I think it is a significant fact that Dumbledore fought and
won against Grindewald even if it is only mentioned 2 times in the
series. <snip> It is possible that we learn DD's secret to having
defeated Grindewald. <snip>

Carol responds:
I agree that the defeat of Grindelwald is significant. I think he's
the other wizard known by both DD and Voldemort to have had a Horcrux.
Young Tom (who I think made his first Horcruxes *after* the
conversation with Slughorn, not before) could have encountered him and
learned from him during, say, the summer between his sixth and seventh
years. Dumbledore does mention something about his "consorting with
the worst of our kind," and that surely includes Grindelwald. It's
possible--this is only wild speculation--that Dumbledore destroyed
Grindelwald;s Horcrux and Riddlemort, having learned all he needed to
know about Horcruxes, murdered him. Talk about a significant death to
make a Horcrux with!

As for his being defeated in 1945 (do we know that he died in the same
year?), I'm sure that's important for Tom Riddle's history, but I
think the WWII connection is also deliberate. Not that Grindelwald is
Hitler--he certainly wouldn't champion a "superrace" of blond
Muggles--but I think we're meant to see an analogy between him (or his
successor, Voldemort) and Hitler. At any rate, I'm as intrigued as you
are by Grindelwald and am curious to find out what JKR will say about
him in DH.

BTW, Grindelwald is a city or town in Switzerland. Someone did a post
on the etymology of the name some time back. I think there's a
connection with Grendel, the monster in Beowulf. Sorry I don't have
time to check into it now.

Carol, still happily celebrating Snape's birthday