Wand wanderings

[Tabouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 32310

Elizabeth:
> I used to assume Rowling hadn't put an awful lot of thought into the wand
descriptions, just plenty of adjectives to make them amusing. But after reading
the posts about the meaning of trees, I'm not so sure.<

Ever since I read that the wand chooses the wizard and that Voldemort's wand was made of yew (a well-know poisonous Wood of Evil) Harry's of holly (a well-known Wood of Good: Holly and his merry men they dance and they sing), and Hagrid's of oak (strong, stalwart, large tree) I knew she was up to something.  After all, as an author pruning symbolism from all manner of sources, surely she knows that there is a whole host of symbolism attached to various trees in Celtic mythology!  Makes me want to dig out all those mythology books and investigate what everyone else's wood means.  Though I'm not personally convinced that wand length means anything at all.

rachelrenee1:
> Harry notes the decrepit looking Fawkes just before he burns 
drops "another tail feather."  (...) Why are these feathers not 
collected and used for wands?<

Ahhh, yes, I actually wrote a rather silly post a couple of weeks ago where I suggested that the Fawkes-wand connection trick is absolutely *bursting* with possibilities (for a start, Harry's wand is obviously a wonderful anti-V weapon for anyone who chooses to nick it - and Barty Jnr managed that easily enough).  I'd say wand cores would have to be given willingly for it to work, otherwise what's to stop someone drugging Fawkes' birdseed, stripping him, and using all his feathers to make more anti-V weapons?

As for the Power of Fawkes, my favorite theory so far is that he is Godric Gryffindor himself, transformed permanently into an immortal phoenix so that he can watch over the Wizarding World.  As for why Godric would donate a feather to Voldemort, um, um, maybe Salazar transformed himself into a yew tree??

Melissa:
> It's hard for me to believe that the wand Tom Riddle bought as
an 11 year old would be the wand he used as Voldemort.<

Y'know, much as there's all this "first wand" stuff as evidence, I myself am convinced that Tom Riddle's current wand *is* the same one he got as an eleven year old.  Does anyone seriously think Harry will be upgrading to a new wand ever?  Tom's life parallels Harry's, and I think that he, too, got a mega-wand as a scarily talented schoolboy wizard.  Sure, maybe no-one much remembered that Voldemort was Tom, but I'd bet ma bootstraps that Ollivander's the type who would.  He corresponds with Dumbledore, he remembers every wand he's ever sold, etc.etc.

Back from Adelaide!

Tabouli.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]