[HPforGrownups] Harry & Lord Voldemort's Wands

[Patricia Bullington-McGuire]

No: HPFGUIDX 56111

On Thu, 24 Apr 2003, jlg881 wrote:

> Hello everyone! I need your help.  I am having a "disagreement" with 
> my son about Harry's and LV's wands.  My son says that since Harry 
> and LV's wands share the core from the same phoenix that their wands 
> are the same.  Now I come back with "No two Ollivander wands are the 
> same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the 
> same." PS/SS pg 84 US edition. But Billy says that the phoenix is 
> the same and I said yes but the wood is different.  LV's wand is 
> made of yew and is 13.5" long.  Harry's wand is made of holly and is 
> 11" long.  Billy said that didn't matter it is the magical core that 
> matters.  

The wands are certainly closely related -- JRK tells us that flat out.  
However, they are not the same.  JKR makes a point of letting us know what
woods the two wands are made out of, and those woods are very different.  
LV's wand is made of yew, a tree traditionally associated with death and
decay.  It is often found in graveyards (and JKR even points out a yew
tree in the cemetary scene in GoF).  Yew is a very appropriate material
for the original Death Eater.  Harry's wand is made of holly, which
traditionally represents the continuation of life or everlasting life.  
In the Christian tradition, holly is often seen as representing Christ --
the spiky leaves represent Christ's crown of thorns, and the red berries
represent Christ's blood.  All of this is very appropriate for The Boy Who
Lived.

I don't think JKR just coincidentally chose two types of wood with such
radically opposed associations.  She's too well informed not to have
noticed the symbolism associated with holly and yew.  And really, there is
no point telling us about the different woods if they don't have any
effect on the wand.  She draws our attention to the various woods that
wands are made of on so many occassions that it must be something she
wants us to pay attention to.  So no, I don't believe the wands are the 
same even though they are very similar, in much the same way that Harry 
and Voldemort are not the same even though they have many uncanny 
similarities.


----
Patricia Bullington-McGuire	<patricia at obscure.org>

The brilliant Cerebron, attacking the problem analytically, discovered
three distinct kinds of dragon: the mythical, the chimerical, and the
purely hypothetical.  They were all, one might say, nonexistent, but each
nonexisted in an entirely different way ... 
                -- Stanislaw Lem, "Cyberiad"