Hey! Yew!

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 90119

 Meghan Chalmers-McDonald <frost_indri at y...> wrote:
EIHWAZ <snip> is the symbol for the "Yew tree."  
I was just reading Voldimort's rebirth sceen when I noticed, this:
<quote about yew tree snipped>
This seemingly innocent detail is mentioned several times, down to
it's leaves, in the telling of Voldimort's rebirth. 
<snip>

Entropy responded:
<snip> 
1) Yew trees are evergreens, and can live for an incredibly long time
(2,000 [years] or more).  
The yew tree is held sacred by the Druids; it symbolizes death and
rebirth. <snip>The yew tree also symbolizes transformation, great age,
and reincarnation. <snip>


Carol:
As I wrote about a century ago (actually, I think it was November), I
think Harry's and Voldemort's wands are "brothers" in more than their
shared Phoenix-feather cores. Yew, an evergreen tree planted in
churchyards (or graveyards) as a symbol of rebirth or reincarnation,
and holly, an evergreen tree or shrub whose branches are hung as a
decoration at Yule or Christmas to symbolize rebirth or resurrection,
are variations on the same theme.

Voldemort, who seeks immortality through transformation, has a wand of
yew. Harry, the Boy Who Lived, has a wand of holly, possibly
symbolizing his "rebirth" after surviving the Avada Kedavra curse.
Since Harry is the destined "savior" of the WW, the Christian
implications of his holly wand are probably significant. Voledmort's
more purely pagan yew wand may imply that he is looking in the wrong
place for immortality. I don't want to reduce HP to allegory
(yew=pagan=bad); (holly=Christian=good), but I do think that the
similarities *and* differences between yew and holly have symbolic
implications. (As I said in another post, allegory implies a simple
on-to-one correspond between a person, place, or object and what it
represents, whereas symbols are complex and subject to interpretation:
not even the author can tell us exactly what they "mean.") I'm pretty
sure, however, that the wood any wand is made of will tell us
something about the witch or wizard that wand "chooses," not just
Harry and Voldemort but any witch or wizard whose wand we care to
investigate.

An aside: I'm wondering if "Ollivander" has some connection with olive
(wood) wand. Olive branches have long been regarded as emblems (not
symbols!) of peace. Might there be some connection between Mr.
Ollivander and the process of reconciliation between Slytherin and the
other houses or between wizards and other beings that must take place
if Voldemort is to be permanently defeated? (There's no point in
destroying Voldemort if what he stands for is not also defeated.)

Carol