Brother wands [was: Re: Horse Feathers]

[Jo Ann]

No: HPFGUIDX 93997

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "cubfanbudwoman" 
<susiequsie23 at s...> wrote:

> There is certainly more variation in types of 
> wood used, plus length of wood, etc.  Surely it's the combination
of core & wood which make the wand unique?  
> 
> The fact that Fawkes provided the feather for both Tom's/Voldy's & 
> Harry's *does* make them "brother" wands, but perhaps the other 
> aspects of the wands are well suited to the **differences** between 
> Tom/Voldy and Harry.


I've recently been doing some research on this very topic for a 
fanfic, and I think the wood does have a very great deal to do with 
it.

Now JKR has stated that her magical spells are completely made up, 
but she seems to have gone to a lot of trouble to incorporate real 
historical and mythological elements into other aspects of the 
books.  So, looking up the properties traditionally ascribed to Holly 
(Harry's wand) and Yew (Tom Riddle's) at Wiccan sites devoted to 
trees, I found:

"As with most other trees the Holly was revered for its protective 
qualities. The Holly guards against lightning, poisoning and 
mischievous spirits, and when planted around the home it protects the 
inhabitants from evil sorcerers...A piece of Holly carried on your 
person is said to promote good luck, particularly in men...Holly also 
symbolizes holiness, consecration, material gain, physical revenge, 
beauty, and immortality, as well as peace, goodwill and health. It 
can be used ritually to aid and help with a person's ability to cope 
with death..."

Holly is also, it seems, associated with Christ as a symbol of death 
and rebirth; in certain Christian traditions, it first grew where He 
walked, and its red berries symbolize His blood.

And: 

"Both Druids with their belief in reincarnation, and later Christians 
with their teaching of the resurrection, regarded [Yew] as a natural 
emblem of everlasting life...There is also a tradition that the Cross 
was a yew tree...In later times, only the death side of the Yew's 
symbolism remained in the popular mind. Shakespeare wrote of "the 
dismal yew" and his witches bore "slips of yew slivered in the moon's 
eclipse."

Yews were also traditionally planted in graveyards.

According to the Harry Potter Lexicon's Herbology section, Harry's 
and Tom Riddle's were the only wands made of those particular woods 
that have been mentioned in the series to date.  Which makes me 
wonder whether the use of holly and/or yew is rare for whatever 
reason.

I doubt it's unique to those two wands in history, especially since 
holly is supposed to be highly prized by woodworkers for its 
decorative and useful properties, though it has to be cured 
carefully.  Interestingly, yew was equally valued for use in bows, 
but "even the kind that makes the finest bows, is quite irregular in 
appearance"--perhaps a symbolic nod to the fact that Voldemort so 
often uses his as a weapon, and in such ugly ways?  Whereas Harry's 
being made of protective Holly could be tied somehow to his talent 
for things like resisting the Imperius curse, summoning a Patronus, 
etc.

So I'd say the wood used does definitely figure into it, having both 
related and nearly opposite connotations: one symbolizing the darker 
aspects of the death-and-rebirth cycle, the other the light; one 
associated with defense, the other with attack; one beautiful, the 
other not.  Rather a nifty dichotomy JKR has got going there.

J. Spencer