Dumbledore/Grindlewald duel

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 174526

---  "Donna" <djmitt at ...> wrote:
>
> At first when I read the DH, one of my main complaints
> was "How did Dumbledore win the duel with Grindelwald 
> when he had an unbeatable wand???"  Then I thought 
> about it and listened to the book a second time.  
>
> Dumbledore stole the wand from the wandmaker using 
> polyjuice potion to disguise himself as Grindlewald.  
> That whole theft scene was a little weird with the 
> thief acting like a bird (phoenix).. Now it makes 
> sense.  Grindlewald told Voldemort that he never had 
> the wand and Voldy called him a liar.  Maybe he was 
> telling him the truth..Dumbledore stole it..of course 
> for the greater good
> 
> Donna
>

bboyminn:

Nice speculation, but just speculation. I don't think
a literal read of the books supports it. But it does,
none the less, bring up a valid question. How did
Dumbledore win against an allegedly unbeatable wand?

I suspect that the answer is, it was not an unbeatable
wand EXCEPT when in the hand of its recognized Master.

Grindelwald took the wand by stealth and trickery. So
might say he outwitted Gregorovitch, and that outwitting
implies a defeat, but does it? 

Lovegood says the wand must be captured. Many people
in history have killed and taken the wand from its
owner. As the book goes on, we see that there must
be some kind of defeat of the Master for the wand
allegiance to change, but defeat doesn't mean death.

My point is that what constitutes a valid capture and
therefore a sure change in allegiance is very unclear.
Even Ollivander doesn't really understand it.

So, perhaps the wand was generally well matched to 
Grindelwald, but since he simply stole it, he was not
the Wands true Master. Therefore, when he met 
Dumbledore, it was simply one brilliant talented
wizard against another brilliant talented wizard. 

Since Dumbledore does defeat Grindelwald, the wand 
might have transferred allegiance to Dumbledore even
though Grindelwald was not the true Master. But now,
I'm speculating. None the less, the question remains,
was Grindelwald ever the true master of the wand? 
The next question is, does it matter with regard to 
Dumbledore /capturing/ the wand? Does the allegiance
transfer to the obviously superior wizard? 

All that said, I really don't know.

Steve/bboyminn