siriuswriter
Senior Member
Okay, Beedle's out now.
The only hand-off of the Elder Wand that takes place in the actual story is when the first brother goes off to a tavern and brags that he's just got a wand that he made Death give him. He's murdered that night, and the next guy takes the wand.
In the afterword by Dumbledore, he insists the wand is real [JK Rowling has said over and over that if ever she is to give the readers unquestionably "true" material, she gives it either to Dumbledore or Hermione; Hermione would've found it out in the library, and Dumbledore just knows everything.] So confirmation that there does exist the three Deathly Hallows from Dumbledore himself [he speaks of being able to give away the Invisibility Cloak very easily, and of no one ever knowing where the Stone has gone [which of course, we now know differently.]
Here's a bit about the wand and what little history that Dumbles gives in the Tales :
pg 99
This leaves us with the wand, and here the obstinate believers in Beedle's hidden message have at least some historical evidence to back up their wild claims. For it is the case - whether because they liked to glorify themselves, or to intimidate possible attackers, or because they truly believed what they were saying, that wizards down the ages have claimed to possess a wand more powerful than the ordinary, even an "unbeatable wand." Some of these wizards have gone so far as to claim that their wand is made of elder, like the wand supposedly made by Death. Such wands have been given many names, among them the "Wand of Destiny" and the "Deathstick."....
.... The first well-documented mention of a wand made of elder that had particularly strong and dangerous powers was owned by Emeric, commonly called "The Evil," a short-lived but exceptionally aggressive wizard who terrorized the south of England in the early Middle Ages. He died as he had lived, in a ferocious duel with a wizard known as Egbert. What became of Egbert is unknown, although the life expectancy of medieval duelers was generally short. In the days before there was a Ministry of Magic to regulate the use of Dark Magic, dueling was usually fatal.
A full century later, another unpleasant character, this time named Godelot, advanced the study of Dark Magic by writing a collection of dangerous spells with the help of a wand he described in his notebook, "my moste wicked and subtle friend, with bodie of elder, who knowes ways of magick moste evile."
As can be seen, Godelot considers his wand to be a helpmeet, almost an instructor. Those who are knowledgeable about wandlore, s I am, will agree that wands do indeed absorb the expertise of those who use them, though this is an unpredictable and imperfect business; one must consider all kinds of additional factors, such as the relationship between the wand and the user, to understand how well it is likely to perform with any particular individual. Nevertheless, a hypothetical wand that had passed through the hands of many Dark wizards would likely be to have, at the very least, a marked affinity for the most dangerous kinds of magic."
And we know just a touch of how the Elder Wand passed from person to person, from The Deathly Hallows - the first owner in current that we hear about is the wandmaker of Durmstrang - whose name I've forgotten of course and I'm not getting up one more time to grab the last book of the fourth book. From him, Grindlewald masters the wand through theft, and from him, Dumbledore masters the wand with superior dueling. Next Draco takes the wand, or rather, takes the Spirit of the wand, masters it through disarming, and Harry takes the Spirit of the wand, and then the wand itself, mastering it through superior dueling.
Unfortunately, of course, Voldemort doesn't believe that the wand can be mastered except in the case of superior dueling to the death, which is why he makes all the mistakes he does in Deathly Hallows.
Knowledge is power. Clearly, Voldemort knows less than Dumbles. So.... who wins again?