Deathly Hallows (objects)

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The sign of the Deathly Hallows represents all three objects symbolically: the Wand, the Stone, and the Cloak.

The Deathly Hallows are three fictional magical objects that appear in the book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K Rowling. In the novel, they referred to by this title only when referred to collectively. The three objects are the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone and the Cloak of invisibility. In the novel, the lore behind them states that a person who unites the Hallows will have the ability to "defeat death".

According to Rowling, the story about how these objects came into existence is "perhaps" based upon Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Pardoner's Tale".^[1]

1 The Symbol of the Deathly Hallows
2 The Legend of the Deathly Hallows
3 The Hallows
4 References
5 See also

[edit] The Symbol of the Deathly Hallows

The Deathly Hallows are represented in the novel by a symbol appearing as a circle inscribed within an equilateral triangle, both of which are bisected by a vertical line. The circle represents the Stone of Resurrection, the triangle represents the Cloak of Invisibility, and the line represents the Elder Wand.^[HP7] According to Xenophilius Lovegood, the symbol is worn by wizards to reveal themselves as believers in the legend of (and are willing to aid in the search for) the Deathly Hallows.^[HP7] Because it was a symbol often used by Gellert Grindelwald, a Dark wizard in the back-story of the Harry Potter universe, many mistook it to be Grindelwald's symbol.^[HP7] During the wedding of Bill and Fleur Weasley, for example, Viktor Krum is shocked that Xenophilius is wearing the symbol of the wizard who had killed his grandfather some sixty years prior.

Grindelwald displayed the symbol during his reign of power: it was inscribed on his prison, Nurmengard, and on a wall in Durmstrang Institute, another wizarding school.^[HP7] Albus Dumbledore also used the symbol in his signatures (i.e., the symbol replaced the "A" in "Albus"). Dumbledore refused to use this design after he decided he was not meant to seek the Hallows.^[HP7] The symbol also appears in the book of wizarding children's stories, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, inscribed on the top page of the story "The Tale of the Three Brothers",^[HP7] The same symbol also appears on the grave in Godric's Hollow of Harry Potter's ancestor, Ignotus Peverell, which Harry visits in the novel.^[HP7] Finally, the symbol is engraved into Marvolo Gaunt's ring, which bears the "Resurrection Stone" and was passed to him through his family from Cadmus Peverell.

[edit] The Legend of the Deathly Hallows

[edit] The Tale of the Three Brothers

Further information: The Tales of Beedle the Bard

According to the novel, Dumbledore leaves Hermione Granger an ancient book entitled The Tales of Beedle the Bard in his will. When Hermione looks into the book, she finds an odd symbol inscribed on a certain page. Wanting to discover its meaning Harry, Ron and Hermione visit Xenophilius. Xenophilius tells them the story of how three brothers are wandering through a forest and come to a huge river that stretches on as far as the eye can see. Since they are wizards, the three brothers conjure themselves a bridge using magic, and cross the river safely to the other side. Death, who is portrayed in human-like form, is angry at being cheated out of three new victims, but pretends to congratulate the brothers for their skills. In return, Death offers the three brothers gifts for outsmarting him. The eldest brother asks for a wand that will win all of his battles so Death makes a wand from a nearby elder tree. The next day, the brother holds a duel with a rival and wins. He celebrates and goes to an inn and stays there the night; while he is sleeping, a person sneaks into his room and takes the wand. He kills him for good measure and Deathtakes his first victim. The wand becomes known as the Elder Wand — it is owned by Dumbledore until his death. The middle brother asks for a stone that will resurrect the dead. He receives a stone from Death and uses it to bring back his one true love, who died a while ago. The problem was that she was not in her right place, and she was unhappy. The middle brother eventually killed himself to be happy with his loved one and Death took his second victim. This stone became known as the Resurrection Stone, and was embedded in a ring owned by Marvolo Gaunt. The youngest brother asked for an object that would make Death unable to follow him, and Death gave the youngest brother the invisibility cloak that he was wearing. He wore it for a long time and never took it off until he gave it to his son. When Death came the brother greeted him like a friend. The cloak has come to be known as the Cloak of Invisibility. Harry had the cloak that was passed down from generations, which means he is the descendant of Ignotus Peverell.

[edit] The Peverell brothers

The Peverell family is first mentioned in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as ancestors of Marvolo Gaunt, in turn an ancestor of Lord Voldemort. Their back story is further examined in the final book of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, in which they are the original owners of the Deathly Hallows.

After Hermione saw the symbol of the Deathly Hallows on Ignotus Peverell's grave in Godric's Hollow, Harry recalled Marvolo Gaunt boasting that his ring held the Peverell coat of arms on it, they realized that the three brothers were the Peverells; Antioch (the oldest), Cadmus (the middle), and Ignotus (the youngest). Harry believes he is descended from Ignotus, as the cloak is passed through his family. The spirit of Dumbledore also confirms this when he appears to Harry near the end of the novel. Furthermore, Rowling has confirmed that Harry and Voldemort are indeed distant relatives because of their relation to the Peverells, as the majority of wizard families share common ancestry.^[2]

Antioch Peverell was the eldest of the three Peverell brothers. According to The Tales of Beedle the Bard, he received the Elder Wand from the spirit Death, although Dumbledore believes it more likely that he created the wand himself. He was killed in his sleep after bragging about the wand's invincibility. The killer then stole the Elder Wand, thus starting its bloody history.

Cadmus Peverell was the middle of the three Peverell Brothers. According to The Tales of Beedle the Bard, he received the Resurrection Stone from Death, but in fact is most likely to have created the Stone himself. He, using the Stone, resurrected the girl he had once hoped to marry, who had died an untimely death. Though she had returned to the mortal world, she did not truly belong there and suffered. Driven mad by this, he killed himself to join her.

Ignotus Peverell was the youngest of the three Peverell brothers and an ancestor of Harry Potter. Ignotus's first and only appearance is in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, where it is revealed that, according to legend, he received the Cloak of Invisibility from the spirit Death. Unlike his brothers, he successfully avoided dying for many years, lived a full and long life, and ultimately greeted Death as a friend. His line is continued through Harry's three children, James, Albus, and Lily, who appear at the end of Deathly Hallows.

[edit] The Quest for the Hallows

Rowling revealed in an interview that one of the working titles for Deathly Hallows was Harry Potter and the Peverell Quest. Throughout the history of the novel, many wizards have sought out the legendary Hallows through what is referred to by Xenophilius as the Quest. Apparently, not many have succeeded in finding the Deathly Hallows. They had, after all, no evidence of the locations of the Hallows and no proof that they actually existed. Another driving force in the title change is the fact that Rowling found the word 'quest' to be "hokey".

[edit] The Hallows

[edit] Elder Wand

The Elder Wand, known throughout history as the "Deathstick" and the "Wand of Destiny", is an extremely powerful magic wand made of elder wood with a core of Thestral tail hair.^[3] Supposedly, it is the most powerful wand in existence, and when used by its true master, he or she cannot be defeated in a duel (however, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Albus Dumbledore dueled with Gellert Grindelwald and conquered the wand, despite the fact it is supposed to be unbeatable, giving a good estimate of how magically powerful Dumbledore is). It also appears, as the wand is somewhat sentient, as are all wands, that it will not allow itself to cause real harm to its true Master. The wand's ownership, however, is a tricky matter. As stated by master wandmaker Mr Ollivander, ownership can only be transferred properly. That is, the wand will only fully work for the new user if they directly Disarm, Stun or kill the previous user. This can occur during a duel (although because the Wand is very powerful, this scenario would be rare), or in non-magical ways (killing in Muggle fashion, etc). Rowling has stated that the wand is brutal in its choice of master, that, whilst most wands have some allegiance to their own masters, the Elder Wand only responds to power, i.e. becoming the possession of the most powerful wizard in a duel. If a master dies naturally without ever being defeated, the wand's power will die too, as it had never been won from its master. After defeating Voldemort, Harry discusses its fate with the picture of Dumbledore, and decides that he should put it back into Dumbledore's grave, so that no more wizards will die in the pursuit of the item.

After boasting of his unbeatable wand, Antioch Peverell met his end – murdered in his sleep by a rival wanting to claim the wand. Ever since, power-hungry wizards have sought the wand. It moved to Emeric the Evil, then to Egbert the Egregious. It vanished for some time until resurfacing under the control of Godelot, whose son Hereward took it from him. After another disappearance, Barnabas Deverill owned the wand and was killed by Loxias, who was then killed by either Arcus or Livius. It eventually came to the possession of Gregorovitch, a Bulgarian wandmaker. Gregorovitch boasted about how he possessed the Elder Wand, as it would boost his popularity as he tried to reverse engineer its secrets as he faced competition from Ollivander. It subsequently fell to Grindelwald, who stole it from the famed wandmaker. It is not known if Gregorovitch mastered its secrets properly but he did have a reputation in Europe. Since full control of it passed to Dumbledore when he defeated Grindelwald, presumably the Stunning Spell Gellert sent at Gregorovitch caused the wand to recognize him as its master, although this is never explicitly stated in Deathly Hallows. Ultimately Grindelwald was defeated by Dumbledore, who then assumed control of the wand, it being the "only hallow [he] was fit to possess, not to boast of it, and to tame it, and not to kil with it".

When Dumbledore arranged his death with Severus Snape (as revealed in the The Prince's Tale chapter of Deathly Hallows), he meant Snape to "end up with the Elder Wand." Because his death would not have been the result of his defeat, Dumbledore hoped this might break the wand's power. However, since Draco Malfoy disarmed Dumbledore, the plan failed and Draco became the wand's new master. After Dumbledore's death, the wand was placed inside his White Tomb. Voldemort opened it and claimed the wand as his own. Only later did he learn that he never mastered the wand because he did not gain ownership from its previous owner (who, after all, was already dead). Thereafter he slew Snape, not realizing that the wand's allegiance had passed to Draco, even though Draco never had the Elder Wand itself in his possession; furthermore, Draco was Disarmed by Harry, and thus relieved of the Elder Wand's allegiance, before Voldemort even took possession of the Wand itself. While Voldemort wielded the Wand for its entire presence in the novel, he never understood who actually owned it, until Harry spells it out for him (and the reader) in the final pages of the book.

At the beginning of the final book, Voldemort attempts to use a Killing Curse on Harry as the boy and the decoys attempt to flee Privet Drive: at this time Harry's wand mysteriously acts of its own accord and stops Voldemort. This is what causes Voldemort to seek out Gregorovitch and the Hallow. The Elder Wand did destroy Voldemort's soul fragment inside Harry with another killing curse; Voldemort could not kill Harry, but he could certainly destroy that part of himself. The killing curse only knocked Harry into a death-like state for a few moments, in which in his mind he was given a choice to "move on" to the afterlife or return to the living world, and he chose the latter. Voldemort's Cruciatus Curse, used on Harry when Voldemort thought he was dead, caused no pain to Harry. In the final battle, the Elder Wand recognizes its true master, and when confronted with Harry's Expelliarmus charm, the wand causes Voldemort's final Killing Curse to rebound and kill him. Harry is the wand's true master and the wand cannot hurt its owner.

Harry uses the Elder Wand to repair his damaged holly and phoenix feather wand (an act that the great wandmaker Ollivander believed impossible according to what he knew — he mentions that wandlore is very ancient and complicated). Harry intends to return the wand to Dumbledore's tomb, in the hopes of fulfilling Dumbledore's original plan: for the reigning owner of the Elder Wand to die a natural death, thus ending its bloody trail of violence.

Rowling revealed in an interview that the first working title for Deathly Hallows was Harry Potter and the Elder Wand.^[4]

[edit] Resurrection Stone

The Resurrection Stone allows the holder to see and communicate with the dead. According to the fairy tale concerning the origin of the Deathly Hallows, using the Resurrection Stone drove its original owner, Cadmus Peverell, to commit suicide after seeing his deceased fiancée but being unable to truly be with her. By the time the stone was seen in Marvolo Gaunt's possession, it had been set into a ring. The ring bore the symbol of the Deathly Hallows, which Gaunt believed to be the Peverell coat of arms. Both Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald desired the stone, but for different reasons. While Dumbledore wanted it to communicate with his dead family, Grindelwald intended to use it to create an army of Inferi. Voldemort turned the ring into a Horcrux, not knowing its magical nature. Harry Potter later uses the stone before confronting Lord Voldemort.^[HP7]

Dumbledore recovered the ring from Marvolo's estate, recognizing it as both a Horcrux and one of the Deathly Hallows. Forgetting that as a Horcrux, the Resurrection Stone was likely cursed, and motivated by personal desire, Dumbledore attempted to use the Resurrection Stone to talk to his deceased family. However, the curse destroyed his hand and began to spread throughout his body. Though the spreading was partly contained in the destroyed and blackened hand by Severus Snape, Dumbledore was doomed, having perhaps a year to live. Before summoning Snape, Dumbledore had destroyed the Horcrux, using Godric Gryffindor's sword. The stone was later passed to Harry through Dumbledore's will, hidden inside a Snitch. The Snitch, the same one Harry caught in his first-ever Quidditch match (Harry originally caught the Snitch in his mouth and nearly swallowed it), revealed the message "I open at the close" when touched by Harry's lips. Harry is unable to open the Snitch until he is about to die, and he realizes that "the close" means the end, or his death. When he whispers, "I am about to die", the Snitch opens. Harry uses the stone to summon his parents, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin to comfort him before he meets Voldemort.

The stone slips through Harry Potter's numb fingers in the Forbidden Forest. He and Dumbledore's portrait later agreed that Harry would neither search for it nor tell others where it is, in order to prevent the three Deathly Hallows from ever again being united by a single owner as they were with Harry. In a recent interview, J. K. Rowling said she would like to believe that a centaur's hoof pushed it into the ground, burying it forever. This way, it would presumably never be found in the Forbidden Forest.^[1]

[edit] Cloak of Invisibility

According to the legend, the Cloak of Invisibility has the power to shield the wearer from being seen by Death. It is a true invisibility cloak, in the sense of being able to completely shield the wearer from sight, and cannot be worn out by time or spells. Other typical invisibility cloaks described in the Harry Potter universe, which are sometimes woven from the hair of a beast known as the Demiguise, can become opaque with age and are vulnerable to being penetrated by various spells.^[5]

Harry Potter's Invisibility Cloak originally belonged to Ignotus Peverell. After his death, the cloak was passed down from father to son, through Peverell's descendants to James Potter^[6] and eventually to Harry. The cloak was not in James Potter's possession the night he was murdered; he had previously lent it to Dumbledore, who was greatly interested in the Deathly Hallows, to study. Dumbledore gave the cloak to Harry several years later as a Christmas present during his first year at Hogwarts. Harry uses the cloak throughout the series in order to sneak around the school on various adventures. It is large enough for Ron and Hermione to accompany him, and they frequently do, although this becomes increasingly difficult as they grow up throughout the series. At the end of Book 7, Dumbledore explains to Harry that the Cloak's true magic is that it can shield and protect others as well as its owner, as demonstrated by Harry and his friends on various adventures under the cloak throughout the series.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, it is revealed that Harry's cloak is in fact the Cloak of Invisibility: one of the Deathly Hallows, along with the Elder Wand and the Resurrection Stone.

While making the wearer invisible to ordinary people and wizards, some creatures are able to sense people hidden under it. Snakes for example cannot see through the Cloak of Invisibility, but they can sense movement and heat, and therefore can detect people under it. Mrs. Norris, the cat of the caretaker, Argus Filch, also seems to see Harry when he wears the cloak. Wearers can also be detected by the "Homenum Revelio" spell.^[1] In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Mad-Eye Moody's magical eye could see Harry through the cloak. In the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Dumbledore warns that Dementors' perception of humans is unhindered by invisibility cloaks, as they sense people through emotions. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore used homenum revelio the human-presence-revealing spell and was therefore able to sense when the cloaked Harry was nearby.^[7]

There are a number of different types of Invisibility Cloaks. All are very rare and expensive, and they may be spun from the pelts of Demiguises, magical herbivores that are found in the Far East, or are ordinary cloaks with a Disillusionment Charm or a Bedazzlement Hex placed on them. Over time, these will lose their invisibility ability, eventually becoming opaque.^[5]

At the conclusion of the seventh book in the series, Harry decides that the Invisibility Cloak will be the only Hallow that he will keep, and intends to pass it on to his descendants.