Harry Potter's Elder Wand Story Completely Contradicts A Decade Of Wizarding World Lore

Harry Potter’s Elder Wand Story Completely Contradicts A Decade Of Wizarding World Lore


The relationship between a wizard and their wand is one of the most prominent foundations of the wizarding world found in the Harry Potter series. However, the mechanics of the wands can be quite confusing. While the Harry Potter books do an incredible job of immersing the reader in its complex world-building, some struggle to understand the many ways in which a wizard can win a wand’s allegiance. The series initially kicks off with a strict set of rules, but as the story progresses over a decade, the laws surrounding wand lore seem to change.




According to the wand law laid out by J.K. Rowling throughout the series, there are three ways in which a wizard can earn a wand’s allegiance: purchasing a new wand, winning a wand from somebody else, or inheriting one from a family member. While this element of the wizarding world comes 10 years into the series, it is one that Rowling does find room to explain toward the end of The Deathly Hallows – although it could have benefited from a larger focus for the Harry Potter elder wand plot to not feel so rushed.


Harry Potter’s Elder Wand Story Hinges On Claiming Wands From Other Wizards

Deathly Hallows Introduces More Than One Way To Retrieve A Wand


The introduction of the Tale of The Three Brothers in the series’ fictional children’s book, “The Tales of Beedle the Bard,” also adds to the confusion readers have around the selection and winning of wands. As this is the first time readers are introduced to the idea of receiving a wand through unsavory circumstances, there’s no question as to why that is. During a visit to Xenophilius Lovegood, Harry learns from the Tale of the Three Brothers that a wand of extraordinary power, known as the elder wand, can be passed from wizard to wizard through means of murder.

J.K. Rowling did not introduce this element of wand lore until Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, and it’s clear from the start that not many characters in the wizarding world actually believe these tales to be true. The fact that many witches and wizards find this tale to be a work of fiction helps disguise Rowling’s late addition to this aspect of Harry Potter’s wand lore. That said, it creates a bit of a contradiction to the wand laws laid out earlier in Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone.


Deathly Hallows’ Elder Wand Lore Contradicts “The Wand Chooses The Wizard”

Ollivander Later States A Wizard Can Use Practically Any Wand

In Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry visits Diagon Alley for the first time and purchases his own wand at Ollivander’s. But during this scene, it becomes clear to the reader, and to Harry, that not every wand in the Harry Potter franchise works the same. Eventually, Harry finds the wand that works perfectly for him, and during Ollivander’s explanations, he mentions that it’s “really the wand that chooses the wizard“. This bit of information is the first mention of wand lore throughout the series, and it isn’t until ten years later that Rowling decides to contest this statement.


The story of the elder wand breaks this fundamental rule, claiming a wizard can win a wand’s allegiance through murder, or by other means of taking. It is not until Harry again speaks with Mr. Ollivander at Shell Cottage in chapter 24 of Deathly Hallows that readers get any further explanation. First, Ollivander describes that wands can transfer hands, but the manner of taking matters—and much also depends on the wand itself. However, he states that if a wand is won fairly, its allegiance will change – and, thankfully he explains, it doesn’t need to happen by means of murder.

Collage of a closeup of Snape and him standing in front of Harry, Hermione and Ron to protect them

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While he clarifies that any wizard can use any wand or magical object, the best results are typically found when there is a strong affinity between the wizard and the wand. This scene is critical in rounding out the wand lore inconsistencies found in earlier books, and helps to explain a lot of the different scenarios in which wands change hands throughout the Harry Potter series.

The Elder Wand Highlights One Of The Biggest Complaints About The Deathly Hallows

A closeup of the Elder Wand in Harry Potter

One of the biggest complaints readers have about Deathly Hallows is that the storyline around the hallows themselves feels rushed, whereas Rowling spends time introducing the idea of horcruxes over many books in the series. While there is some truth in this, the hints Rowling hides throughout the story in reference to the hallows are just much more subtle. For instance, Harry’s invisibility cloak is always described to be much stronger than other invisibility cloaks in the wizarding world—Rowling’s delicate nod to its unique nature.


…Readers may have better grasped the hallows vs horcruxes storyline if Rowling alluded to their existence a bit earlier in the series.

While there are a few clues to the hallows in earlier books, readers may have better grasped the hallows vs horcruxes storyline if Rowling alluded to their existence a bit earlier in the series. However, in Deathly Hallows, Harry is left to discover Dumbledore’s plans, and later comes to the conclusion that Dumbledore did not want Harry chasing the hallows over horcruxes. This would help explain why Rowling kept the existence of the hallows hidden from readers as well, as Harry needed to discover Dumbledore’s secrets for himself.

There’s 1 Possible Explanation For This Inconsistency In Harry Potter’s Wand Lore

Ollivander Doesn’t Know As Much As We Thought

Mr. Ollivander (John Hurt) searching shelves for a wand in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.


Harry’s second interaction with Mr. Ollivander in Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows reveals much more detail about wand lore than ever before disclosed in the series. But through their conversation, it is evident that Ollivander and many others who have studied wand lore can only guess at some of the laws’ more complex workings—claiming there are very subtle laws that govern wand ownership. The lack of information surrounding much of the wizarding world’s wand lore could help to explain the peculiar scenarios regarding many Harry Potter characters’ wands.

“You ask deep questions, Mr. Potter. Wandlore is a complex and mysterious branch of magic.”


When Voldemort tries to overcome the connection between their wands’ twin cores, Ollivander can only guess that he should try a different wand to get around it. However, Harry’s wand acts on its own accord, and snaps the other wand in two. This fact remains a mystery even to Ollivander, someone who has studied wand lore for most of his life. The obscurity of wand lore’s magical dynamics is a clever choice by Rowling, as it helps camouflage the more mysterious circumstances found throughout the Harry Potter series.

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