Harry Potter Science # 4: The Botany of Wands
Continuing the Harry Potter Science series (read parts one, two, and
three if you missed them!), today we're looking at one of the aspects
of wizarding life that is extremely important but also seems to be
taken for granted: wands. Although it is possible to cast spells
without using a wand, this is difficult and as a general rule a
wizard/witch must have their wand on them at all times. This makes the
disappearance of the legendary wand-crafter Ollivander especially
disturbing, you can buy wands from other places but his shop is known
to be the best. His disappearance only warranted a couple of mentions
in Book 6, but I am predicting it will be highly significant in Book
7.
So, on to wands. Each wizard's wand is unique, and they vary in
length, flexibility, wood type, and core. For example, Harry has an
eleven inch wand made of holly, with a phoenix feather core. (This
feather, incidentally, came from Dumbledore's very own phoenix,
Fawkes, and the only other wand with one of Fawkes' feathers belongs
to You Know Who...). Hermione has a dragon heartstring core, and Ron's
wand has a unicorn hair core. (The phoenix, dragon, and unicorn cores
are the only ones that Ollivander uses).
While the core of the wand seems to be highly significant, the wooden
sheath has much to say about the wand owner as well. "The Trio,"
consisting of the protagonists Harry, Ron, and Hermione, all have
wands made of the wood that the Celts assigned to the particular time
of year of their birth (kind of like a tree-based zodiac). Harry's
wand is holly, Hermione's is vine wood, and Ron's is ash. These are
the only characters whose wands correspond to the Celtic tradition,
but, as we shall see, the wand wood of all the characters is hardly
arbitrary.
So we know Harry's wand is holly, what does that say about him,
besides identifying an approximate date of birth? Although the berries
can be slightly toxic, after they have frosted and thawed a few times
they soften and provide food for many birds and insects. Also, holly
bushes are known to be used by birds as refuges from predators. This
seems to correspond to Harry very well. He is a very powerful wizard,
and has traces of dark magic lurking in him despite his general
heroics, such as his talents as a Parselmouth, something all wizards
associate with the "toxic" dark arts. Just like holly berries, though,
over the years his Parseltongue incidents have shown to be benign and
he has regained the trust of those that were originally repelled when
they learned about this hidden talent. As for providing refuge from
predators, Harry is a star student in Defense Against the Dark Arts,
and starts a club, Dumbledore's Army, in which he tutors other
students on defensive techniques.
Moving on: everyone's favorite naturalist, Rubeus Hagrid. His wand is
actually broken, and is concealed in a pink umbrella, but seems to
serve him well nonetheless. It is oak, a tree also known as "King of
the Forest," which seems fitting for Hogwart's grounds keeper and Care
of Magical Creatures instructor. Oak also symbolizes strength and
protection, which fits someone of Hagrids huge stature ("twice as tall
as a normal man and five times as wide") and kind nature.
James Potter's wand was mahogany, a symbol of strength, which must
have been true since he was known to be a powerful wizard and gave his
life to save Harry. Also, there is a type of wood known as "stag
mahogany", which is interesting because James was an animagus and his
animal form was a stag. Interestingly, Lily Potter's wand was willow.
It may not seem like a wand that symbols much robustness, but willow
is commonly used in landscape management to prevent erosion, as a
shelter/windbreak, and to help with biofiltration, all
protective/caring functions fitting a good mother figure like Lily.
Also notable, if not scientific: it has traditionally been thought to
protect from evil, which is exactly what Lily did in the final act of
her life: by dying for Harry, she somehow gave him a power over
Voldemort that saved his life that fateful night and has served as his
most potent weapon ever since. We still don't know the details of how
this happened, hopefully it will be revealed in the last book.
And last, the one you've surely been wondering about: we know
Voldemort's wand has the same core as Harry's, but what wood is it
made out of? Yew. Yew trees are notable for two things that relate to
Voldemort. The first is toxicity. The leaves, seeds, and fruit of this
plant all contain poisonous alkaloids, which have been shown to cause
potentially fatal heart problems in mammals. Nasty stuff that you
don't want to play around with, much like everyone's favorite villian.
Druid cults often honor the yew: ("Dark tree, warder of time and
ghosts buried long ago") for its extremely long life. There is a yew
tree in Scotland that is thought to be 5,000 years old (picture credit
to Barry Dunford). This is extremely significant, as Voldemort has
been existing on the edge of death--but not quite gone--for sixteen
years now, having partitioned his soul between horcruxes in his
attempts to achieve immortality. The yew is also known as a tree of
knowledge, and is often associated with fortresses--fitting to
represent one of the most powerful wizards in the world.
So, there you have it, something as seemingly mundane as a species of
tree can tell us much about a wizard/witch's character. Both the
biological properties and legends about each type of wand wood seem to
be highly significant, and it's worth the effort to pay attention to
details of each character's wand, to see if JKR is dropping hints for
us. I personally think that the issue of wands will be highly
significant in the next book. We know that Ollivander has disappeared,
and also that he had a wand displayed in his window that seemed to be
highly prized by him, although we were never told why. We also know
that Voldemort sought after relics from the founders of Hogwarts when
gathering objects to use as horcruxes...could Ollivander be gone
because he possessed the wand of Rowena Ravenclaw?
Also, we know that the last wand that Ollivander sold before he died
was to Neville Longbottom, who is absolutely my favorite character. I
have high hopes for Neville in the last book, and I think this detail
about the wand is a clue that he is going to have a critical role in
the final battles of the book.
By the way, Neville's wand was cherry, known for being strong and
durable, (and also dense, a hat tip to his clumsiness and struggles in
school). It was traditionally thought to protect from evil, and it
contains anthocyanins (used to reduce pain and inflammation) and
anti-oxidants, known to be beneficial for the immune system. I would
say that this definitely supports my long-held view that Neville is
definitely a guy you want on your team.
As a final parting note, just for fun: if all this wand talk has you
hankering for one of your own, you can customize one here. The
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