Lord Voldemort: Difference between revisions
m fix Goblet of Fire link |
major re-organisation |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
'''Lord Voldemort''' is the arch-villain |
'''Lord Voldemort''' is the arch-villain in the [[Harry Potter]] books. He is so feared by magical people that most refer to him as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who Must-Not-Be-Named" rather than saying his name out loud. He is also referred to as the "Dark Lord", although generally only by his followers. |
||
| ⚫ | It is possible to break the name Voldemort into the French phrase "vol de mort" which has multiple translations. The most commonly cited is "flight of death", but other meanings include "flight from death" and "theft of a dead body." Voldemort's followers are called [[Death Eater|death eaters]], and they are hiding from the Ministry of Magic. His ultimate goal is to achieve immortality through the practice of dark magic. |
||
Voldemort murdered Harry's parents when he was a baby, and Harry's mother Lily died trying to defend him. This act of loving sacrifice served as life-long protection for Harry. Nonetheless, Harry got a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead when Voldemort tried to curse him. |
|||
| ⚫ | |||
| ⚫ | It is possible to break the name Voldemort into the French phrase "vol de mort" which has multiple translations. The most commonly cited is "flight of death", but other meanings include "flight from death" and "theft of a dead body." Voldemort's followers are called [[Death Eater|death eaters]], and they are hiding from the Ministry of Magic. |
||
== Early History == |
|||
Voldemort was born Tom Marvolo Riddle (in the English version of the book, see below for more details about other editions). His father turned his mother out of his home when he realised that she was a witch. She died soon after giving birth to Tom, but not before naming Tom after his father. |
|||
Tom attended the [[Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry]], where he was a member of [[Slytherin]] house. In his fifth year at Hogwarts, the [[Chamber of Secrets]] was opened, and the [[basilisk]] inside killed a student (whose ghost still haunts the toilet where she died, and is known by the students as [[Moaning Myrtle]]). Hogwarts was almost closed, but in the nick of time Tom caught the person who opened the chamber - [[Rubeus Hagrid|Hagrid]] - winning himself an award for this. It wasn't until fifty years later that Harry Potter discovered that it was actually Tom himself who had released the monster from the Chamber. Being an orphan, and having nowhere to go to, Tom did not want the school to be closed down. So that the monster could be released later on, however, he created a memory of himself and put it into his diary. |
|||
| ⚫ | |||
== His Era == |
|||
Voldemort is confronted by Harry three times in the first four books. He takes up residence under the turban of the nervous [[Defense Against the Dark Arts]] master in year one, but he can't touch Harry and is defeated. As Tom Riddle, he lures [[Ron Weasley]]'s younger sister, Ginny, into using [[black magic|dark magic]] to turn a cat and some people into statues but is defeated when Harry's loyalty inspires Fawkes, a [[phoenix (mythology)|phoenix]], to provide him a sword in the nick of time (see [[Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets|Chamber of Secrets]]). In his scariest confrontation with Harry Potter yet, Voldemort reanimates a body and attempts to kill Harry with magic in front of his reassembled Death Eater followers, but Harry's wand is linked to Voldemort's and undoes Voldemort's spells. |
|||
We know nothing more about Tom Riddle until he became the Dark Lord Voldemort, killing thousands and threatening to tear the world of wizards asunder. The full horror of his attempt at control has only been hinted at. The [[Ministry of Magic]] - lead largely by [[Barty Crouch]] - worked against Voldemort, along with the [[Order of the Phoenix]], lead by [[Albus Dumbledore]], the principal of Hogwarts. Dumbledore was the Professor of Transfiguration when Tom Riddle attended school, and he is believed to be the only person who Voldemort ever feared. |
|||
Voldemort had his own group of trusted aides: the [[Death Eater]]s, over whom he maintained control by continuous - and often brutal - punishment. |
|||
| ⚫ | Voldemort has an unfortunate tendancy to forget details which have lead to his undoing. In ''[[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]]'' he states that he had forgotten the ancient magic which protected Harry from him, his mother giving her life; in ''[[Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets]]'' he forgets that the tears of the phoenix have healing power. |
||
In early [[1980]], that [[Sybill Trelawney]], great-great-grand-daughter of a famous psychic, enters a trance in the presence of Dumbledore and utters a prophecy: |
|||
:''The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ...'' |
|||
At the end of July, 1980, two boys who fit this description were born: [[Neville Longbottom]] and [[Harry Potter]]. |
|||
== His Downfall == |
|||
On [[October 31]], [[1981]], Voldemort arrived at the home of [[James Potter|James]] and [[Lily Potter]], prominent members of the [[Order of the Phoenix]], in Godric's Hollow. He killed James Potter and then tried to kill Harry. His mother tried to stop Voldemort but was killed herself. Finally, he used Avada Kedavra, the killing curse on Harry Potter - a curse with no known counter-curse, no way of stopping it, and no known survivor. |
|||
But the less-than-one year old survived, with only a curse in the shape of a lightning bolt on his forehead. The spell somehow backfired on Voldemort, reducing him to a barely-alive shell of his former self. He ran out into the night, and wasn't heard from again for ten years. |
|||
== The Dark Years == |
|||
Voldemort settled in a forest, where even existance was a continuous, on-going stuggle. His only remaining ability was the ability to possess the bodies of others, and he frequently possessed snakes. Animal bodies didn't allow him to perform magic, however. |
|||
Then, in the early 1990s, Voldemort found Hogwarts [[Defence Against the Dark Arts]] [[Professor Quirrell]] passing through the forest. He took Voldemort to London and attempted with his help of Voldemort to steal the [[Philosopher's Stone]]. His plans were thwarted by Harry Potter, as recounted in ''[[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]]''. |
|||
Voldemort returned to his hiding place, afraid that his Death Eaters had forsaken him, and that he wouldn't be able to find a wizard to possess. He spent the next two years in hiding. In this interim, Death Eater [[Lucius Malfoy]] attempted to send the memory of Voldemort (stored in his diary) into Hogwarts, by giving it to a young girl named [[Ginny Weasley]]. This memory avatar of Voldemort managed to manipulate Ginny into opening the Chamber of Secrets, nearly killing a number of students, and then tried to drain her life-force to allow him to come into being outside the book. This memory's plans were once again stopped by Harry, as recounted in ''[[Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets]]''. |
|||
Luckily for Voldemort, a set of incidents detailed in ''[[Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban]]'' forced [[Peter Pettigrew]] to leave hiding and to go in search of Voldemort. While searching for him, he kidnapped [[Bertha Jorkins]], from whose mind Voldemort learned enough to formulate the plan he executed in ''[[Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire]]''. In the course of this plan, Voldemort first created a primitive body for himself, extremely rudimentary but still large to allow him to perform magic by himself. He then managed to recreate the body he had before his curse rebounded at the beginning of the first book. Harry's blood formed a part of this process of rebirth; many Harry Potter fans suspect that this will prove to be Voldemort's undoing. After being reborn, Voldemort summoned the Death Eaters back to him, and attempted to kill Harry - but he escaped the Dark Lord yet again. |
|||
== The Second War == |
|||
At first, the Ministry of Magic refused to believe that Lord Voldemort had risen again. The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, began a process of defaming Dumbledore and Harry (the only non-Death Eater witness to the ceremony). Dumbledore was accused of being old, and was removed from several important posts. Through heavy donations, Lucius Malfoy also gained large influence within the Ministry. |
|||
In opposition to Voldemort, Dumbledore reformed the Order of the Phoenix, and set it up in Sirius Black's old home - Number 12, Grimmauld Place, London. He also sent envoys to the giants and other non-human magical creatures who Voldemort might lure onto his side. |
|||
Meanwhile, Voldemort was waiting in the sidelines and plotting carefully. Only a handful of wizards (the members of the Order) believed he was back, allowing him a free hand in his schemes. He managed to coerce the giants to support him, and some believe that he has managed to bring atleast some of the [[Dementor]]s into his fold. |
|||
Towards the latter half of the book - after engineering a plot to bring some of his best Death Eaters back out of Azkaban - Voldemort embarks on a scheme to kill Harry, as well as retrieve a Prophecy, stored in the Ministry's Department of Mysteries, regarding Harry and Voldemort (already shown above). The prophecy is destroyed in the attempt, and Harry escapes again, although his godfather, [[Sirius Black]], dies. Many of Voldemort's Death Eaters are trapped by Dumbledore in the attempt. Finally, Voldemort himself turns up at the Ministry and tries to kill Harry, but Dumbledore appears and duels with him. The duel ends with Voldemort being sent packing, though with all faculties intact. He is also seen by the Minister of Magic, who finally acknowledges that Dumbledore is right about Voldemort's return, and begins preparations to fight him once more. |
|||
== Characteristics == |
|||
One of Voldemort's defining characteristics is his racist tendencies. He looks down upon non-human magical creatures (such as house-elves), and especially despises Muggles - a hatred which apparently began with his muggle father's treatment of his mother. |
|||
He is also a Parseltongue - a wizard who can talk to snakes. This is an ability he has inherited from his ancestor, [[Salazar Slytherin]]. |
|||
| ⚫ | Voldemort also has an unfortunate tendancy to forget details which have lead to his undoing. In ''[[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]]'' he states that he had forgotten the ancient magic which protected Harry from him, his mother giving her life; in ''[[Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets]]'' he forgets that the tears of the phoenix have healing power. The Harry Potter Lexicon suggests that the glint in Dumbledore's eye in the [[Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire|Goblet of Fire]] when Harry tells him that Voldemort has some of his blood in him is another of his memory-slips. |
||
Many of these characteristics are shared by Harry, possibly as a result of the failed curse which gave him his scar. |
|||
== Voldemort's Name == |
|||
Voldemort's real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle; in the [[Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets|second book]] he explains that Voldemort is derived from an [[anagram]] of his name: |
Voldemort's real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle; in the [[Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets|second book]] he explains that Voldemort is derived from an [[anagram]] of his name: |
||
Revision as of 14:56, 8 July 2003
Lord Voldemort is the arch-villain in the Harry Potter books. He is so feared by magical people that most refer to him as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who Must-Not-Be-Named" rather than saying his name out loud. He is also referred to as the "Dark Lord", although generally only by his followers.
It is possible to break the name Voldemort into the French phrase "vol de mort" which has multiple translations. The most commonly cited is "flight of death", but other meanings include "flight from death" and "theft of a dead body." Voldemort's followers are called death eaters, and they are hiding from the Ministry of Magic. His ultimate goal is to achieve immortality through the practice of dark magic.
Warning: Wikipedia contains spoilers
Early History
Voldemort was born Tom Marvolo Riddle (in the English version of the book, see below for more details about other editions). His father turned his mother out of his home when he realised that she was a witch. She died soon after giving birth to Tom, but not before naming Tom after his father.
Tom attended the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he was a member of Slytherin house. In his fifth year at Hogwarts, the Chamber of Secrets was opened, and the basilisk inside killed a student (whose ghost still haunts the toilet where she died, and is known by the students as Moaning Myrtle). Hogwarts was almost closed, but in the nick of time Tom caught the person who opened the chamber - Hagrid - winning himself an award for this. It wasn't until fifty years later that Harry Potter discovered that it was actually Tom himself who had released the monster from the Chamber. Being an orphan, and having nowhere to go to, Tom did not want the school to be closed down. So that the monster could be released later on, however, he created a memory of himself and put it into his diary.
His Era
We know nothing more about Tom Riddle until he became the Dark Lord Voldemort, killing thousands and threatening to tear the world of wizards asunder. The full horror of his attempt at control has only been hinted at. The Ministry of Magic - lead largely by Barty Crouch - worked against Voldemort, along with the Order of the Phoenix, lead by Albus Dumbledore, the principal of Hogwarts. Dumbledore was the Professor of Transfiguration when Tom Riddle attended school, and he is believed to be the only person who Voldemort ever feared.
Voldemort had his own group of trusted aides: the Death Eaters, over whom he maintained control by continuous - and often brutal - punishment.
In early 1980, that Sybill Trelawney, great-great-grand-daughter of a famous psychic, enters a trance in the presence of Dumbledore and utters a prophecy:
- The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ...
At the end of July, 1980, two boys who fit this description were born: Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter.
His Downfall
On October 31, 1981, Voldemort arrived at the home of James and Lily Potter, prominent members of the Order of the Phoenix, in Godric's Hollow. He killed James Potter and then tried to kill Harry. His mother tried to stop Voldemort but was killed herself. Finally, he used Avada Kedavra, the killing curse on Harry Potter - a curse with no known counter-curse, no way of stopping it, and no known survivor.
But the less-than-one year old survived, with only a curse in the shape of a lightning bolt on his forehead. The spell somehow backfired on Voldemort, reducing him to a barely-alive shell of his former self. He ran out into the night, and wasn't heard from again for ten years.
The Dark Years
Voldemort settled in a forest, where even existance was a continuous, on-going stuggle. His only remaining ability was the ability to possess the bodies of others, and he frequently possessed snakes. Animal bodies didn't allow him to perform magic, however.
Then, in the early 1990s, Voldemort found Hogwarts Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor Quirrell passing through the forest. He took Voldemort to London and attempted with his help of Voldemort to steal the Philosopher's Stone. His plans were thwarted by Harry Potter, as recounted in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
Voldemort returned to his hiding place, afraid that his Death Eaters had forsaken him, and that he wouldn't be able to find a wizard to possess. He spent the next two years in hiding. In this interim, Death Eater Lucius Malfoy attempted to send the memory of Voldemort (stored in his diary) into Hogwarts, by giving it to a young girl named Ginny Weasley. This memory avatar of Voldemort managed to manipulate Ginny into opening the Chamber of Secrets, nearly killing a number of students, and then tried to drain her life-force to allow him to come into being outside the book. This memory's plans were once again stopped by Harry, as recounted in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Luckily for Voldemort, a set of incidents detailed in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban forced Peter Pettigrew to leave hiding and to go in search of Voldemort. While searching for him, he kidnapped Bertha Jorkins, from whose mind Voldemort learned enough to formulate the plan he executed in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. In the course of this plan, Voldemort first created a primitive body for himself, extremely rudimentary but still large to allow him to perform magic by himself. He then managed to recreate the body he had before his curse rebounded at the beginning of the first book. Harry's blood formed a part of this process of rebirth; many Harry Potter fans suspect that this will prove to be Voldemort's undoing. After being reborn, Voldemort summoned the Death Eaters back to him, and attempted to kill Harry - but he escaped the Dark Lord yet again.
The Second War
At first, the Ministry of Magic refused to believe that Lord Voldemort had risen again. The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, began a process of defaming Dumbledore and Harry (the only non-Death Eater witness to the ceremony). Dumbledore was accused of being old, and was removed from several important posts. Through heavy donations, Lucius Malfoy also gained large influence within the Ministry.
In opposition to Voldemort, Dumbledore reformed the Order of the Phoenix, and set it up in Sirius Black's old home - Number 12, Grimmauld Place, London. He also sent envoys to the giants and other non-human magical creatures who Voldemort might lure onto his side.
Meanwhile, Voldemort was waiting in the sidelines and plotting carefully. Only a handful of wizards (the members of the Order) believed he was back, allowing him a free hand in his schemes. He managed to coerce the giants to support him, and some believe that he has managed to bring atleast some of the Dementors into his fold.
Towards the latter half of the book - after engineering a plot to bring some of his best Death Eaters back out of Azkaban - Voldemort embarks on a scheme to kill Harry, as well as retrieve a Prophecy, stored in the Ministry's Department of Mysteries, regarding Harry and Voldemort (already shown above). The prophecy is destroyed in the attempt, and Harry escapes again, although his godfather, Sirius Black, dies. Many of Voldemort's Death Eaters are trapped by Dumbledore in the attempt. Finally, Voldemort himself turns up at the Ministry and tries to kill Harry, but Dumbledore appears and duels with him. The duel ends with Voldemort being sent packing, though with all faculties intact. He is also seen by the Minister of Magic, who finally acknowledges that Dumbledore is right about Voldemort's return, and begins preparations to fight him once more.
Characteristics
One of Voldemort's defining characteristics is his racist tendencies. He looks down upon non-human magical creatures (such as house-elves), and especially despises Muggles - a hatred which apparently began with his muggle father's treatment of his mother.
He is also a Parseltongue - a wizard who can talk to snakes. This is an ability he has inherited from his ancestor, Salazar Slytherin.
Voldemort also has an unfortunate tendancy to forget details which have lead to his undoing. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone he states that he had forgotten the ancient magic which protected Harry from him, his mother giving her life; in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets he forgets that the tears of the phoenix have healing power. The Harry Potter Lexicon suggests that the glint in Dumbledore's eye in the Goblet of Fire when Harry tells him that Voldemort has some of his blood in him is another of his memory-slips.
Many of these characteristics are shared by Harry, possibly as a result of the failed curse which gave him his scar.
Voldemort's Name
Voldemort's real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle; in the second book he explains that Voldemort is derived from an anagram of his name:
- TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE = I AM LORD VOLDEMORT
In translated versions of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Voldemort's true name is changed to accommodate the anagram:
- TOM ROJVOL RADDLE = JÁ LORD VOLDEMORT
- MARTEN ASMODOM VILIJN = MIJN NAAM IS VOLDEMORT
- TOM LOMEN VALEDRO = MA OLEN VOLDEMORT
- TOM ELVIS JEDUSOR = JE SUIS VOLDEMORT
- TOM VORLOST RIDDLE = IST LORD VOLDEMORT
- ANTON MORVOL HERT = ARHON VOLDEMORT
- TOM ORVOLOSON RIDDLE = SONO IO LORD VOLDEMORT
- TOM DRODELO VENSTER = VOLDEMORT DEN STORE
- TOM SORVOLO RYDDLE = SOY LORD VOLDEMORT
- TOM GUS MERVOLO DOLDER = EGO SUM LORD VOLDEMORT