Elder Wood

• Type: Wand Wood
• Owners: Owners of wands made from this wood include Antioch Peverell, Gellert Grindelwald, Albus Dumbledore, Draco Malfoy, and Harry Potter (all as masters of the Elder Wand).
• Maker: N/A (Natural Wood)

Elder is a type of wood used in the crafting of wands. In the non-magical world, the elder tree (Sambucus) is common, but as a wand wood, it is the rarest of all. The books do not provide a detailed description of the raw wood's appearance. The most famous and possibly only known artifact made from elder wood is the Elder Wand. This particular wand is described as being fifteen inches long and is visually distinct due to the carvings along its length that resemble clusters of elderberries. When Harry Potter held it, he noted a “prickly, powerful” feeling from the wand.

Elder wood possesses some of the most potent and challenging magical properties known in wandlore. Its characteristics are so formidable that a great deal of superstition surrounds it.

• Exceptional Power: It contains tremendously powerful magic, capable of performing feats that other wands cannot, such as Harry Potter flawlessly mending his own broken holly and phoenix feather wand.
• Difficult to Master: According to the expert wandmaker Garrick Ollivander, elder is “notoriously tricky to master.” It demands a superior wizard and will not perform well for an ordinary one.
• Sentience and Allegiance: An elder wand disdains to remain with any owner who is not the superior of their company. It is described as having a conscience, but one that is only loyal to power. If its master is defeated, its allegiance will switch to the victor, whether the defeat was through disarmament or murder. This makes ownership of an elder wand a precarious and often dangerous position.
• “Unlucky” Reputation: There is a pervasive superstition among wizards that elder wands are deeply unlucky and that “wand of elder, never prosper.” Mr. Ollivander dismisses this as nonsense, stating that foolish wizards prefer to blame their wands rather than their own lack of skill. The wood is not unlucky, but simply more difficult to handle than any other.
• The Ideal Owner: Only a very unusual and remarkable person will find their perfect match in an elder wand. Such a witch or wizard is often marked for a special destiny (Pottermore).

The history of elder wood in the wizarding world is almost entirely synonymous with the history of the Elder Wand, one of the three Deathly Hallows. According to legend, as told in The Tale of the Three Brothers, Death himself fashioned the wand from an elder branch for the eldest Peverell brother, Antioch Peverell. The wand's history is the bloodiest of all the Deathly Hallows, as its unique and demanding nature of allegiance caused it to be passed from wizard to wizard through conflict. Its owners have included many powerful and often Dark wizards throughout history, all of whom eventually fell to a new master seeking the wand's power. This violent lineage contributed to the wood's reputation for being “unlucky.” Garrick Ollivander's extensive study of wandlore allowed him to understand the true nature of elder wood, separating fact from the fear-based superstitions held by the wider wizarding community.

The concept of elder wood, embodied by the Elder Wand, is a central plot device in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Lord Voldemort's quest for the wand drives much of the narrative, as he believes its unbeatable power is the key to overcoming Harry Potter and achieving true immortality. He hunts down Gregorovitch and Gellert Grindelwald before finally taking the wand from Albus Dumbledore's tomb. However, Voldemort fails to understand the wood's true nature of allegiance. He mistakenly believes that murder is the only way to master the wand. Harry Potter becomes the Elder Wand's true master by disarming its previous master, Draco Malfoy, who had himself disarmed Dumbledore. This understanding of the wand's loyalty is crucial to Harry's final victory over Voldemort. After the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry uses the wand's immense power to repair his own beloved wand before choosing to renounce its power and return it to Dumbledore's tomb, hoping to break its bloody cycle of history.

• In real-world European folklore, the elder tree has a dual reputation, much like its magical counterpart. It was often thought to ward off evil spirits, but it was also considered incredibly unlucky to burn elder wood or bring it into a house, and it was sometimes associated with witches and death. This complex folklore likely inspired J.K. Rowling's choice of wood for the most powerful and dangerous wand.
• The Pottermore (now Wizarding World) website expands upon the lore of elder wood, confirming Ollivander's notes from the novel. It states that it takes a remarkable wizard to keep an elder wand and that the owner of such a wand is more likely to be attacked by others seeking to win its power (Pottermore).