Tom Marvolo Riddle

Tom Marvolo Riddle was an English half-blood wizard considered to be the most powerful and dangerous Dark Wizard of all time. He is better known by his self-proclaimed title, Lord Voldemort. As the heir of Salazar Slytherin, Riddle was obsessed with achieving immortality, conquering death, and ridding the wizarding world of Muggle heritage. His reign of terror defined two major conflicts, the First Wizarding War and the Second Wizarding War, and his quest for power is the central conflict of the entire *Harry Potter* series, with Harry Potter himself being his prophesied nemesis.

Tom Marvolo Riddle was born on December 31, 1926, the son of the wealthy Muggle Tom Riddle Sr. and the pure-blood witch Merope Gaunt. His maternal family, the Gaunt family, were the last known descendants of Salazar Slytherin. Merope, living in squalor with her abusive father Marvolo Gaunt and brother Morfin Gaunt, became infatuated with the handsome Tom Riddle Sr. After her father and brother were imprisoned in Azkaban, she used a Love Potion to bewitch him into marrying her. When she became pregnant, Merope stopped using the potion, hoping he had genuinely fallen in love with her. He had not, and immediately abandoned her and their unborn child. Destitute and heartbroken, Merope sold Salazar Slytherin's Locket, a priceless family heirloom, for a mere ten Galleons. She made her way to London, gave birth at Wool's Orphanage, and died shortly after naming her son Tom for his father and Marvolo for her father.

Riddle grew up in the Muggle orphanage, unaware of his magical heritage but conscious of his unique abilities. He was a strange and solitary child who exhibited cruelty and a desire for control. He used his nascent magical powers—including telekinesis, communicating with snakes (Parseltongue), and causing harm to others—to bully and torment the other orphans. He also stole their belongings, hoarding them as trophies. In the summer of 1938, Albus Dumbledore, then the Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts, visited the orphanage to invite the eleven-year-old Riddle to the school. Dumbledore became wary of Riddle's already well-developed dark tendencies, his lack of remorse, and his thirst for power.

At Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Riddle was sorted into Slytherin House. Outwardly, he was a model student: academically brilliant, handsome, and charming. He became a Prefect and later Head Boy. However, he secretly researched his ancestry, eventually discovering his lineage to Salazar Slytherin. He adopted the title “Lord Voldemort” from an anagram of his full name, a name he would use to shed his “filthy Muggle father's name.” In his fifth year, he located and opened the Chamber of Secrets, unleashing the Basilisk within to attack Muggle-born students. The attacks culminated in the death of a student, Myrtle Warren (later Moaning Myrtle). Riddle used her death to create his first Horcrux, preserving a piece of his soul within his school diary. He framed Rubeus Hagrid and his Acromantula, Aragog, for the attacks, leading to Hagrid's expulsion. During this time, he also charmed Professor Horace Slughorn into revealing the secrets of creating multiple Horcruxes.

After graduating from Hogwarts, Riddle briefly worked at the wizarding antique shop Borgin and Burkes. He used his position to track down two more priceless artifacts for his Horcrux collection: Helga Hufflepuff's Cup and Salazar Slytherin's Locket, murdering their owner, Hepzibah Smith, to obtain them. Around this time, he also traveled to Little Hangleton and murdered his father and paternal grandparents, framing his uncle Morfin Gaunt for the crimes. He used his father's murder to turn his grandfather's ring, Marvolo Gaunt's Ring, into another Horcrux. He then vanished for a decade, traveling widely, immersing himself in the Dark Arts, and undergoing radical magical transformations that made him less human in appearance. He reemerged as Lord Voldemort, assembling an army of followers known as Death Eaters. He applied for the Defence Against the Dark Arts teaching post at Hogwarts, intending to find another founder's artifact, but was denied by Albus Dumbledore. In revenge, he jinxed the position, ensuring no professor would last more than a year.

Voldemort and his Death Eaters began a campaign of terror and murder that lasted for eleven years. He gained control of giants and werewolves and ruled the wizarding community through fear. His reign was challenged by the Order of the Phoenix, led by Albus Dumbledore. In 1980, Voldemort learned of a prophecy that foretold the birth of a child with the power to vanquish him. He concluded the prophecy referred to Harry Potter. On Halloween night, 1981, he went to Godric's Hollow and murdered James Potter and Lily Potter. However, when he turned his wand on the infant Harry, Lily's loving sacrifice created a powerful protection that caused the Killing Curse to rebound. The curse destroyed Voldemort's body and blasted a piece of his soul into Harry, inadvertently turning the boy into an unintended seventh Horcrux.

Reduced to a spectral form, Voldemort fled and spent the next decade in hiding, primarily in the forests of Albania, possessing animals to survive. In 1991, he possessed Professor Quirinus Quirrell in an attempt to steal the Philosopher's Stone and regain a body, but was thwarted by Harry Potter. A year later, the memory preserved in his diary manipulated Ginny Weasley into reopening the Chamber of Secrets, but this echo of his younger self was destroyed by Harry. In the summer of 1994, with the help of Peter Pettigrew, Voldemort used a dark potion containing unicorn blood and Nagini's venom to create a rudimentary body. He orchestrated a plan to capture Harry, culminating at the end of the Triwizard Tournament. On June 24, 1995, in the Little Hangleton graveyard, Voldemort used a dark ritual involving his father's bone, Pettigrew's flesh, and Harry's blood to restore himself to a full, powerful body.

His return initially denied by a fearful Ministry of Magic, Voldemort spent a year operating in the shadows. His presence was publicly revealed after a duel with Albus Dumbledore in the Atrium of the Ministry. He then escalated his war, assassinating key opponents, breaking his followers out of Azkaban, and eventually taking over the Ministry of Magic from within. During this time, he sought the Elder Wand, one of the Deathly Hallows, believing it would make him invincible. He tracked it to Dumbledore's Tomb and claimed it for his own. His final downfall came during the Battle of Hogwarts on May 2, 1998. As the battle raged, Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger successfully destroyed his remaining Horcruxes. Unaware that Harry Potter was the true master of the Elder Wand, Voldemort's final Killing Curse rebounded on him once again, and he died, his soul no longer anchored to the mortal world.

As a young man, Tom Riddle was described as tall and handsome, with dark hair and dark eyes. His charm and good looks were tools he used to manipulate those around him. After his deep immersion in the Dark Arts and creation of Horcruxes, his appearance became snake-like and inhuman. He was tall and skeletally thin, with skin “whiter than a skull,” a chalk-white, skull-like face, red eyes with vertical, cat-like slits for pupils, and a nose as flat as a snake's with slits for nostrils. Riddle's defining personality trait was his immense fear of death, which drove his quest for immortality. He was an arrogant megalomaniac, utterly devoid of conscience, empathy, or the ability to love; Dumbledore theorized this was because he was conceived under the influence of a Love Potion. He was sadistic, taking pleasure in the pain of others, and ruled his followers through fear. Despite his obsession with pure-blood supremacy, he was himself a half-blood, a fact he deeply loathed and concealed.

• Dark Arts: He was considered the most powerful Dark Wizard in history, with unparalleled knowledge and skill. He was known to have invented many dark spells.
• Horcruxes: He is the only wizard known to have successfully created more than one Horcrux, splitting his soul into seven parts to achieve immortality.
• Parseltongue: As the descendant of Salazar Slytherin, he was a fluent Parselmouth, able to speak with snakes.
• Dueling: He was a supremely skilled duelist, whose only known equal was Albus Dumbledore.
• Legilimency and Occlumency: He was an exceptionally accomplished Legilimens, able to penetrate the minds of others with ease. He was also a master Occlumens, though his connection with Harry's mind proved to be a weakness.
• Unsupported Flight: He mastered the ability to fly without a broomstick or any other support, a rare and advanced piece of magic.
• Wand: His wand was thirteen-and-a-half inches, yew, with a phoenix feather core. The feather came from Fawkes, the same phoenix whose feather was in Harry Potter's wand, creating a unique connection between them (Priori Incantatem).

• Tom Riddle's Diary: His first Horcrux.
• Marvolo Gaunt's Ring: His second Horcrux and an unwitting Deathly Hallow (the Resurrection Stone).
• Salazar Slytherin's Locket: A family heirloom he turned into a Horcrux.
• Helga Hufflepuff's Cup: Another Horcrux stolen from Hepzibah Smith.
• Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem: A lost artifact he found and turned into a Horcrux.
• Nagini: His pet snake, who became his final, living Horcrux.
• The Elder Wand: He took this from Dumbledore's grave, but never truly mastered it.

• Harry Potter: His fated nemesis. Their lives were inextricably linked by the prophecy, Lily's sacrifice, their twin wand cores, and the piece of Voldemort's soul lodged in Harry.
• Albus Dumbledore: The only wizard Voldemort ever feared. Dumbledore was his former teacher and the leader of the opposition against him, consistently working to uncover his past and orchestrate his downfall.
• Death Eaters: His followers were bound to him by fear, not loyalty. His most devoted follower was Bellatrix Lestrange. Others, like Lucius Malfoy, served him out of a desire for power and self-preservation.
• Severus Snape: His most trusted lieutenant for many years, whom he ultimately murdered. Voldemort never realized that Snape was a double agent, motivated by his lifelong love for Lily Potter.
• The Gaunt Family: He despised his maternal family for their poverty and weakness, but took pride in their pure-blood lineage from Slytherin.
• The Riddle Family: He loathed his Muggle father for abandoning his mother and murdered him and his grandparents in cold blood.

• Tom: A common English name, representing the ordinary, Muggle side of his heritage that he reviled.
• Marvolo: His maternal grandfather's name. It may be derived from the word “marvelous” or, more likely, from the Latin malo velle, meaning “to wish ill.”
• Riddle: An English word for a puzzle or enigma, perfectly reflecting his mysterious past and complex character.
• Voldemort: An anagram of “Tom Marvolo Riddle” is “I am Lord Voldemort.” The name itself is derived from French words vol de mort, meaning “flight of death” or “theft of death,” alluding to his primary goals of conquering and escaping mortality.

• J.K. Rowling has stated that the 't' at the end of “Voldemort” is silent, as in the French pronunciation (J.K. Rowling interview).
• Rowling has also confirmed that Riddle's inability to understand love stems from his conception under a Love Potion, meaning he was born from a union devoid of genuine affection (J.K. Rowling interview).
• In the films, Voldemort is portrayed by several actors: Richard Bremmer as a spirit in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film), Christian Coulson as the teenage Riddle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film), Hero Fiennes-Tiffin as the 11-year-old Riddle and Frank Dillane as the 16-year-old Riddle in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film), and Ralph Fiennes as the restored, adult Lord Voldemort.
• The film Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald reveals that Nagini was once a human woman who was a Maledictus—a carrier of a blood curse that would eventually turn her permanently into a beast. This information is not present in the original seven novels.