The Deathly Hallows

The Deathly Hallows are one of the most looked-after artifacts in the wizarding world. They enriched kids’ imagination in “The Tale of Beedle the Bard” and caused numerous violent fightings and lifelong unsuccessful quests by adult wizards who sought after them. So where did the Deadly Hallows really originate and who are their owners through the ages?
 

The tale of the three brothers

The tale starts when three brothers, using their magical abilities, conjured a bridge to cross a river. That river was cherished by the Death as it killed numerous humans who tried to cross it, but not the three brothers who were on their way to pass it unharmed.

Death manifested itself to them in the bridge through a hooded figure and, although disappointed with their success, offered to reward the three brothers for their accomplishment by exhausting a wish for each one of them.

The oldest asked for the most powerful wand that ever existed. Death created a wand from an Elder three not far from them and gifted it to him.

The second brother asked for a way to resurrect his loved ones. So Death took a stone from the river and gave it to him.

The third brother asked Death to let him leave the place without being followed by her. So she reluctantly gave him her own Invisibility Cloak.

Little did the brothers know that Death is not to be trusted and that a gift from Death itself is often nothing more than a poisonous gift, designed to end the life of its owner.

The oldest brother left with his newly crafted wand and traveled to a distant land to test its power. He dueled one of his enemies and killed him with ease. Feeling invincible, he bragged about his unmatched power and proclaimed his invincibility. That night, while he was asleep, another wizard sneaked to his place, cut his throat, and stole the wand. So Death took the life of the first brother.

The second brother returned home and, using the stone that the Death offered him, resurrected the deceased woman he wanted to marry in the past. Although happy in the beginning, his resurrected campaign was sad and distant as she felt she belonged to the land of the Death. The man couldn’t accept living a life like this and decided to kill himself to join the love of his life. So Death took the second brother with her.

The Death then looked for the third brother everywhere with no success. The invisibility cloak was keeping him safe from its own creator. The man lived a long life and only when he felt that his time has come, that he took out his cloak and gifted it to his son. Death finally came to him and brought him with her.

This is the Tale of the three brothers as we all know it. Although famous, many witches and wizards never suspected the three artifacts were real, and those who believed in their existence were often seen as mad and lunatics. But in reality, these are real artifacts known as the Deathly Hallows.

The Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Invisibility Cloak belonged to the Peverel brothers, who are believed to be the brothers of the tale. Some will even say that the Peverells themself created the three items that constitute the Deathly Hallows. 
 

Who are the Peverells?

The Peverells is a medieval pure-blood wizarding family extinct in the male line. The Peverell brothers, Antioch, Cadmus, and Ignotus are believed by some to be the subject of “The Tale of the Three Brothers” written by Beedle the Bard.

Antioch possessed the Elder Wand, Cadmus the Resurrection Stone, and Ignotus the Cloak of Invisibility. Two out of the three brothers had a dead directly related to the Deadly Hallows. 

It is said that Antioch died on the night of the same day he got the Elder Wand. The vanity and thirst for power he felt with his hands on the most powerful wand in the world made him a target to the envious. Antioch kept the wand no more than a day as he got his throat cut by the man who stole it from him. 

Cadmus, the owner of the Resurrection Stone, committed suicide as he couldn’t live with the sad experience of seeing the women he loved not enjoying being brought back to life. This is because the Resurrection stone only brought an echo of the women, a pale image who wanted only one thing, to get back among the dead.

This brings us to the third brother, Ignotus. The legend says that he lived a long life and has chosen himself the day he wanted to say goodbye to the world of the living. Before embracing death, Ignotus gave the invisibility cloak to his son. 

Ignotus’ lineage is the only one of the three brothers’ descendants that is easy to trace. The invisibility cloak kept being handed from father to son until it was passed from James to Harry Potter.

Cadmus Peverell didn’t die directly after getting the Resurrection stone, as according to Albus Dumbledore, he had a child before he committed suicide. On the other hand, Antioch had no descendants.
 

Retracing the life of the Deathly Hallows:

The Deadly Hallows were made in the 13th century during medieval times. Although it was a long time ago, their owners can be retraced to some degree, and their power had made them the subject of many quests through the ages.
 

The Elder Wand

15 inches long, Elder tree, with a Thestral tail hair core, the Elder wand is the most powerful wand in the wizarding world. 

From its creation to this day, here is all the known owners of the Elder Wand in chronological order:

1- Antioch Peverell: Original owner

2 – Emeric the Evil: Dark Wizard

3 – Egbert the Egregious: The only one to master the wand through a duel apart from Albus Dumbledore

4 – Godelot: Author of Magick Most Evile

5 – Hereward: Killed Godelot, his own father, to master the wand

6 – Barnabas Deverill: A fearsome warlock

7 – Loxias: Dark wizard, named the wand “The Deathstick”

8 – Arcus or Livius: It’s debated which one became the master of the wand after Loxias’ death

9 – Mykew Gregorovitch: Famous wandmaker

10 – Gellert Grindelwald: Dark wizard

11 – Albus Dumbledore: Hogwarts headmaster

12 – Draco Malfoy: Unintentionally became master of the wand.

13 – Harry Potter: Used the wand to kill Lord Voldemort
 

The Resurrection Stone

The Resurrection stone is, according to Albus Dumbledore, probably created by Cadmus Peverell himself. Knowing that the house of Gaunt is related to Cadmus Peverell, the stone went in the Gaunt family for centuries, placed in a ring as seen in the memory collected by Albus Dumbledore on Morfin Gaunt. In this memory we see Marvolo Gaunt ranting about his blood purity to Bob Ogden while brandishing the stone proudly.

After Marvolo’s imprisonment in Azkaban where he died, Morfin inherited the ring. He was the owner of the Resurrection stone until Tom Riddle took it from him and framed him for the assassination of the Riddle family.

We clearly see Tom Riddle wearing the ring in the memory delivered by Horace Slughorn to Albus Dumbledore. The ring will be turned later into an Horcruxe and hidden in the Gaunt shack with all the protective curses around it.

In his quest for the Horcruxes, Albus Dumbledore will find the ring and, due to a life marked by his past regrets, decides to wear it to resurrect his sister Ariana and probably his parents too.

A foolish act as he describes it in his own words, as he knew the ring was cursed. The curse that started killing him was stopped for a time by a potion made by Severus Snape, but Albus had only a year left to live.

Albus was able to destroy the ring using Godric Griffindor’s sword and will give the stone to Harry Potter in his will.

Harry Potter will use the stone once to resurrect his parents, Sirius Black, and Rumeus Lupin, then will abandon the Resurrection stone for good in an unknown place in the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts.
 

The invisibility cloak

Since its creation, the Invisibility Cloak was passing from generation to generation keeping up with the tradition set by Ignotus Peverell. The Potter family being descendants of Ignotus, became the owners of the cloak.

We also know according to a letter sent from Lily Potter to Sirius Black that Albus took the Cloak from James Potter in the period when Voldemort was looking for the Potters to kill them. Albus did it probably because he knew that James would use it to get outside, making him vulnerable.

Eleven years later, when Harry Potter started his first year at Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore gave him the Invisibility cloak as a Christmas gift. Harry will surely, in his turn, offer it to his son later.