Wizarding World history: The rise and fall of Emeric the Evil

You know of Grindelwald and Voldemort, but what about Emeric the Evil? Another terrifying Dark Wizard who held the famous Elder Wand.

Great Dark Wizards such as Grindelwald and Voldemort have been well documented, and justifiably so. However, there was another who possessed the Elder Wand for a short but very violent period, that of Emeric the Evil.

One important thing about the Elder Wand’s history is that because of its huge power, its owners were often disposed of through treacherous methods rather than Wizard Duels.

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Indeed, the very first owner of the wand, Antioch Peverell had his throat slit while he slept and the wand stolen from him. With such a bloodied history as this, it is no wonder that the Elder Wand owners were often unstable characters, having to watch their magical back so to speak always.

Emeric the Evil, a medieval wizard was the second owner of the Elder Wand and brought the object out of myth to that of wizard history. It is not known how Emeric obtained the wand, however, given the incredibly powerful nature of the object, this was likely done through violent means.

Whereas other Dark Wizards such as Grindelwald and Voldemort may have sought to utilize the Wand’s power for their wider nefarious ends, it seems that Emeric just promptly went on a rampage. Emeric’s nature was according to the Tales of Beedle the Bard ‘exceptionally aggressive’ even if it was confined to Southern England.

So much of Emeric’s life is shrouded in mystery that it is not known whether he had any wider plans for the Wand. However, as is so often the case with brutal murderers, Emeric eventually came up against someone even worse than he was.

Historical owners include the original owner, Antioch Peverell (DH21), Emeric the Evil, Egbert, Godelot and his son Hereward, Barnabas Deverill, and the evil Loxias (possibly killed by his own mother) (TBB). https://t.co/cO0zJBOCRL
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Egbert the Egregious was, according to his name, an ‘oustandingly bad’ individual. Yet he must have been doing something right because he somehow managed to defeat Emeric who was in full possession of the Elder Wand in a duel. That Egbert obtained the weapon in one to one combat suggests he was exceptionally powerful and yet little is known about him as well. ‘The Tales of Beedle the Bard’ speculate that he had a short life and then the wand was lost again.

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The real turning point in the wand’s history was its ownership by Godelot who was apparently an “unpleasant character” according to The Tales. However, what differentiated Godelot from all of the previous owners of the Wand was that he channeled its powers into a reservoir of knowledge accessible to others. Thus Godelot seemingly sensitive to posterity wrote ‘Magick Most Evile’ which contained amongst other things some fleeting advice on how to create Horcruxes.

While Emeric may have perished in a duel, and Egbert appears to have vanished into the ether, Godelot had a rather ignominious death locked in a cellar by his son who also probably stole the wand sealing Godelot’s fate. Nonetheless, Godelot had achieved something the previous owners of Peverell, Emeric and Egbert had not, of attempting to use the Wand to not only take life’s but allow a way to preserve life, through learning Horcruxes even if he could not save his own.

The Wand would have many owners such as Barnabas Deverell and Loxias two extremely powerful wizards with the latter killing the former. ‘The Wand finds the Wizard’ as the famed wandmaker Garrick Olivervander once noted, with a wand as powerful as the Elder wand this is, even more, the case. While Emeric the Evil had achieved power and certainly notoriety, it was Godelot that showed the sheer range the Elder Wand could reach.

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