Lord Voldemort

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Harry Potter character
Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Lord Voldemort
Gender	Male
Hair colour	Hairless (formerly black)
Eye colour	Red
House	Slytherin
Parentage	Half-blood
Allegiance	Himself
Actor	Richard Bremmer[HP1] Ian Hart[HP1] Christian Coulson[HP2] Ralph Fiennes[HP4][HP5]
First appearance	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Lord Voldemort is a fictional character of the Harry Potter book series written by J.K. Rowling. He first appeared in the bestseller Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997) as the archenemy of protagonist Harry Potter. Throughout the series, he is consistently depicted as a Dark wizard bent on securing unmatched power and immortality; he also harbours a genocidal hatred of non-magical humans. In all books, his name is so feared that many wizards refuse to say it, causing most of the characters to refer him only as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named". With the exception of the third installment, Voldemort has appeared in every Harry Potter book, either in person or in some magical manifestation.

Contents 1 Publication history 1.1 First four books (1997–2000) 1.2 Fifth and sixth books (2003–2005) 2 Fictional character biography 3 Attributes 3.1 Personality and traits 3.2 Magic and skill 3.3 Family tree 4 Comparisons and interpretations 5 Portrayals 6 Name 6.1 Anagram 7 References 8 Bibliography 9 External links

[edit] Publication history

[edit] First four books (1997–2000)

Lord Voldemort made his debut in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997). In this story, Rowling introduced him as the Dark Lord who murders the parents of protagonist Harry Potter. However, when his mother Lily Potter sacrifices her life attempting to save her son, this act of love grants Harry an unprecedented charm of protection which Voldemort has not expected; as a result, his Killing Curse backfires and disembodies him.^[1] The backfired curse leaves the characteristic lightning bolt-shaped scar on Harry's forehead,^[1] and creates a link between their minds which allows Harry to detect Voldemort's presence and "see" his thoughts in the course of the entire six-book series. Throughout the novel, Rowling establishes that most wizards are unwilling to say Voldemort's name, instead using euphemisms such as You-Know-Who and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Also, the Dark Lord never appears in person, but Rowling dropped several hints which indicate that Voldemort's presence is nearby; at the climax, it is revealed he has possessed the body of his minion, Hogwarts teacher Professor Quirrell.^[2] Rowling explains, by means of dialogue from Quirrell, that prior to Harry's arrival at Hogwarts, Quirrell had encountered Voldemort in Albania. The Dark Lord is barely surviving by taking possession of the bodies of creatures, frequently possessing those of snakes and sustaining himself by occasionally consuming unicorn blood. Quirrell eventually agrees to serve the Dark Lord.^[2] Via Quirrell's long expository dialogue, Rowling further informs that Voldemort has learned about Nicolas Flamel's Philosopher's Stone: it is a magical stone capable of producing gold and the so-called Elixir of Life, a substance which can restore Voldemort's body and give him a measure of immortality. It is stored in the fictional Gringotts bank vault by Albus Dumbledore, who brings it to Hogwarts. When Quirrell fails to retrieve it, Voldemort punishes Quirrell by possessing him, and going with him to, from where Voldemort intends Hogwarts. However, Voldemort's plans are thwarted by Harry Potter. The Dark Lord pitilessly abandons Quirrell, as a result of which Quirrell dies.^[2]

In the second installment, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), Rowling introduces the character of Tom Marvolo Riddle, a manifestation residing inside a magical diary found by Ginny Weasley. In this book, Ginny is written as a shy girl with an unreciprocated crush on Harry Potter.^[3] Feeling anxious and lonely, she begins writing into the diary, sharing her deepest fears with the sympathetic Tom.^[4] However, at the climax of the story, it is revealed that Tom Marvolo Riddle is an anagram of "I am Lord Voldemort", and Tom is indeed the magical manifestation of the Dark Lord himself. This is why Lord Voldemort and Tom Marvolo Riddles's names are different in foreign translations. Riddle states he has grown strong on her fears and eventually possessed Ginny. He then has used her as a spy to unlock the Chamber of Secrets, which has set a basilisk free which has petrified several Hogwarts students. However, Riddle / Voldemort's magical image and the basilisk are defeated by Harry Potter.^[4]

In the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), Voldemort does not make any appearance, neither in person nor in form of a magical manifestation. However, Rowling causes the usually fraudulent Divination professor, Sybill Trelawney, to genuinely prophesise: The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these 12 years. Tonight, before midnight, the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever before. Tonight... before midnight... the servant... will set out... to rejoin... his master....^[5] Towards the end of the book, the servant is revealed to be Peter Pettigrew, who since the fall of Lord Voldemort has been hiding as Ron Weasley's pet rat, Scabbers.

However, in the fourth installment of the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000), Voldemort appears at the climax of the book. In that chapter, Rowling lets many seemingly unrelated plot points fall into order, and establishes Voldemort as a master planner. It is revealed that Voldemort's minion Barty Crouch Jr, disguising as Hogwarts professor Mad-Eye Moody, has manipulated the events of the so-called magical Triwizard Tournament. Voldemort's goal is to teleport reluctant participant Harry Potter to Little Hangleton graveyard, where the Riddle family are buried.^[6] Harry is captured, and after Voldemort's minion Peter Pettigrew uses Harry's blood to fulfill a gruesome magical ritual, Voldemort regains his body and is restored to full power. This is also the first time Rowling described his outer appearance to the reader, depicting him as "tall and skeletally thin", with a face "whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was as flat as a snake’s with slits for nostrils".^[6] Rowling further established that Voldemort's "hands were like large, pale spiders; his long white fingers caressed his own chest, his arms, his face; the red eyes, whose pupils were slits, like a cat's, gleamed still more brightly through the darkness".^[6] Rowling had at the beginning of the story revealed that Pettigrew had captured Ministry of Magic official Bertha Jorkins, who provided Ministry news to Voldemort.^[7] At the climax, it is revealed that they tortured her for information, killing her after learning that Barty Crouch Jr, a faithful Death Eater, has been smuggled out of Azkaban and is privately confined at his father's house. With Pettigrew's help, Voldemort creates a small, rudimentary body, corporeal enough to travel and perform magic, and formulates a plan to create a new fully physical body by capturing Harry Potter. A portion of the plan is overheard by Frank Bryce, a gardener, whom Voldemort then kills.^[7] However, when Voldemort duels Harry, their wands become magically locked together, and ghost-like victims of Voldemort appear to distract their enemy, allowing Harry to escape with the body of fellow-student, Cedric Diggory, who was murdered by Peter Pettigrew on Voldemort's orders.^[8]

[edit] Fifth and sixth books (2003–2005)

In the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003), Rowling again let Voldemort appear at the climax of the book, having again carefully plotted against his archrival Harry Potter.^[9] In this book, Voldemort makes liberal use of the fact that the Ministry of Magic, the governing body of the wizarding world, refuses to believe without proof that Voldemort has returned,^[10] preferring throughout the book to brand Harry as a liar. After engineering a plot to secure the break-out of some of the Death Eaters from Azkaban, Voldemort embarks on a scheme to retrieve the full record of a prophecy regarding Harry and himself, stored in the Ministry's Department of Mysteries. Not wishing to reveal himself to the Ministry when they so fervently deny his existence, he sends a group of Death Eaters to retrieve the prophecy (since he cannot safely go himself). However, the plot fails, and the only copy of the prophecy available to Voldemort is destroyed.^[9] All but one of the Death Eaters sent to retrieve it fall into the hands of the Order of the Phoenix after a battle inside the Ministry building. There is a wizarding duel between Dumbledore and Voldemort, who has come upon hearing the cries of Bellatrix Lestrange. Finally Voldemort is able to escape, taking Bellatrix with him. However, he is seen by the Minister of Magic, who thus accepts that Voldemort is back.^[9]

In the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005), Rowling uses several chapters as plot dumps to establish Voldemort's backstory. In a series of flashbacks, using pensieves as a plot device, she established that Voldemort is son of the witch Merope Gaunt and Tom Riddle Sr. However, Riddle abandons Merope before Tom Riddle Jr.'s birth, soon after which, Merope dies. Riddle never comes to find his son.^[11] After living in an orphanage, young Tom is picked up by Albus Dumbledore, who takes him to Hogwarts.^[12] Riddle establishes himself as a brilliant and ruthless student, who is outwardly a model pupil, but in reality a killer who murders his father and grandparents.^[13] Rowling also wrote that Riddle soon is obsessed by Horcruxes, wanting to split his soul to become immortal.^[14] Outside the books, Rowling has revealed that Voldemort's greatest fear is "ignominious death," and that his boggart would be his own corpse. What he desires most is to be all-powerful and to live forever – which is what he would see if he were ever to look in the Mirror of Erised.^[15] Dumbledore also states in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that Voldemort secretly possesses an extreme fear of death and dying. Dumbledore has also stated that "it is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more" and that Voldemort fails to understand that there are worse ways to destroy a man than by simply killing him.^[16] In the main plot of the book, Voldemort's next step is to engineer an assault on Hogwarts, and to attack Dumbledore himself. This is accomplished by Draco Malfoy, who manages to arrange transportation into Hogwarts by means of a pair of so-called Vanishing Cabinets, which bypass the extensive protective enchantments placed around the school.^[17] The cabinets allow Voldemort's Death Eaters to enter Hogwarts, yet it was Severus Snape who uses the Killing Curse against Dumbledore when Draco was unable to do so himself.^[17] With Dumbledore dead, the scales of battle seem to have tipped in Voldemort's favour, with Harry now out to avenge the deaths of his parents, his godfather Sirius and finally his mentor Dumbledore.^[18]

[edit] Fictional character biography

Further information: Tom Marvolo Riddle

See also: Dates in Harry Potter

In the books, Lord Voldemort rarely appears in person, mostly remaining an unseen character. Most details of Lord Voldemort's backstory are revealed in several chapters of the second book Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), which shed light on his teenage years as Tom Marvolo Riddle, and of the sixth book Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005), which fleshed out his birth, childhood and his transformation from the likeable, gifted Tom Marvolo Riddle into the bloodthristy Dark Lord Voldemort. Rowling frequently uses long conversations between Harry Potter and either Dumbledore or Voldemort himself as plot dumps to establish his biography. She also makes use of retroactive continuity to develop the storyline.

According to the established canon, Voldemort is born Tom Marvolo Riddle on December 31, 1926. He is the son of the witch Merope Gaunt and Tom Riddle Sr. Tom Riddle, a Muggle, was given a love potion by Merope, who continued supplying it for a long time after they got married. Eventually, Merope stopped giving it to him for an unknown reason, leading to Tom abandoning his then pregnant wife, who died in the orphanage where she gave birth to Tom Marvolo Riddle.^[11] After living in an orphanage for eleven years, young Tom is discovered by Albus Dumbledore, who recognises his magical potential and takes him to Hogwarts.^[12] There, in the fictional 1940s, Riddle establishes himself as a brilliant student, who unlocks the deadly mystery of the Chamber of Secrets, opens it, frees the basilisk who kills Moaning Myrtle, and manages to frame Rubeus Hagrid for it.^[4] There, he also forms the anagram "I am Lord Voldemort" from his name "Tom Marvolo Riddle", and makes his close friends address him with his new name.^[4] During one summer, Riddle tracks down and kills his father and grandparents and frames his uncle Morfin for the murders.^[4] After graduating, Riddle kills Hepzibah Smith to retrieve two priceless magical items, Slytherin's locket and Hufflepuff's cup.^[19]

Then, Riddle disappears and immerses himself into the Dark Arts, after decades transformed into the defaced, hideous Dark Lord Voldemort by splitting his soul amongst Horcruxes to prolong his life; the diary Ginny Weasley finds in the second book is one of them.^[19] When he returns in the fictional 1970s, he applies to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, but is turned down by Dumbledore.^[20][19] Along with his Death Eaters, Voldemort begins to terrorise the wizarding world, obsessed to purify the wizarding world from people with "impure blood", and finally turning on every wizard who tries to oppose him. He kills Harry's parents Lily and James, but when he tries to kill Harry, the spell rebounds and he is disembodied; when Lily sacrificed her life to save her son, she unwittingly cast a spell which gave Harry the ultimate protection.^[1] However, Voldemort survives as a parasite in the body of one of his followers, Hogwarts teacher Professor Quirrell. He tries to retrieve the Philosopher's Stone, which can restore his body, but is defeated.^[2]

While Voldemort waits without hope, the diary in which he has preserved the "memory" of his "sixteen-year-old self" has been in the possession of Lucius Malfoy, Death Eater, who takes an opportunity to slip the diary into a book purchased for young Ginny Weasley at Flourish and Blotts Bookstore. Ginny opens her heart to the diary and through it to Tom Marvolo Riddle and he becomes stronger and stronger "on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets". He is soon more powerful than Ginny and able to use her, without her knowledge, to open the Chamber of Secrets and have her act as his agent in Hogwarts. However, his plans are thwarted again by Harry Potter.^[4]

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, with help of his minions Peter Pettigrew and Barty Crouch Jr, Voldemort manages to return to life. Using a Portkey to lure Harry to Little Hangleton, the graveyard of Voldemort's ancestors, Pettigrew uses Harry's blood for a gruesome ritual to create a new body for his master. Voldemort has Harry cornered, but fails to kill him.^[6] Voldemort then rises back to power, reassembles his followers, and attempts to retrieve the full content of Sybill Trelawney's prophecy. However, Harry thwarts his plans again.^[9] Finally, he sends several of his most vicious followers to Hogwarts, where he succeeds in having his greatest rival, Albus Dumbledore, killed.^[17]

[edit] Attributes

[edit] Personality and traits

Throughout the whole series, Rowling establishes Voldemort as a psychopathic, utterly inhuman mass murderer as well as one of the most powerful wizards in history. He is shown as incapable of any type of love or mutual respect, caring only for power and considering no-one to be his equal, with the exception of Albus Dumbledore, "the only wizard Voldemort ever feared." The full extent of this "fear" is unknown, but may be revealed in the upcoming seventh book. In the six books, he is portrayed as a rabid bigot, harbouring a genocidal hate against Muggles and non-pure-blood wizards and witches, known derisively as "Mudbloods". This is ironic given the fact that Voldemort is a half-blood himself, son of the witch Merope Gaunt and the Muggle Tom Riddle Sr;^[11] in addition, his actions towards other Pureblood families during his periods of power (e.g. the Prewetts), and his acceptance of wizards such as the half-blooded Severus Snape in positions of authority, suggest that his beliefs are more complex than those of his followers. In book two, it is established that Riddle ultimately changes his name, by way of an anagram, from "Tom Marvolo Riddle" to "I am Lord Voldemort", as a way of removing his own heritage and of exalting himself.^[4] He also kills the Riddle family, partly because they were Muggles, and partly because they have abandoned him and his mother; later he frames his maternal uncle, Morfin Gaunt, for the murders.

After regaining his body in the fourth book, Rowling establishes that Voldemort has a very pale skin, a chalk-white, skull-like face, snake-like slits for nostrils, red eyes and cat-like slits for pupils, a skeletally thin body and long, thin hands with unnaturally long fingers.^[6] Earlier in life, as established in flashbacks contained in the second and sixth books, Tom Marvolo Riddle was described as very handsome. The transformation into his monstrous state is believed to have been caused by practising extremely advanced Dark magic, such as creating Horcruxes to split his soul.^[20][19]

[edit] Magic and skill

Throughout the whole series, Rowling establishes Voldemort as a supremely powerful, cunning and ruthless Dark Wizard. He is also known as one of, if not the greatest, Legilimens in the world and a highly accomplished Occlumens - being able to read minds, as well as shield his own from penetration. In the sixth book, it is revealed that he is one of few, if any, wizards ever able to create and comprehend Horcruxes to such an extent that he attempts to gain immortality through them. In the fourth and fifth books, where Voldemort engages in magical combat, Rowling depicts him as a formidable wizard, conjuring spells, counter-spells and Apparating/Disapparating in a matter of seconds.^[6][9] The only wizard he feared was Albus Dumbledore. However, he also inadvertently marked Harry as his equal by his unsuccessful attack on him in the beginning of the first novel.^[9]

Voldemort's knowledge of magic is said to be more extensive than any wizard alive, though his arrogance leads him to forget seemingly unimportant details from the past, which has led to his undoing on several occasions. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, he states that he had forgotten about the ancient magic that protected Harry when his mother died to save him, the magic Voldemort cannot understand because he has no understanding of love. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets he seemingly forgets that phoenix tears have magical properties, thus allowing Harry to evade the harmful effects of the basilisk's venom.^[6] (although this was a younger Voldemort). Furthermore, Rowling established that Voldemort's greatest fear is "ignominious death," and that his boggart would be his own corpse. What Voldemort desires most is to be all-powerful and to live forever – which is what he would see if he were ever to look in the Mirror of Erised. Dumbledore says in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that Voldemort secretly possesses an extreme fear of death and dying. Dumbledore goes on to say "it is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more" and that Voldemort fails to understand that there are worse ways to destroy a man than by simply killing him.^[16]

Voldemort disembodies himself when his Killing Spell targeting Harry Potter rebounds on him.^[1] After this, he and Harry are connected in several ways. Throughout the whole series, Harry's scar burns when he senses Voldemort nearby; in The Goblet of Fire Harry first discovers that he can access Voldemort's thoughts and emotions, and from then on whenever Voldemort was extremely angry, happy or in pain, Harry's scar burns painfully. Voldemort discovers their connection in The Order of the Phoenix and uses it to lure Harry into the Department of Mysteries to recover Sybill Trelawney's prophecy. In addition, Voldemort's magic wand is made from yew, a wood associated with death and rebirth, has innate destructive workings and is well suited for use in transfiguration. It is 13½ inches long and has a phoenix feather at its core. The wand's maker, Mr Ollivander, obtained this feather from Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes. Fawkes gave just one other feather to be used in a wand, and ironically this wand "chose" to belong to Harry. Because the two wands have a core coming from the same source, they tend to work improperly when used against each other. If they are forced into battle, a Priori Incantatem or "reverse-spell" effect occurs, where one wand forces the other to regurgitate echoes of previous spells it has cast, in reverse-chronological order. All of this plays an important part in Harry's escape from Voldemort at the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.^[8] Finally, like Harry, Voldemort is a Parselmouth; a trait he has inherited from the wizard Salazar Slytherin. It seems that most of his Gaunt ancestors have inherited this highly unusual trait: such traits are commonly passed down through families through inbreeding, a practice employed by the Gaunt Family. In the sixth book, it is revealed through Dumbledore's memory in the Pensieve that a young Voldemort, before acquiring a wand, or even knowing the very existence of magic itself, can use telekinesis, manipulate animals, and "make bad things happen to people who annoy him".

[edit] Family tree

Salazar Slytherin

Thomas Riddle

Mary Riddle

Marvolo Gaunt

Tom Riddle Sr

Merope Gaunt

Morfin Gaunt

Tom Marvolo Riddle (Lord Voldemort)

[edit] Comparisons and interpretations

Due to Voldemort's prejudices, his genocidal mass murders and lack of many human emotions, he has spawned several comparisons to Nazis and many villains of the bible and of popular culture. Rabbi Jack Abramowicz of the Jewish "National Conference of Synagogue Youth" (NCSY) uses drastic terms to describe Voldemort's nature, stating "Voldemort (...) is Egyptian slavery. He is the Syrian-Greeks. He is Haman. He is the Roman persecution. He is the Spanish Inquisition. He is pogroms and Crusades and the Holocaust and the Intifada."^[21] Dr. Nikolaus Wandinger of the University of Innsbruck uses biblical terms, drawing parallels between Voldemort and King Herod, pointing out how both went over dead bodies to kill the Chosen One, respectively Harry Potter and Jesus. He adds Voldemort's Death Eaters are racists, and that comparisons between Nazi terminology such as "half- and quarter-Jews" and the racist Harry Potter swear word "Mudblood" are legitimate.^[22] This is backed up by J K Rowling's claim that Lord Voldemort's followers, the Death Eaters, were based on the Ku Klux Klan; this is most clearly shown in the Death eater's ceremonial robes. Prof. Dr. Christoph Dinkel of the University of Kiel compares Voldemort to Darth Vader, stating the fascination of both characters comes from the fact that they try to seduce people to join evil^[23] Similarly, Christina Petrick-Löhr of the German newspaper Die Welt compares Voldemort to other hallmark villains like Macbeth, Mephistopheles, Captain Hook, the Queen of Hearts, Sauron, Darth Vader and Hannibal Lecter, proclaiming they are the true "Axis of Evil".^[24] Furthermore, Birgit Zimmermann and Andrew MacNeille from the University of Cologne state that Voldemort is a deeply racist and fascist tyrant, and a main example of bigots in contemporary pop culture.^[25] Finally, Ralph Fiennes, who portrayed Voldemort in the "Goblet of Fire" film, called him "the distillation of evil".^[26]

[edit] Portrayals

As of 2007, Voldemort appears in three Harry Potter films, namely Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone he is merely a face on the back of Quirrell's head. This was achieved by computer generated imagery. Ian Hart, the actor who played Professor Quirrell in the same film, provided both the voice and the facial source for this character. Voldemort also appears in a scene in the Forbidden Forest where he is seen sucking the blood of a unicorn. As Voldemort's face was altered enough by CG work, and Hart's voice was affected enough, there was no confusion by Hart's playing of the two roles. In that film, he was also shown in a flashback sequence when he arrived at the home of James and Lily Potter to kill them. In this scene Voldemort is played by Richard Bremmer.^[27]

His next appearance would be in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as Tom Marvolo Riddle (portrayed by Christian Coulson). Voldemort does not appear in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, neither in the book nor in the film. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort is initially only heard, possessing the scratchy, weak voice heard in the first film. By the film's climax, however, he appears in his actual physical form for the first time, played by Ralph Fiennes. Voldemort is shown clad in dark black robes, being tall and skeletal, with no hair and yellowish teeth; his wand has a white tone and the handle appears to be made of bone; his finger nails are long and pale blue while his toe nails appear to be infected. Unlike in the book, his pupils are not snake-like and his eyes are blue, because producer David Heyman felt that his evil would not be able to be seen and would not fill the audience with fear. Instead, the film version of Voldemort has no nose and has snake-like slit nostrils; "If you leave a good chunk off of human, it would seem less scary", said director Mike Newell. He is also a lot more energetic in the film than he is depicted in the book, and he has unpredictable, wild mood swings. Fiennes himself stated that he had two weeks to shoot the climatic showdown scene where he is gloating at a terrified Harry Potter, played by Daniel Radcliffe. Fiennes said with a chuckle: "I have no doubt children will be afraid of me now if they weren't before." In preparation, he read the novel "Goblet of Fire", but jokingly conceded "I was only interested in my scene, and I had to go through thousands and thousands of other scenes which I did, dutifully, until I got to my scene and I read it many, many, many, many, many times and that was my research."^[28] Fiennes reprises his role as Voldemort in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.^[29]

In general, it is remarkable that characters seem more comfortable hearing Voldemort's name in the films than in the books. Hermione speaks his name in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, three and a half years before she does in canon, and only Hagrid flinches at the sound of the name, early on in the first film. Resurrected Lord Voldemort does not make an appearance in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, though he appears in multiple flashback scenes of him in his late teens and early twenties. Pre-production has yet to begin on 2008's film adaptation.

[edit] Name

Throughout the series, Rowling established that the name "Voldemort" is so feared in the Wizarding world that it is considered dangerous even to speak his name. Most characters in the novels refer to him as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" rather than saying his name aloud. According to an interview with J. K. Rowling, "Voldemort" is pronounced (IPA: [vəʊl.də.mʊər]), with a silent 't' at the end, as is common in French.^[30] This was the pronunciation used by Jim Dale in the first four U.S. audiobooks; however, after the release of the film version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, in which the characters who dared refer to him by name pronounced it with the "t", Dale altered his pronunciation to that in the films.

Because of the French pronunciation of the name, it has been pointed out that the name "Voldemort" is the same as the common French language words "vol de mort". "Vol" is a masculine noun meaning "flight" or "theft". "De" is a preposition meaning "of" or "from". "Mort" is a feminine noun meaning "death", "end", or "ruin", or an adjective meaning "dead", or a masculine noun meaning "dead man". The combination "de mort" also means "deadly" or "deathly". This assumption is also supported by the fact that Rowling has continuously established that Voldemort's greatest fear is death, which would make his name Voldemort ("flight from death") a case of "nomen est omen". Another possible literal interpretation for "Voldemort" uses the Latin root, "vol", which means "will" or "wish". This would make voldemort out to mean "wishing for death", presumably the death of others.

[edit] Anagram

Voldemort's given name is Tom Marvolo Riddle. In the second book it is established that the appellation "Lord Voldemort" is derived from an anagram of his name: TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE ~ I AM LORD VOLDEMORT. This is also a play on words, as his name, Tom Marvolo Riddle, is also itself a riddle. In translated versions of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Voldemort's original name is changed to accommodate the anagram. In the Polish edition, however, translator Andrzej Polkowski decided not to make any changes, presumably because of the difficulty of translating the anagram into a meaningful sentence. In the Portuguese edition (as distinct from the Brazilian edition), the name was similarly left untranslated. The following table gives a comprehensive lists of the various translations:^[31]

Language	True Name	Anagram	Translations/notes
Bulgarian	ТОМ МЕРСВОЛУКО РИДДЪЛ	ТУК СЪМ И ЛОРД ВОЛДЕМОР	Here I am also Lord Voldemort
Catalan	TOD MORVOSC RODLEL	SÓC LORD VOLDEMORT	I am Lord Voldemort
Czech	TOM ROJVOL RADDLE	JÁ LORD VOLDEMORT	Me, Lord Voldemort
Danish	ROMEO G DETLEV JR	JEG ER VOLDEMORT	I am Voldemort; The G. is short for Gåde, i.e. "Riddle"
Dutch	MARTEN ASMODOM VILIJN	MIJN NAAM IS VOLDEMORT	My name is Voldemort; "Vilijn" (Voldemort's last name) and the Dutch word "Vilein" are equally pronounced, while the word "Vilein" means "evil" or "mean". It resembles the English word villain.
Estonian	TOM MARVOLON RIDDLE	MINA LORD VOLDEMORT	Me, Lord Voldemort
Finnish	TOM LOMEN VALEDRO	MA OLEN VOLDEMORT	I am Voldemort; "Mä" is an archaic form of "Minä" meaning "I" or "me". Also, "Valedro" begins with "vale" which equals to "lie" - or, "riddle".
French	TOM ELVIS JEDUSOR	JE SUIS VOLDEMORT	I am Voldemort; "Jedusor" is pronounced the same way as "Jeu du sort", stroke of fate.
German	TOM VORLOST RIDDLE	IST LORD VOLDEMORT	is Lord Voldemort
Greek	ANTON MORVOL HERT	ARCHON VOLDEMORT	Lord Voldemort: "NT" in Greek is equivalent to "D"
Greek spelling	ΑΝΤΩΝ ΜΟΡΒΟΛ ΧΕΡΤ	ΑΡΧΩΝ ΒΟΛΝΤΕΜΟΡΤ
Hebrew	TOM VANDROLO RIDDLE	ANI LORD VOLDEMORT	I am Lord Voldemort: the word lord is transliterated from the English and not translated.
Hebrew spelling	טום ואנדרולו רידל	אני לורד וולדמורט
Hungarian	TOM ROWLE DENEM	NEVEM VOLDEMORT	My name is Voldemort: The W is split to form two Vs in order to make the anagram possible
Icelandic	TREVOR DELGOME	ÉG ER VOLDEMORT	I am Voldemort
Italian	TOM ORVOLOSON RIDDLE	SON IO LORD VOLDEMORT	Lord Voldemort is me (a slightly archaic style)
Latin	TOM MOSVUX RUDDLE	SUM DUX VOLDEMORT	I am Lord Voldemort
Latvian	TOMS SVERELDO MELSUDORS	ES ESMU LORDS VOLDEMORTS	I am Lord Voldemort
Low German	TOM SOLVOR RIDDLE	IS LORD VOLDEMORT	[It] is Lord Voldemort
Мacedonian	ТОМ РЕДЛОВ (TOM REDLOV)	ВОЛДЕМОР (VOLDEMOR)	Red from Redlov means order
Norwegian	TOM DREDOLO VENSTER	VOLDEMORT DEN STORE	Voldemort the great
Polish	TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE	JESTEM LORD VOLDEMORT	I am Lord Voldemort
Portuguese (Brazilian)	TOM SERVOLO RIDDLE	EIS LORD VOLDEMORT	Behold Lord Voldemort
Romanian	TOMAS DORLENT CRUPLUD	SUNT LORDUL CAP-DE-MORT	I am Lord Cap-de-mort
Russian	TOM NARVOLO REDDL	LORD VOLAN-DE-MORT	Lord Volan-de-Mort
Russian spelling	ТОМ НАРВОЛО РЕДДЛ	ЛОРД ВОЛАН-ДЕ-МОРТ
Slovak	TOM MARVOLOSO RIDDLE	A SOM I LORD VOLDEMORT	And I am also Lord Voldemort
Slovenian	MARK NEELSTIN	MRLAKENSTEIN	In this case, the name was changed to sound like Frankenstein, while Mrlak should have an allusion to death
Spanish	TOM SORVOLO RYDDLE	SOY LORD VOLDEMORT	I am Lord Voldemort
Swedish	TOM GUS MERVOLO DOLDER	EGO SUM LORD VOLDEMORT	I am Lord Voldemort, in Latin (ego sum = I am). "Dolder" is drawn from a somewhat archaic name for "someone hidden"
Turkish	TOM MARVOLDO RIDDLE	ADIM LORD VOLDEMORT	My name is Lord Voldemort
Ukrainian	TOM YARVOLOD REDL	YA LORD VOLDEMORT	I am Lord Voldemort (the '-volod' part of the name may be connected to the name Volodimir, where 'volod' equates to ruler).
Ukrainian spelling	ТОМ ЯРВОЛОД РЕДЛ	Я ЛОРД ВОЛДЕМОРТ
English	TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE	I AM LORD VOLDEMORT	I am Lord Voldemort

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Lev Grossman, "J.K. Rowling Hogwarts and All". TIME Magazine, July 25, 2005, Vol. 166, No. 4
• ^[HP1] Rowling, J. K. (1997). Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (in English). London: Bloomsbury/New York City: Scholastic, et. al. UK ISBN 0747532699/US ISBN 0590353403.
• ^[HP2] Rowling, J. K. (1998). Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (in English). London: Bloomsbury/New York City: Scholastic, et. al. UK ISBN 0747538492/US ISBN 0439064864.
• ^[HP3] Rowling, J. K. (1999). Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (in English). London: Bloomsbury/New York City: Scholastic, et. al. UK ISBN 0747542155/US ISBN 0439136350.
• ^[HP4] Rowling, J. K. (2000). Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (in English). London: Bloomsbury/New York City: Scholastic, et. al. UK ISBN 074754624X/US ISBN 0439139597.
• ^[HP5] Rowling, J. K. (2003). Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (in English). London: Bloomsbury/New York City: Scholastic, et. al. UK ISBN 0747551006/US ISBN 043935806X.
• ^[HP6] Rowling, J. K. (2005). Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (in English). London: Bloomsbury/New York City: Scholastic, et. al. UK ISBN 0747581088/US ISBN 0439784549.

[edit] External links

• Translated names in the Harry Potter World
• Timeline of Lord Voldemort's Life from the Harry Potter Lexicon
• Biography from the Harry Potter Lexicon
• Lord Voldemort on the Harry Potter Wiki

v • d • e J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series
Philosopher's Stone	book	film	game	soundtrack
Chamber of Secrets	book	film	game	soundtrack
Prisoner of Azkaban	book	film	game	soundtrack
Goblet of Fire	book	film	game	soundtrack
Order of the Phoenix	book	film	game
Half-Blood Prince	book	film
Deathly Hallows	book
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