Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Who has the sword of Godoric Gryffindor?

Albus Dumbledore wills the sword of Godoric Gryffindor to Harry Potter, but Minister Scrimgower refuses to give it to Potter, stating the sword belongs to the school and it remains in the possesion of the new headmaster, Severus Snape.

After the Neville, Luna and Ginny try to steal the sword from Snape's office, Snape sends the sword to Gringots to be held in the Lastrange vault. In fact this sword is a fake. The true sword remains hidden in Snapes office behind the portrait of Dumbledore.

Snape leaves the real sword for Harry to find (and in fact leads it to him with his Patronus (the dear of Lily Evans Potter). The sword is later stolen by the golbin in Gringots, who maintains it was forged by goblins and so belongs to goblins.

The sword makes a final appearance when it is pulled from the sorting hat by Neville Longbottom and used to kill Nagini.

14 comments:

Magicland said...

The only remaining question is how did Neville get the sword? The goblins wouldn't give it up willingly (note how they snatched it from Harry at Gringott's), and they didn't care about the outcome of a "Wizard's war", as stated when Ted Tonks mentions to Griphook that he thought they were on Voldemort's side.

fluffybeauty said...

Yes that quesion was burning in my head too, i thought I missed a crucial part!

So how did the Sword show up again? Is it because the goblin only took the sword for safe-keeping? No matter where the sword was, a true Gryffindor would be able to pull it out from the Sorting Hat?

Hope someone can enlighten me.

Mary J. said...

I'm looking for that answer too...

Angatyr said...

I had this query as well.

Is it possible that the hat 'summons' the sword (and perhaps other artifacts) from their whereabouts into itself.

Perhaps Godric drew the sword the first time and hence 'stole' it from the Goblins. Just a very thin idea

Unknown said...

I was also questioning this idea. I thought it was weird that Neville had it all of a sudden. But I do think it had to do with him being a Griffendor and summoning it our of the Sorting Hat like Harry did in HP 2.

But it still should have been explained a little bit better!

time said...

JK Rowling loses points big-time here. She'd obviously planned for a more detailed story of how the sword ended up in Neville's hands: she was setting that up by explaining goblins and their sword fetishes, and all the stuff about Harry's pangs of conscience about deceiving the goblin about when exactly they'd be finished with the sword. So getting the sword back from the goblin was going to become an issue and another whole episode. But for whatever reason she had to cut that, and simply had the goblin just grab the sword and run (after the Gringott's heist) -- and cut to the end and suddenly Neville's got it. Don't go looking for logic, ask JK what ended up on the cutting-room floor (well, on her hard drive in draft #46)! She obviously thought she could get away with this, not realising how smart some of us are!

Eyrie said...

But how does Snape find Harry in the woods? How did he know where he was?

filmgoerjuan said...

It's explained in the book that Snape finds out where Harry and the others are when the portrait of Phineus Nigellus tells him. He overheard Hermione say where they are during one of their conversations.

As for how Neville got the sword (which puzzled me as well), the explanation I've read is that back in "Chamber of Secrets", Fawkes brought Harry the sorting hat and he was able to pull the sword from there. It's some kind of magical ability that anyone from Gryffindor can summon the sword when they have great need (and the hat, I suppose).

Coffee said...

Gosh and i thought i was the only one killing myself over this question , how did neville longbottom get the gryffindor sword from a burnt sorting hat ?how did he undo the body binding curse which you know who cast upon him? and i guess since i must be the last muggle to have jus finished reading the book(blame it on the readers block). humm so if the hat does give the sword to those that really seek it for a noble cause ..but hey JK missed a chapter of explanation here didnt she ? left too much for our imagination?Expelliarmus to any more questions ...

Ann said...

I just re-read the book and guess I forgot to wonder about it the first time around. (I did try to read it pretty fast, late at night, so perhaps that's why I missed it.) I agree that JK must have more planned regarding double crossing Griphook and then Neville getting the sword back.

Glad I wasn't the only one who didn't know how Neville all of a sudden had the sword.

Laura said...

Good explanation from another site to the above questions:

"He pulls it out of the Sorting Hat, like Harry did in the Chamber of Secrets. Remember Voldemort summoned the Hat, and it landed on Neville's head and burst into flame? Harry attacked Voldemort from under the invisibility cloak, breaking the spell on the hat, then Neville took it off and could pull out the sword, as he is a true Gryffindor (and he definitely proved it in the last book!)"

I still wish JKR would have provided a bit of explanation, but this makes sense.

Unknown said...

What are you all talking about? It says clearly in book two that a Gryffinndor that shows loyalty to their house is able to pull the sword out of the hat. Ownership is a socially-constructed concept- people decide that, by the laws of the land, certain people are legally allowed to keep certain things in their possession and that others can't legally possess them. It's just something some people a long time ago decided was a good system. How can something like that possible have any power over a spell that was cast to magically summon an object? I see people trying to come up with complicated explanations for why a magic spell was able to function when the concept of ownership opposes it and it just leaves me dumbfounded that anyone could possible think the concept of ownership would in any way interfere with magic.

Diomar Salvado said...

Watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is an excellent movie were it all ends

Unknown said...

When the sword is given to the goblin at Gringotts, the goblin runs away but is killed when Gringotts is trashed upon the exit of Harry, Hermoine and Ron. When the goblin dies, the sword disappears from his hands. It was summoned somewhere else. Neville didn't steal the sword from the goblin, the sword was somewhere else.