Their theory (or perhaps “desperate hope” might be a more accurate term) is supported by little actual evidence. True invisibility cloaks, though rare, exist in this world of ours; however, the story makes it clear that Deaths Cloak is of a uniquely durable nature.²² Through all the centuries that have intervened between Beedle’s day and our own, nobody has ever claimed to have found Death’s Cloak. This is explained away by true believers thus: Either the third brother’s descendants do not know where their cloak came from, or they know, and are determined to show their ancestor’s wisdom by not trumpeting the fact.

Naturally enough, the stone has never been found either. As I have already noted in the commentary for “Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump,” we remain incapable of raising the dead, and there is every reason to suppose that this will never happen. Vile substitutions have, of course, been attempted by Dark wizards, who have created Inferi,²³ but these are ghastly puppets, not truly reawakened humans. What is more, Beedle’s story is quite explicit about the fact that the second brother’s lost love has not really returned from the dead. She has been sent by Death to lure the second brother into Death’s clutches, and is therefore cold, remote, tantalizingly both present and absent.²⁴

This leaves us with the wand, and here the obstinate believers in Beedle’s hidden message have at least some historical evidence to back up their wild claims. For it is the case — whether because they liked to glorify themselves, or to intimidate possible attackers, or because they truly believed what they were saying — that wizards down the ages have claimed to possess a wand more powerful than the ordinary, even an “unbeatable” wand. Some of these wizards have gone so far as to claim that their wand is made of elder, like the wand supposedly made by Death. Such wands have been given many names, among them the “Wand of Destiny” and the “Deathstick.”

It is hardly surprising that old superstitions have grown up around our wands, which are, after all, our most important magical tools and weapons. Certain wands (and therefore their owners) are supposed to be incompatible:

When his wand’s oak and hers is holly,

Then to marry would be folly.

or to denote flaws in the owner’s character:

Rowan gossips, chestnut drones,

ash is stubborn, hazel moans.

And sure enough, within this category of unproven sayings we find:

Wand of elder, never prosper.

Whether because of the fact that Death makes the fictional wand out of elder in Beedle’s story, or because power-hungry or violent wizards have persistently claimed that their own wands are made of elder, it is not a wood that is much favored among wandmakers.

The first well-documented mention of a wand made of elder that had particularly strong and dangerous powers was owned by Emeric, commonly called “the Evil,” a short-lived but exceptionally aggressive wizard who terrorized the south of England in the early Middle Ages. He died as he had lived, in a ferocious duel with a wizard known as Egbert. What became of Egbert is unknown, although the life expectancy of medieval duelers was generally short. In the days before there was a Ministry of Magic to regulate the use of Dark Magic, dueling was usually fatal.