Skip to main content

harry potter - How many wands did Ollivander need?


For reference, here are two questions that deal with wizarding population: What is the total wizarding population during the events of the Harry Potter series and How many people worked for the Ministry of Magic?


The British Wizarding population seems rather small. Apparently the entire student body of Hogwarts is able to fit into the Hogwarts Express (According to Pottermore -- 1, 2 -- the Hogwarts Express is the only way to Hogwarts; it's not like some students ride the train and some students are dropped off by their parents for the school term.).


How many wands would Ollivander have to keep on hand at any given time? We know Harry tried out a lot of wands before his wand finally chose him. Maybe some kids need five tries; maybe some get the right wand on the first try. And there are broken and lost wands that need replacing to take into consideration.


I don't consider the movies canon, but as they're JKR approved, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone shows Ollivander has a pretty significant number of wands in stock for what is a smaller Wizarding population (see pics). Is there a canonical way to estimate how many wands Ollivander would need to keep in stock?


I'm looking for an answer grounded in canon, meaning the novels, interviews with J.K. Rowling, or information from Pottermore or the like. Barring that, a speculative answer in the spirit of canon is absolutely welcome, including alternative sources of information. ETA 12.21.14


Ollivanders 01


Ollivanders 02


Ollivanders 03



Answer




Ollivander is the primary wand maker for the United Kingdom. JK Rowling is on record as saying there are 1,000 students at Hogwarts at any given time. If you believe there are roughly 36 new students per house per year that means he needs to supply around 144 wands per year to new students. The cited article says there are likely significantly less students per year, and Rowling has admitted to being poor at math, but she is on the record...


Now some poorer families don't necessarily buy a new wand right away (such as Ron Weasley), but they probably buy a new one at some point. And wands can be damaged and destroyed (such as Harry's), so that probably evens out.


The other consideration is that the "wand chooses the wizard." Other than when specifically directed to make a wand for a person (such as the replacement wand for Peter Petigrew) he needs to manufacture lots of wands hoping that one of them will choose each prospective customer.


Now he probably spends most of the year constructing wands, builds up a huge inventory before the start of a new school year, and subsequently has it depleted.


So if you count the incoming students for Hogwarts and assume some kind of 0.5% wand loss / replacement for the UK wizard population at large (3000) you'd be looking at Ollivander needing 160 odd wands in stock for the start of term each year.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...
Post a Comment
Read more