So, it turns out that Master of Death simply means the wisdom to be able to accpt your own death. So really, being Master of Death comes first, and then the Hallows follow. As Harry showed, the Hallows only accept a Master of Death as their true master.

Though at first this seems like a cop out, from one angle it makes the ending more satisfactory.

Before, it seemed that Harry won on a technicality: he just happened to have disarmed Malfoy in the past, which made him the master of the Elder wand, making it so that Voldemort's curse backfired. But now, we learn that he is truely only the master of the Hallows - including the Elder wand - because he was able to go to his death willingly and without a fight: he was the Master of Death. So everything revolves around Harry's "death" - not only did it get rid of the horcrux inside of him, but it also made him the master of the Hallows.

I prefer this, as the chapter where Harry goes to his death is one of the strongest in the series, unlike the Harry/Voldemort stand-off.

Thoughts?

Edit: On another note, I think its the best bit of JKR's philosophy. Being able to accept death is a wisdom that most don't have.

Edit2: Do you think that this means Nicolas Flamel, who also went to his death willingly as part of the fight against Voldemort, is a Master of Death? I guess him making the Philosopher's Stone would count against him though...

 

Now, was Dumbledore a Master of Death with all of his rants of "to the well organized mind, death is only the next great adventure?" He kind of answers that when Harry "dies" but...well...I just don't know.
He controlled the elder wand, and at a time the invisibility cloak, and the resurrection stone...all after his speeches of the "next great adventure."
So was he lying to himself or what?
He handled that he was going to die pretty well too...even if he knew he only had a year.

 

But if Harry is indeed the Master of Death, wouldn't that mean he is immortal? A true Master of Death can't die. He is the Master of all 3 Hallows (even if he doesn't have it all in his possession), so death can't take him.

 

No. The whole point of being Master of Death is acception death and not clinging onto life.

 

If so I think I don't get one thing about Dumbledore. I mean he said: "to the well organized mind, death is only the next great adventure" and in Snape's memories he looked pretty accepting of his death, but in afterlife he said what Hallows didn't work for him, what he wasn't worthy. This mean that there is more to becoming Master of Death then simply accepting it, ish't it? What else do you need? Or I didn't understand something?

 

As Dumbledore said to Harry, he sought after the Hallows with the desire for immortality, and to return his sister from the dead. As Dumbledore also said to Harry, the true master of the hallows is the person that doesn't want them, which would be Harry. As Dumbledore wanted to both use the hallows for his own ends, and because he wanted to bring someone back from the dead (indicating that he hadn't accepted death) he was never the master of Death, and as such, never the master of the hallows, even if he had them all in his possession.

 

Thank you, I get it now. It's off topic but I noticed one weird thing: the stone had symbol of Hallows on it (and Voldemort was wearing it on his finger), what at the same time was mark of curently known dark wizard. How it's possible he didn't notice?

 

And yet, Harry did desire somthing...to hide away from all the fame that he recieved, thus representing the invisibility cloak.
But that's kind of metaphorical.

 

Though in fanon Voldemort is described as a follower of Grindelwald, its not mentioned in canon. So it is possible that by the time Voldemort finished Hogwarts, Dumbledore had already defeated Grindelwald. It should be noted that not anyone in Britain knew Grindelwald's sign or anything much. It is said that he was not concentrated in Britain, but Germany.

Also Voldemort turned the stone/ring into Horcrux and hid it pretty soon. So even if he saw that symbol later on he wouldn't have remembered it from earlier.

Another explanation is that Voldemort recognized it as Grindelwald's symbol, but believed that it was the crest of Slytherin family or something and that Grindelwald was following in Great Slytherin's path by taking his symbol as his own.

These are all my theories though, it could be dead wrong.

 

I reckon Dumbledore found it very unlikely as well that Riddle didn't realize what the ring was and what Grindelwald's symbol represented. It has occurred to me that Dumbledore might have made the connection between Riddle's trophy collection and multiple Horcruxes very late. I mean, some of the memories he showed Harry in HBP were very old, yet he never tried locating the objects until after he encountered the Ring Horcrux, for ought we know. He could have believed that Voldemort was trying to become the Master of Death all the time, and the evidence he collected was about leads on whether Voldemort was looking for the Hallows.

 

I don't want to type the entire quote out, but in HBP (pg. 501) Dumbledore says that he received what he considered proof that Voldemort split is soul when Harry gave him the diary. He only started suspecting that there were multiple Horcruxes then (because of the careless way he treated the diary) then, and had his suspicions confirmed after Voldemort's resurrection, when Harry told him about Voldemort saying he was further along the path of immortality then anybody. It doesn't say when Dumbledore first started suspecting that Voldemort was going to make Horcruxes. My guess would be around or sometime after Voldemort graduated Hogwarts, because Dumbledore mentioned that at Harry's age, Tom Riddle was doing everything he could to make himself immortal. I could be completely contradicted by canon, though.

Grindelwald wasn't well known in Britain. Krum was the one who recognized the sign on Lovegood's clothes as Grindelwald's sign. while Voldemort might have known about Grindelwald, it's possible that his sign wasn't as well known in Britain as the Dark Mark. I could be wrong about this, since I can't find the quote of Harry telling Hermione and Ron about the sign, but this seems to be the most likely explanation.