The biography of Tom Riddle

Early life

Tom Marvolo Riddle (later known as Lord Voldemort or alternatively the Dark Lord, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, or You-Know-Who) was born of a Muggle father,Tom Riddle, Sr., and a witch mother, Merope Gaunt, on December 31, 1926. His mother, who was a witch, used a love potion to trick his father into marrying her. When she got pregnant with Tom Jr. the love potion’s influence was lifted and Tom Riddle abandoned his new family on the streets of London and moved with his parents into the Riddle House.

Merope would later die moments after giving birth to Tom Riddle and naming him after his blood father, Tom Riddle Sr. and maternal grandfather, Marvolo Gaunt. Tom grew up to become an extremely powerful and dangerous wizard. In 1938, he began his wizardry studies at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he was sorted into the Slytherin house.

Tom excelled at Hogwarts and won numerous accolades for magical merit and service to the school. He was even elected the head student in his seventh year, courtesy of his dabbling in the Dark Arts. His closest allies in Slytherin later nicknamed him Voldemort, a name Riddle chose by reshuffling his birth name into “I am Lord Voldemort.”

The biography of Tom Riddle

Later years

Tom Riddle was assigned a handful of responsibilities at Hogwarts, such as the opening of the Chamber of Secrets of Salazar Slytherin and attacking Muggle-born students with a monster. He also acted as a purchasing agent for the Dark artifacts shop Borgin and Burkes, following his capability to speak Parseltongue and attainment of immortality between 1942 and 1998.

Tom Riddle attained his immortality along with the ability to speak Parseltongue when he created his first Horcrux at sixteen years of age. He had the ability to split his own spirit into eight fragments in total. He created seven Horcruxes, but in the process, he created one more Horcrux – Harry Potter – unintentionally, and completely without his knowledge.

He became the self-proclaimed Lord Voldemort after abandoning his Muggle name. Tom Riddle gave commands to a veritable army of dark creatures and wizards and committed several murders both personally and through his dedicated followers. On one occasion, he installed a puppet minister and almost succeeded in taking over the Ministry of Magic.

The biography of Tom Riddle

In 1981, Tom Riddle attempted to destroy baby Harry Potter but was ripped from his body. Although he did not die, he was unable to regain his permanent physical body until later, in 1995. Thus, Voldemort spent the intervening fourteen years in complete dormancy, but still survived.

Finally, he perished at the hands of Harry in 1998 after his own curse backfired and hit him. After his death, Harry and Albus Dumbledore succeeded in destroying all his Horcruxes. A lot of people are not aware that Riddle’s legacy and lineage lived on through Delphini, his daughter.

It should be known that Tom Riddle conceived his daughter Delphini with his loyal follower, Bellatrix Lestrange. This was in 1996 after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries and before his death at Harry’s hands in 1998. Tom Riddle’s soul got trapped in limbo for eternity—unable to shift onto the afterlife or return as a disembodied spirit.

Recommended For You

The best X-Men characters

When you’re dealing with something as massive as the X-Men, it can be tough to decide exactly who are your