The Tales of Beedle the Bard

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The Tales of Beedle the Bard

Author	J. K. Rowling
Illustrator	J. K. Rowling
Language	English
Series	Harry Potter
Publication date	2007
Pages	157 ^[1]

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a 2007 book of children's stories written by British author J. K. Rowling. It purports to be the storybook of the same name mentioned in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last book of the Harry Potter series.^[2]

The book has only been produced in a limited edition of seven copies, each handwritten and illustrated by J. K. Rowling,^[3] one of them having fetched £1.95 million at auction, after being bought by Amazon^[4]^[5] while originally being expected to sell for only £50,000, thus the price becoming the highest achieved at auction for a modern literary manuscript.^[6]^[7] The money earned at the auction of the book were donated to The Children's Voice charity campaign.^[8]

1 Fictional version
2 Real version
3 Contents
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Fictional version

See also: Deathly Hallows (objects)

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is also mentioned in the seventh novel of the Harry Potter series, Deathly Hallows, where the it is offered through will by Albus Dumbledore to Hermione Granger, in the hope that she would find it "entertaining and instructive". The book is purportedly a popular collection of wizarding children's fairy tales, thus, while Ron is familiar with the stories, Harry and Hermione have not heard of them before, as the two have been "brought up by Muggles".^[2]

The book also has an important role in the main plot of the last Harry Potter book.^[8] Above the story The Tale of the Three Brothers of the fictional book, Hermione finds a strange symbol which revealed as being the symbol of the Hallows.^[9] Later on Harry and Hermione notice the symbol on the grave of one of the Peverells. Xenophilius Lovegood explains that the Deathly Hallows were gifts to the Peverell brothers from Death. This discovery fuels Harry's search for the Deathly Hallows: the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and Harry's Invisibility Cloak.

[edit] Real version

In late 2007, Rowling completed a book also entitled The Tales of Beedle the Bard, featuring the five stories listed below. She wrote this as her "farewell" to the book series.^[10] Only seven copies of the book have been created, all hand written and illustrated by Rowling. Each copy is leather-bound and decorated in silver and semi-precious stones. The silver and gemstone work was completed by Hamilton & Inches Ltd in Edinburgh, acknowledged as one of Europe's finest silver workshops.^{[citation needed]} One copy of the book, the "moonstone edition",^[11] was auctioned by Sotheby's on 13 December 2007 to raise money for The Children's Voice, a charity that helps vulnerable children across Europe. Estimated to make £50,000, the book was eventually purchased with a winning bid of £1,950,000 by London fine art dealers Hazlitt Gooden and Fox^[3]^[12] on behalf of Amazon.com.^[13] The other copies of the book have been given away as gifts.^[14]

[edit] Contents

In The Deathly Hallows, only four of the five stories featured in the real book are mentioned. The one not mentioned in the last Harry Potter novel is "The Warlock's Hairy Heart".^[15] These five stories are:

"The Wizard and the Hopping Pot"
"The Fountain of Fair Fortune"
"The Warlock's Hairy Heart"
"Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump"
"The Tale of the Three Brothers"

[edit] Preface

In the preface of the "moonstone edition", which was auctioned in late 2007, Rowling mentions the other six copies of this book being given away as gifts "to those most closely connected to the Harry Potter books during the past seventeen years". Rowling also says in this preface that this seventh copy will be auctioned, and the money will be used to help children "who are in a desperate need of a voice". In the end, Rowling offers thanks to the buyer of this book.

Prefaces are also included in the other six books, each with a different dedication written by Rowling.^[15]

[edit] The Wizard and the Hopping Pot

This first story of the book features an illustration on its first page representing a pot standing on a single foot with five toes.

The Wizard and the Hopping Pot

This story is about the legacy of an old man who, in his generosity, used his pot to brew potions and antidotes for other people when they needed his help. On his death, he leaves all his belongings to his only son, who has none of the qualities his father had. After his father's death, the son finds the pot and a single slipper inside it, together with a note from his father that reads, "In the fond hope, my son, that you will never need this".

Bitter for having nothing left but a pot, the son closes the door on every person who asks for his help. The first one seeking for his aid is an old woman whose granddaughter is plagued with warts. Closing the door on the old woman, the son hears a clacking in the kitchen and sees his pot has grown a foot and a case of warts. The next one to look for his aid is an old man, whose donkey is hungry and cannot go with him to the market to fetch food for his starving family. The son closes the door on him too, and the pot starts making sounds like a donkey. A few more similar incidents take place, until the son finally gives up and calls all the neighbors to offer them help. As the people's troubles fade away, the pot empties, until at last out pops the mysterious slipper — one that perfectly fits the foot of the now-quiet pot, and together the two walk off into the sunset.

[edit] The Fountain of Fair Fortune

This story is accompanied by the picture of a sparkling, flowing fountain, and around it a few stars and sparkles. Below the text there is a second drawing of a small rose bush.

In this story, there is a fountain, where once per year, people are allowed to come to have their problems answered. This is how three witches meet. The first witch, Asha, suffers from a disease. The second, Altheda, was robbed, and hopes the fountain will cure her feelings of poverty. The third, Amata, was left by her beloved, and hopes the fountain will help her. The three witches decide to try and reach the fountain together, but along their way, a knight also joins them.

On their path to the fountain, they have to face three challenges. After passing the first two, a giant worm who demands "proof of your pain", and a steep slope where they have to bring the "fruit of their labours", they reach the third challenge. Here they have to pass a river and to do so they have to pay with "the treasure of your past". So Amata uses her wand to withdraw the memories of the lover who abandoned her, and drop them into the water, and the four are able to pass.

Standing in front of the fountain, they have to decide who will be the one to bathe. Asha collapses from exhaustion; in order to save her, Altheda brews her a potion that not only puts her back on her legs, but also cures her of her disease, and so Asha doesn't need the fountain anymore. Altheda realises that she has the power to cure others and a means to earn money, so she no longer needs the fountain either. The third witch realises that once she washed away her regret for her lover, she was able to see him for what he really was. In the end, the knight is the one to bathe in the water, after which he flings himself at Amata's feet and asks for her "hand and her heart". Everyone gets an answer to their problem, not realising that the fountain held no magical power at all.

[edit] The Warlock's Hairy Heart

This is the only one of the five stories featured in the book which is not also mentioned in the Deathly Hallows. A hairy heart covered in coarse hair and dripping blood is drawn on this story's page, and beneath the text, there is a second drawing, of an old-fashioned key with three loops at the top, lying in a pool of blood.

The Warlock's Hairy Heart

The story is about a young and handsome warlock who decides to never let himself fall in love, so he uses Dark Arts to prevent himself from doing so. Thinking the right girl would change his mind, his family doesn't do anything, but time passes, his siblings get married, and his ignorance grows. One day however, he hears two servants whispering about him not having a wife, so he decides to find a talented, rich, and beautiful girl and marry her, so that everyone will envy him.

Luckily he meets that girl the very next day. Though the girl is both "fascinated and repelled", the warlock manages to persuade her to come to a dinner feast at his castle. During the feast, the lady confronts him, saying she would trust him if she knew he had a heart. The warlock brings her to the dungeon, where he shows her his beating hairy heart inside a crystal casket. The witch is horrified, and she begs him to put it back. After the warlock does so, she embraces him, thrilled that the warlock may now feel love. However, being disconnected from its body for so long, the horrible heart is "pierced" by the beauty of her skin and the scent of her hair. Later the other guests that attended the feast find their host and the witch lying dead in the dungeon.

[edit] Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump

The drawings that are found on this story's page represent a large tree stump, with twenty growth rings. A little crack can be seen at the bottom of the stub, and inside, in the dark, two glowing eyes. Under the text is a small narrow paw print, with four toes.

This story is about a king who wants to keep all the magic to himself. To do this he needs to solve two problems: first he has to get all the witches in the kingdom, and second he has to actually learn magic. So, while commanding a "Brigade of Witch Hunters", he also calls for an instructor in magic. No one answers his call but a "cunning charlatan" with no magical ability at all, who bluffs his way into the role with a few simple tricks, and he starts making demands in jewelry and money, saying they are needed for performing magic.
Watching the two, Babbitty, the king's washerwoman starts laughing from her cottage. This angers the king, so he demands that they give a real demonstration of magic in front of his subjects the very next day, and threatens that if anyone laughs at him, the charlatan will be beheaded. The charlatan heads straight to Babbitty's house, where he sees her doing magic, so he decides to ask for her help, or he will turn her over to the Brigade. The charlatan tells her that during the king's performance, she is to hide in a bush and do all the magic for the king, and the witch agrees.

The next day everything goes well, until the captain of the Brigade comes in with a dead hound and asks the king to bring him back to life. Babbitty, knowing that not even magic can bring back the dead, doesn't even try to help the king this time, and the crowd starts laughing, thinking the previous spells were tricks. Scared the charlatan points at Babbitty's hiding spot, saying the witch was blocking the spells. Babbitty runs from the bush, into a forest, and disappears, at the base of an old tree. Desperate now, the charlatan shouts that the witch has turned herself "into a crab apple", and demands the tree be cut down, because that is how you "treat evil witches".
As the crow heads back home, the stump starts cackling, and makes the charlatan confess. The stump cackles again, demanding the king to never hurt a wizard again, and to build a statue of Babbitty on the stump, so that he would remind the king of his foolishness. Scared the king promises to do as he was told, and heads back to the palace. At last, a "stout old rabbit" with a wand in its teeth hops out from hole beneath the stump, and leaves the kingdom.

[edit] The Tale of the Three Brothers

This is the only one of the five stories featured in the book that also appears in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, in chapter XXI. It is accompanied by two illustrations: the first one, located in the upper part of the page represents three human skulls, the one in the middle having the Hallows' symbol on its forehead. The second one, located in the lower part of the page is a drawing of the three Hallows.

The first illustration of The Tale of the Three Brothers.

The story is about three brothers who, travelling together, reach a river that they cannot pass. However, they are all skilled with magic, so they make a bridge over the river. Halfway through the bridge, they are encountered by Death, who is angry for losing another three victims, but pretends to be impressed by their achievement, and grants each one a wish, for managing to pass the river. The big brother asks for a wand with which he may win all duels, and the middle brother asks for the ability to bring back the dead. The small brother realises Death's intentions, and asks for an object that would allow him to not be followed by Death. Then Death gives him his cloak of invisibility. Proud of their achievement, the three brothers seek their own paths, and go separate ways.

The eldest brother, bragging with his powerful wand, is robbed while asleep and killed, thus Death taking him by his side. The middle brother uses his ability to bring back the woman he loved, who died before he could marry her. However she isn't happy, for her place isn't among the living. So, in a desperate act, the middle brother kills himself to finally be with his beloved, thus Death managing to take him too. As for the youngest brother however, Death never manages to find him, as he stays hidden under his cloak. When the little brother finally feels fulfilled, he removes his cloak, and gives it to his son. Feeling old, but also happy for his achievements, the youngest brother greets Death as an old friend, and chooses to leave together with him "as equals".