Tales of Beedle the Bard in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

"The Tales of Beedle the Bard" is a collection of 5 short stories for underage wizards. In fact, there were many more fairy tales composed by the mentioned bard. But it was only to these tales that Professor Dumbledore allegedly made his own comments with his own hand, and therefore JK Rowling in her collection decided to confine herself to them. These are tales from the book that the great professor, after his death, bequeathed to Hermione Granger. The current owner of the book herself also left her corrections and comments in it, after which the collection of selected works of the bard Beedle was allegedly republished for reading not only by wizards, but also by Muggle children.

About the bard himself

So, the bard Beedle - who is he anyway? Nobody really knows anything about Beadle in the magical world. From the books of JK Rowling it is clear that this bard lived somewhere in the 1400s, when the Holy Inquisition was widely declared a witch hunt. Wizards in those troubledtimes were shunned, and those who managed to catch and convict of witchcraft were publicly burned at the stake.

It is known that the bard Beedle was born in Yorkshire, and in his years he had a thick beard, which can be seen in the sketches of that time preserved in libraries. Where he drew inspiration for his stories is unclear. But it is reliably known that some of them were actually based on certain events that took place at that time. So it is likely that these short stories, called The Tales of Beedle The Bard, are in fact nothing more than a loose retelling of real events.

The essence of fairy tales

Beadl himself considered the spiritual formation of the personality of young wizards to be the main purpose of his fairy tales. Just like in the Muggle tales of Snow White, Kolobok, Cinderella, good often triumphed over evil in them. They also instilled in the children the rudiments of morality, awakened in them a conscience, the ability to reason logically, think broadly and not succumb to the dark side. Magicians in these tales have always either failed or died altogether.

Rowling herself, most likely, decided to write and release this collection in order to answer some questions in it that were never answered in the main volumes of the novel. In particular, it reveals some questions about ghosts, animagi, and in general, in the light of the fairy tales read, the whole tale about Harry Potter does not seem so divorced from reality. In the collection, the writer talked about why the magical world was forced to go "underground", and also where this one came from.called the "Statute of Secrecy" and why it should have been so unconditionally observed.

It also becomes clear from the comments of the professor himself that the division among wizards into "half-breed supporters" and "half-breed opponents" has been brewing for a long time, and once this "bubble" should have burst. Mentioned in the collection and the roots of the enmity between Dumbledore himself and Lucius Malfoy.

But really in JK Rowling's books about Harry Potter, or rather, in the last of them ("The Deathly Hallows"), only one story from the collection is revealed, which we will talk about in more detail a little later, after briefly reviewing the retelling of the other 4 tales.

Sorcerer and jumpy pot

This tale hints that everyone should be kinder to others. In one village there lived an old magician, the only healer in the whole district. He died bequeathing to his son a pot in which he brewed various kinds of potions to help the common people. But the son was callous to those around him, and although magical abilities were inherited and he was skilled in them, he invariably refused to help those who applied. After each refusal, the enchanted pot began to rattle, spit and deliver a lot of inconvenience to its owner, and he could not get rid of it in any way. In the end, the wizard got tired of all this, and he began to help everyone, as his father had previously done. The pot eventually calmed down. It is not clear whether it was a forced decision, or whether his conscience really woke up, but, be that as it may, the will of his fatherworked.

Bunny Hare and her stump-tooth-grinder

Here the king decided that no one except him had the right to conjure in his state. He hired some rogue who was not a wizard at all, but simply became adept at tricks, so that he would teach the king the art of witchcraft. But the magician only pretended to break the magic wands here in the garden and made the king wave them, taking a good payment for this. He really thought he was learning something. These manipulations greatly amused one old woman who was engaged in household chores at court. She really was a magician and had a good laugh at this antics.

The king was furious and said that tomorrow he would call all the nobility and show everyone how he learned to conjure, and if he didn’t succeed, then the rogue teacher would not be blown off his head. He intimidated the old woman, and ordered, playing along with the king, to perform magic for him.

And then the king waved his wand, and the horse flew. Waving again, another miracle happens. But when he was asked to heal the dog, who was already dead by that time, he could not do anything, because the old woman could not cope with such magic. Then the rogue teacher, in order to avoid the royal wrath, handed over the old woman hiding in the bushes with giblets, saying that it was she who was preventing him from conjuring.

The old woman, flying away, turned into a hare, because she was an animagus and, hiding in the roots of a tree, mockingly, forced (we will not go into details how, after all, she was a sorceress and she had a lot of methods) poor king to tremble with fear, and grief-the instructor brought to clean water. The moral of that tale is this: do not be smart, do not be greedy and do not lie, there will always be someone smarter than you and will punish you for your sins. The truth, they say, will always come out.

Fountain Fairy Fortune

Here it was all about the fountain, which every year allowed one of the local human brethren to swim in its waters, so that happiness and luck would descend on that from now on. Somehow, this year, three magical women and one unfortunate knight managed to slip through the fence to the fountain at once.

After a long journey and fulfilling some conditions, which is that along the way they must give away the proof of suffering (in this case, it was the tears of one of the sorceresses), the fruits of their labors (here the sweat is taken from the other sorceress, which stood out from her zeal when the four of them stormed a steep slope), then the treasures of her past (this time it is the memories of the beloved of the third sorceress), the fountain is finally ready to receive one of them. But then it turns out that along the way, all the sorceresses themselves have changed, and now they do not need to be washed. Then a knight bathed in the fountain, who, coming out from under it, decided to declare his love for one of the sorceresses. But it becomes clear that even without the fountain she would not refuse him.

So the meaning here is the following. Sometimes you don't need magic to get your life back on track. You just don’t need to dwell on the past, on bad luck, but you need to live on and not give up.

Sorcerer's Furry Heart

One magician set out to protect himself from love. Everyone around her lost their heads and did all sorts of stupid things. He put his heart in a chest and hid it in the dungeon.

Many years passed, the wizard began to grow old, and rumors and ridicule began to go around that, despite the fact that the nobleman was successful, he could not see love, no one wanted him. He decided to show everyone that this is not so, and decided to woo one of the successful beautiful young ladies. But she felt that he did not love her, expressing a suspicion that he did not have a heart.

The Wizard took her to the dungeon where his heart was hidden and showed it to her to refute her statement. Putting a wild and furry heart into his chest, he went berserk, tore the girl’s chest and, taking the heart out of her chest, cut out his furry heart, reuniting them in such a terrible way. Both died in the process.

The moral, apparently, is this. If you resist your heart and feelings for a long time, the heart will simply run wild and forget how to truly love.

The Tale of the Three Brothers

Now, finally, the most important tale of the bard Beedle about the three brothers, on which the plot of the last Harry Potter book is tied. Three brothers went on a journey and came across a fast and dangerous river. Here, Death was always hanging around nearby, picking up the drowned who tried to ford it. But the brothers were magicians, they took out their wands, waved and built a bridge, thereby eludingDeath.

Death, seeing that he had lost, decided to win back his cunning. She promised to fulfill any of their three wishes (one for each), deciding to put a flaw in each of them if possible. The most bellicose wished for himself an invincible wand. In the end, he was killed for her, because anyone wanted to have such a powerful magical weapon. Another wished for a means to bring back the dead, and when he received the resurrection stone, he called his former and deceased girlfriend. But she did not find a place for herself in this world, and in the end he committed suicide in order to reunite with his beloved after death, and thereby end her and his suffering.

Thus, Death has already played two lives. But she never managed to find the third one, she gave him an invisibility cloak. And when the time came for him to die, he gave the invisibility cloak to his son, and he himself came to Death of his own free will, and they supposedly left this world on an equal footing. That is, Death accepted the fact that the third brother outplayed her.

The moral here is that it's not always worth playing with Death, it will always take its toll. And if you have already taken it, then act wisely. You can also trace other truths, for example, do not chase excessive power, otherwise you yourself will fall under the millstone of this power, it is impossible to resurrect (constantly remember) the dead, and if you try, it will be more expensive for you, etc.

Dumbledore's speculation about gifts

Dumbledore, in his conversation with Harry at the ghostly Criss Cross station, somehow dropped that he did not believe in one iotathe fact that it was Death itself that gave some three brothers some gifts. He suggested that there were once strong wizards who were able to create such powerful and eternal magical artifacts. Well, after a little thought, the bard Beedle, combining them together, created this fairy tale, through which he wanted to convey his morality to readers.

Followers of the Deathly Hallows cult

Yes, there were those who suggested that by reuniting three magical artifacts at once, they would become the most powerful wizards in the world. But none of them, with the exception of Grindelwald, managed to find more than one artifact. Yes, of course, for some time Dumbledore had two artifacts with him at once - a stone and an Elder Wand, but he does not count, because at that time he did not believe in all this nonsense with power, although he could not resist the temptation to use a magical resurrection stone, for which in the end he paid.

Dumbledore's hints and Harry and his friends' journey of exploration

For the first time, we seriously come across the works of the bard Beedle in The Deathly Hallows at the moment when Rufus Scrimgeour (at that time the current British Minister for Magic) presents three friends - Harry, Ron and Hermione, with the things bequeathed to them by Professor Dumbledore. He gives Harry the first Snitch he caught, Ron the Deluminator, and Hermione the first edition of the Tales of Beedle the Bard. It was on her shoulders that the unspoken task was entrusted to solve the mystery of the Deathly Hallows, which are mentioned in the tale of the three brothers, and what role they should play in the future.alignment of the fight against evil.

Of course, Hermione did not come to everything herself, but it was her inquisitive mind that gave everyone else the message to unravel the mysteries contained in the fairy tale and in the professor's comments to it. It was guided by the fairy tale that they began to search for the Elder Wand. Together with Harry's visions, they soon realize that Dumbledore had the Wand of Fate all this time, the same, in turn, won it from Grindelwald. It was the moment of torture of the once great wizard imprisoned in the dungeon that Harry saw in his visions.

Comparing what was said in the fairy tale with the disappearance of the master of magic wands and the torture of Grindelwald, they come to the conclusion that Voldemort still became the owner of the Elder Wand from the fairy tale. But it was not so simple with this wand. If it is not obtained in battle, its powerful magical power is not available to the current owner. The Dark Lord, who is completely sure that the true owner of the wand is Severus Snape (after all, no one told him that it was actually Malfoy Jr. who disarmed Dumbledore) kills the wizard, this time, being convinced that all the magic power of the wand is now in his hands.

But it wasn't there. Harry knows that Voldemort's reasoning is wrong. And since he defeated Draco in a duel, the wand now rightfully belongs to him. Confidence in this gave him the strength to decide on the final duel with the Dark Lord, it was she who allowed him to win in the end. When everything was over, Harry decided to return the wand to Dumbledore's tomb to where she andplace. He reasoned that if its owner dies a natural death, her magical power will disappear and the chain of deaths that has accompanied her for centuries will stop (in the film, he simply broke it and threw it away).

The same can be said about the resurrection stone and the invisibility cloak. They all belonged to Harry, after all. The stone was in the snitch bequeathed by Dumbledore. This realization gave him hope to survive as he went to meet Voldemort in the Enchanted Forest. And although there is no special merit of the resurrection stone in the way events later showed, nevertheless, the support provided by Harry's loved ones and close people called by him made it possible for the young man to gain confidence and strength for further struggle. The stone was eventually dropped by Harry in the woods, and was left lying there among the grass and deadwood.

Well, Harry, apparently, did not part with the third Deathly Hallow - the ageless invisibility cloak. After all, this thing turned out to be his family heirloom. And, according to the same bard Beedle, she will not do anything bad to anyone. Which is why Harry didn't see fit to get rid of her either.

Conclusion

"The Tales of Beedle the Bard" received very good reviews. Fans of the Harry Potter universe were very pleased to once again plunge into that mysterious atmosphere of magic that has fascinated readers for many years. Pluses deserved some comments of the grown-up Hermione Granger.

After you read the collection "Tales of the BardBeedle", it becomes clear that without this short postscript, the story of Harry Potter was somewhat incomplete. But now that some things have fallen into place, the Harry Potter universe is taking on its completeness and flawlessness, and now it becomes real to find fault with anything difficult.