Beatrix Bloxam is a witch and author who thought The Tales of Beedle the Bard were damaging to children and rewrote them with her own book, The Toadstool Tales.
Biography[]
When she was a child, Beatrix overheard her older cousins being told the story of The Warlock's Hairy Heart by her aunt. She listened through the keyholes and was "paralysed with horror" after hearing the "disgusting story". She also heard the story of her uncle Nobby's affair with the local hag and a sack of Bouncing Bulbs. Beatrix was incredibly shocked and spent the week in bed suffering from the trauma. She also started sleepwalking to the keyhole where she heard the story until her father put a Sticking Charm on her bedroom door at night. She wrote about this in her diary.[2]
After this ordeal, Beatrix considered The Tales of Beedle the Bard inappropriate and damaging to children. She thought the book caused an "unhealthy preoccupation with the most horrid subjects" and did not like the themes they portrayed including death, bloodshed and wicked magic. She decided to rewrite the stories to something more healthy and focus on "happy thoughts" that would keep children's dreams free of wickedness to protect "the precious flower of their innocence”. These stories were called "The Toadstool Tales".[1]
The Wizard and the Hopping Pot was changed into the story of Wee Willykins at the end of which he kissed and hugged the pot after being reminded to brush his "teethy-pegs".[1] The only story she was unable to rewrite was the one that traumatised her when she was a child, The Warlock's Hairy Heart, which does not appear in The Toadstool Tales.[2] Her stories were very unpopular and generations of children responded with feelings of sickness and a demand to beat the books to a pulp.[1]