The Tale of the Three Brothers

Death with the Peverells

The Tale of the Three Brothers is a story in The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

History

The story of the three brothers has inspired a legend - if someone acquires all three Deathly Hallows and has rightful ownership of them, they will be considered the "master of Death", which has generally been understood to mean that they will be invulnerable or immortal. However, the real moral of the story is that human efforts to avoid death are always doomed to fail. The hope that these objects really can make one immortal is unsupported by evidence. Nobody has ever claimed to have discovered all of the Deathly Hallows, although there are a few who have tried to say their wand is made of elder, including the "Wand of Destiny" and the "Deathstick".

One such wizard was Emeric the Evil who lived during the early Middle Ages and terrorised the South of England. A century later, the Dark wizard, Godelot claimed his wand was an instructor "with bodie of Ellhorn". Then in the eighteenth century, Barnabas Deverill owned a wand called the "Eldrun Wand" which was later taken by Loxias. It is unknown what happened to it after Loxias's death. Whether it is because of Beedle's story or the potential lies wizards have told about their wand wood, wandmakers do not like to create elder wands. However, these stories do give some credence to the existence of the Deathly Hallows and that Beedle's story is rooted in some truth.

Albus Dumbledore loved the story when he was a child and after his mother first read it to him, he asked her to read it more often than other stories. This annoyed his younger brother, Aberforth who preferred the story of Grumble the Grubbly Goat.

Plot

Three brothers are travelling on a winding, long road at night. Eventually they reach a deep river that is too dangerous to walk through so they wave their wands and build a bridge. They are halfway across it when a hooded figure appears and stops them. It is Death who is angry that he has been cheated out of three new victims. Death is cunning and offers a prize to the brothers for being clever and evading him.

The oldest brother asks for a wand more powerful than any other and will always win duels for its owner. Death takes a branch from an elder tree and fashions a wand. The second brother is arrogant and decides to ask Death for the power to bring back the dead. Death gets a stone from the edge of the river and tells him it will resurrect the dead. However, the youngest brother is wise and humble and does not trust Death. He asks for something that will hide him from Death so he can't be followed once he goes forth. Death unwillingly gives the third brother his own Cloak of Invisibility. He then stands aside and lets the three brothers carry on crossing the bridge and go on their way.

The brothers eventually separate after talking about the incredible adventure and gifts they have received. The first brother reaches a distant village after about a week or so where he confronts a wizard that he is arguing with. With the Elder Wand, he cannot fail to win and kills his enemy. After that, he goes to an inn and brags about his powerful wand that Death has given him which makes him invincible. After drinking and passing out drunk, a thief takes the wand and slits his throat.

Ignotus Peverell's grave

The second brother travels to his own home where he lives alone. He turns the Resurrection Stone thrice in his hand to bring back the girl he had hoped to marry before her untimely death. She appears before him but she is silent and cold. She does not feel she belongs in the mortal world and suffers. The second brother feels there is a veil between them and with hopeless longing, can't stand to be apart from her. He kills himself to be with her.

Death searches for the third brother for years but fails to find him. It is only when he reaches a great age that the youngest brother decides to take off the Cloak of Invisibility and give it to his son. Once he does, Death greets him like an old friend, an equal, and the brother happily goes with Death to depart this life.

Gallery

The Peverells and Death with the Deathly Hallows

Ignotus greets Death