The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a book by J. K. Rowling, published in 2008. It is based on the storybook that appears in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with the same name.
Publication history[]
J. K. Rowling began composing The Tales of Beedle the Bard after writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. "The Tale of the Three Brothers" is told in its entirety in the final Harry Potter book.[1] During an interview, Rowling suggested that Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Pardoner's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales is a real-world story that influenced her while writing this book.[2]
Limited editions[]
The Tales of Beedle the Bard was originally only produced seven times. These seven very limited editions were handwritten and illustrated by Rowling and bound in leather, with hand-cased silver ornaments on their cover and five semi-precious stones for each of the five stories within it. She gave copies to the six people who were most involved in the Harry Potter book series. The two only known recipients are Rowling's first editor, Barry Cunningham, and the editor of Scholastic, Arthur A. Levine.
The seventh copy is distinct from the others. Called the "Moonstone edition" for its unique moonstone jewelling, it was auctioned as a collector's item to raise funds for charity.[3] It was auctioned in Sotheby's in London on 13 December 2007, after being on display in both New York and London. After only being expected to sell for approximately £50,000, the closing bid far exceeded this when it was purchased on behalf of Amazon for a total of £1.95 million by their representative. The sale was the highest purchase price for a modern literary manuscript up to that date, and the money earned was donated by Rowling to The Children's Voice charity campaign.
Public release[]
Fans were very disappointed that the stories weren't going to be released for public sale. Eventually, this was changed and the book was published by Children's High Level Group in 2008 with both a standard and collector's edition available.[4] Printed and distributed by Bloomsbury in the UK and Canada, and Scholastic in America, the book was released on 4 December 2008. Amazon also released a limited collector's edition in these three countries with a retail price of £50. 100,000 copies of this have been printed and translated into 28 languages. Profits from the sale of the book were offered to the Children's High Level Group.
Contents[]
The book has the same stories that the in-universe fictional book, that appears in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, contains. Rowling's handmade, standard and collector's editions feature commentary from Albus Dumbledore and notes and explanations for the "Muggle readers". They also have an introduction written by the author, with the standard and collector's editions featuring illustrations reproduced from the handmade editions. In 2017, Bloomsbury released a new edition of the book featuring interior illustrations by Tomislav Tomic instead.
The limited collector's edition also features 10 unique, new illustrations Rowling, a reproduction of Rowling's handwritten introduction, and other things including an outer case disguised as a wizarding textbook from the Hogwarts library, 10 ready-for-framing prints the illustrations, a velvet bag embroidered with Rowling's signature, metal skull, corners, and clasp, replica gemstones and an emerald ribbon.
Stories[]
The introduction says how popular these fairytales are in the wizarding world, and that they are familiar to witches and wizards like how stories including Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty are to Muggles. However, while magic tends to be the source of the problem in the Muggle stories, the wizarding stories have heroes and heroines possessing and using it to solve the problem instead.
The Wizard and the Hopping Pot[]
A kind elderly man passes away. In life, he was considerate and created magical potions and antidotes to help people. He had a son who possessed none of these virtues so in his will, the father leaves a pot to his son with a slipper inside it and a note that says "In the fond hope, my son, that you will never need it". The son was bitter and closed the door in the faces of anyone asking for potions or antidotes, only to realise that the pot was getting sick by copying their symptoms.
The son thought it was very disturbing and started helping people in the hope that the pot would also get better. Each time he healed someone, the pot was also healed of their sickness until it was eventually restored to perfect health. The slipper then fell out of the pot and when the son put it on the pot's foot, they walked off into the sunset together.
The Fountain of Fair Fortune[]
Chapter art for The Fountain of Fair Fortune
There is a fountain that will only let one person bathe in it each year, during which it will answer every problem they have. Three witches head to the fountain to have their problems answered at the same time and join forces to solve three challenges in their way. Asha has an incurable disease, Altheda endures poverty and powerlessness due to a robbery and Amata is distraught after being left by her beloved.
There is a Muggle Knight called Sir Luckless who, like his name suggests, does not have any luck. The witches face their challenges with the Knight. These are a giant worm that demands "proof of [their] pain", then a steep slope where they have to bring the "fruit of their labours", and finally, they have to pay a "treasure of [their] past". Amata passes her challenge by using magic to withdraw the memories of her ex-lover.
At the fountain, Asha collapses in exhaustion. Altheda saves her by creating an invigorating potion and realises her skills are a means to earn money so she also no longer needs the fountain. Amata realises that giving away her regret for her cruel and false lover also removed her need for it. Sir Luckless goes in the fountain of fair fortune instead and proposes to Amata. He asks for "her hand and her heart" which she happily gives. Everyone gets an answer to their problem, unaware that the fountain actually held no magical power.
The Warlock's Hairy Heart[]
A young and handsome warlock decides to never fall in love so he uses the Dark Arts to ensure it. His family hope he will change but time only strengths his resolve. However, one day he overhears two servants criticising him for jot having a wife so he decides to find a talented, rich, and beautiful witch and marry her to gain everyone's envy. He finds the girl who is "fascinated and repelled" by him, but he persuades her and her family to join him for a feast. During the feast, she tells him that she needs to know that he has a heart.
The warlock shows her his a beating hairy heart inside a crystal casket in a dungeon. The witch begs him to put it back in and after he does, she embraces him. However, the heart has been cdisconnected from its body for too long and has developed savage tastes through degeneration into an animalistic state. The warlock is driven to take a true human heart by force and tears out the witch's heart to replace his own. When he cannot take his hairy heart back out of his chest with magic, he cuts it out with a dagger. He and the maiden die with him holding both hearts in his hands.
Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump[]
The King wants to keep all the magic in the world for himself. He creates a Brigade of Witch-Hunters and searches for a teacher so he can learn magic. However, only an unmagical cunning charlatan offers to teach hinm. The charlatan teaches the King a few simple tricks to gain his confidence and then starts to ask for jewellery and gold in return.
Babbitty Rabbitty, a witch, works for the King and laughs at him one day when he attempts to do magic using an ordinary twig instead of a wand. So the King asks the charlatan join him for a public demonstration of magic and warns him that he will be beheaded if anyone laughs. The charlatan later witnesses Babbitty performing magic in her house and threatens to expose her if she does not help him. She agrees to help during the demonstration.
During the performance, the Captain of the Brigade of Witch-Hunters asks the King to bring his dead hound back to life. Babbitty cannot use magic to raise the dead and the crowd thinks the previous acts were tricks. The charlatan exposes Babbitty and says she had blocked his spells. Babbitty flees into a forest and disappears at the base of an old tree. In desperation, the charlatan says that she has turned "into a crab apple" and gets the tree cut down.
However the stump begins cackling and forces the charlatan to confess. The stump keeps on cackling, demanding that the King should never hurt another wizard and to build a statue of Babbitty on the stump to remind him of his foolishness. The King agrees and heads back to the palace. Afterwards, a "stout old rabbit" with a wand in its teeth hops out from a hole beneath the stump and leaves the kingdom.
The Tale of the Three Brothers[]
Three brothers are travelling together and reach a perilous danger. They use magic to build a bridge and escape their certain deaths. The personification of Death appears, feeling cheated out of gaining their three souls. Pretending to be impressed with their feat, Death offers to reward each brother for beating him with something of their choice. These gifts were designed to trick each brother into an untimely death.
The first brother asks for an unbeatable duelling wand and is given the Elder Wand. The second brother asks for a way to bring back the dead to life and receives a Resurrection Stone. The third brother asks for a way to prevent Death from finding him in the future, and he is given a Cloak of Invisibility. The elder brother wins many duels but is eventually killed by a thief trying to take the Elder Wand. The second brother brings his deceased fiancée back to life but she did not belong in the living world anymore. He kills himself to be with her. The younger brother lives for many years, having a family and grows old in hiding until he realises it is time to move on. He removes his cloak and Death greets him like an old friend.
Covers[]
Trivia[]
- J. K. Rowling's favourite story is "The Fountain of Fair Fortune".[5]