"Tales of Bard Beadle" is a collection of 5 short stories for young wizards. In fact, there were much more fairy tales composed by the mentioned bard. But it was only to these tales that professor Dumbledore allegedly made his own comments, and therefore Joan Rowling in her collection decided to confine herself to them only. These are tales from the book that the great professor bequeathed to Hermione Granger after his death. The current owner of the book herself also left her corrections and comments in it, after which the collection of selected works of Bard Bead was allegedly reprinted for reading not only by wizards, but also by Muggle children.
About the bard
So bard Beadle - who is this at all? Nobody really knows anything about Beadle in the wizarding world. From the books of Joan Rowling it is clear that this bard lived somewhere in the 1400s, when the Holy Inquisition declared the witch-hunt everywhere. Wizards in those troubled times shied away, and those who managed to be caught and caught in witchcraft were publicly burned at the stake.
It is known that bard Beadle was born in Yorkshire, and in years had a thick beard, which can be seen on the sketches of the time preserved in libraries. Where he got 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 tales, called The Tales of Beedle The Bard, are actually nothing more than a free retelling of real events.
The essence of fairy tales
The main purpose of his tales, Biddle himself considered the spiritual formation of the personality of young wizards. As in the Muggle tales of Snow White, Koloboks, Cinderella, good in them often defeated evil. They also instilled in the children the rudiments of morality, awakened a conscience in them, the ability to reason logically, think broadly and not succumb to the dark side. Mages always in these fairy tales either lost, or perished completely.
Rowling herself, most likely, decided to write and release this collection in order to answer some questions in it, which were not answered in the main volumes of the novel. In particular, it reveals some questions about ghosts, animagus, and indeed, in the light of fairy tales read, the whole tale of Harry Potter does not seem so divorced from reality. In the collection, the writer spoke about why the wizarding world was forced to go “underground”, as well as where this so-called “Statute of Secrecy” came from and why it should be so unconditionally observed.
Also, from the comments of the professor himself, it becomes clear that the division among wizards into "half-blood supporters" and "half-blood opponents" has been brewing since ancient times, and once this "bubble" was supposed to burst. The roots of the feud between Dumbledore himself and Lucius Malfoy are also mentioned in the collection.
But really in the books of Joan Rowling about “Harry Potter”, or rather, in the last of them (“Deathly Hallows”), there is only one story from the collection, which we will talk about in more detail a little later, after briefly Let's get acquainted with the retelling of the other 4 tales.
Sorcerer and Jumping Pot
This tale hints that everyone should be kinder to others. In one village there lived an old wizard, the only healer in the whole district. He died bequeathing to his son a pot in which he cooked all kinds of potions to help the common people. But the son was callous to those around him, and, although he inherited magical abilities and was skilled in them, he invariably refused help to those who turned. After each refusal, the enchanted pot began to rattle, spit, and deliver a lot of inconvenience to its owner, and in no way could he get rid of it. In the end, the wizard got tired of it all, and he began to help everyone, as his father had previously done. The pot eventually calmed down. It is still unclear whether it was a forced decision, or if his conscience really woke up, but be that as it may, his father’s will worked.
Hare Cracker and her stump-goggle
Then the king decided that besides him, no one has the right to conjure in his state. He hired some rogue who was not a wizard at all, but simply became more skilled in tricks to teach the king witchcraft art. But the magician only pretended to break the magic wands here in the garden and forced the king to wave them, taking a good fee for this. He really thought that he was learning something. These manipulations greatly amused one old woman, who was engaged in farming at the court. She really was a sorceress and laughed well at this antics.
The king became furious and said that the next day he would call all the nobles and show everyone how he had learned to conjure, and if he didn’t succeed, then the rogue teacher would not be able to bear his head. He intimidated the old woman, and ordered, playing along with the king, perform magic for him.
And then the king waved his wand, and the horse flew. Waves again, another miracle happens. But when he was asked to heal the dog, which by that time was already dead, he could not do anything, because the old woman could not cope with such magic. Then the prostitute teacher, in order to avoid royal anger, surrendered the old woman, hiding in the bushes, with giblets, saying that it was she who was stopping him from conjuring.
The old woman, fleeing, turned into a hare, because she was an animagus and, hiding in the roots of a tree, taunting, made (let’s not go into details how, after all, she was a sorceress and she had a lot of methods) the poor king trembled with fear, and the unfortunate instructor was led to clean water. The moral of that tale is this: do not be clever, do not be greedy and do not lie, there will always be someone smarter than you and will punish you for your sins. True, they say, always come out.
Fortune Fairy Fountain
Here it was all a matter of the fountain, which annually allowed one of the local local brethren to swim in their waters, so that happiness and luck would decrease from now on. Somehow, this year, three female sorceresses and one loser-knight managed to slip through the fence to the fountain at once.
After a long journey and the fulfillment of certain conditions, namely, that along the way they must give either evidence of suffering (in this case, it was the tears of one of the sorceresses), then the fruits of their labors (here the other sorceress takes away the sweat that came from zeal, when the four of us stormed the steep slope), the treasures of their past (this time it is the memory of the beloved of the third sorceress), the fountain is finally ready to accept one of them. But here 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 was washed in the fountain, who, coming out from under him, decided to declare his love for one of the sorceresses. But it becomes clear that even without a fountain she would not refuse him.
So the meaning here is as follows. Sometimes, in order to establish your life, magic is not required at all. You just don’t need to focus on the past, on bad luck, but you need to live on and not give up.
Sorcerer's Shaggy Heart
One wizard set out to protect himself from love. All around her lost their heads and did all sorts of stupid things. He enclosed his heart in a casket and hid it in a dungeon.
Many years passed, the wizard began to grow old, and rumors began to go around and ridicule that, despite the fact that the noble was successful, he could not see love, no one wanted him. He decided to show everyone that this is not so, and decided to go to one of the successful beautiful young ladies. But she felt that he did not love her, expressing 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. Having put a feral and furrowed heart in his chest, he became brutalized, tore the girl’s chest and, taking out the heart from her chest, cut out his furry heart, reuniting them in such a terrible way. Both died at the same time.
The moral seems to be this. If you resist your heart and feelings for a long time, your heart simply runs wild and forgets how to truly love.
Tale of three brothers
Now, finally, the most important tale of bard Beadle about three brothers, on which the plot of the latest Harry Potter book is tied. Three brothers went on a trip and stumbled upon a fast and dangerous river. Nearby, Death was always hanging around nearby, tidying up the hands of the drowned, who tried to cross its ford. But the brothers were wizards, pulled out wands, waved and built a bridge, thereby slipping from Death.
Death, seeing that she had lost, decided to act out her cunning. She promised to fulfill any of their three desires (one for each), deciding, if possible, to put a flaw in each of them. The most warlike wished himself an invincible wand. In the end, he was killed for her, because anyone wanted to possess such a powerful magical weapon. Another wanted a means to return the dead, and when he received a resurrecting stone, he called his ex and deceased girlfriend. But she did not find a place in this world, and in the end he committed suicide in order to reunite with his beloved after death, and thereby end her and her suffering.
Thus, Death has already played two lives. But she still could not find the third, she gave him the invisibility cloak. And when the time came to die, he handed the invisibility cloak to his son, and he himself came to Death of his own free will, and they supposedly left this world on equal terms. That is, Death accepted the fact that her 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 take it, then act wisely. You can also trace other truths, for example, do not chase excessive power, or 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 Assumptions about Gifts
Dumbledore in his conversation with Harry at the ghostly station Criss Cross somehow dropped that he did not believe in the least that it was Death herself who had given some three brothers some kind of gifts. He suggested that there were once powerful wizards who were able to create such powerful and eternal magical artifacts. Well, with a little thought, bard Beadle, 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 not one of them, with the exception of Green De Wald, was able to find more than one artifact. Yes, of course, Dumbledore for some time carried two artifacts at once - a stone and an Elder’s wand, but he didn’t count, because at that time he did not believe in all this nonsense, although he could not resist the temptation to use a magic resurrection stone , for which he eventually paid.
Hints of Dumbledore and the Path of Finding Harry and His Friends
For the first time, we encounter the works of bard Beadle seriously in the “Deathly Hallows” at the moment when Rufus Scrimgeour (at that time the current Minister of Magic of Great Britain) presents three things to Harry, Ron and Hermione, bequeathed to him by Professor Dumbledore. He gives Harry the first snitch he caught, Ron the deluminator, and Hermione the first edition of Bard Beadle's tales. It was on her shoulders that the unspoken task was 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 scenario of the fight against evil.
Of course, Hermione didn’t get to the whole thing herself, but it was her inquiring mind that gave everyone else a message to unravel the secrets contained in the fairy tale and in the professor’s comments to her. It was guided by a fairy tale that they began to search for the Elder Wand. Together with Harry's visions, they soon guess that Dumbledore had the Rod of Destiny all this time, the same, in turn, won it back from Green-De-Wald. It was precisely the moment of the torture of the once-great wizard who was imprisoned that Harry saw in his visions.
Comparing what was said in the fairy tale with the disappearance of the wizard and the torture of Green De Wald, they conclude that Voldemort still became the owner of the Elder Wand from the fairy tale. It’s just not so easy with this wand. If it is not obtained in battle, its powerful magical power is not available to the current owner. The Dark Lord, completely convinced that the true owner of the wand is Severus Snape (after all, no one had told him that Dumbledore had actually disarmed Malfoy Jr.), kills the wizard, this time, being convinced that all the magic power of the wand is now in his hands.
But it was not 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 ultimately win. When everything was behind, Harry decided to return the wand to Dumbledore's tomb to where it belongs. He reasoned that if its owner dies his death, her magical power will disappear, and the string 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 resurrecting stone, and about the invisibility mantle. All of them, after all, belonged to Harry. The stone was in a snitch bequeathed by Dumbledore. Awareness of this gave him hope to survive when he went to meet Voldemort in the Enchanted Forest. And although there is no special merit of the resurrecting stone in the way events later showed, nevertheless, the support provided by Harry's beloved and close people caused 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 forest, and remained there lying among grass and felling.
Well, with the third Deathly Hallow - the ageless invisibility cloak, Harry, apparently, did not give up. After all, this thing turned out to be his family relic. And, according to the same bard Beadle, she will not do anything bad to anyone. And therefore, Harry did not consider it necessary to get rid of her.
Conclusion
Reviews "Tales of Bard Beadle" received very good. Fans of the universe of Harry Potter were very pleased to once again plunge into the mysterious atmosphere of magic that for many years so bewitched the readers. Pluses deserve separate comments from the matured Hermione Granger.
After reading the collection “The Tales of Bard Beadle”, it becomes clear that without this short postscript the story of Harry Potter was somewhat incomplete. But now, when some things have fallen into place, the Harry Potter Universe is acquiring its completeness and impeccability, and now it is really difficult to find fault with something.