The Tales of Beedle the Bard by Beedle the Bard

Title: The Tales of Beedle the Bard

Author: collected by Beedle the Bard 

Publisher: not known 

Source book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling (Harry Potter #7)

Before there was a real book called The Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling, and you can read all about it here, there was a fictional book called The Tales of Beedle the Bard. When Dumbledore dies, he leaves his personal copy, an ancient looking book with stained binding and the title written in runes, to Hermione (obviously Hermione is the only person we know who reads runes).

Of course, because Harry and Hermione were brought up as Muggles they have never read any of the traditional stories known to all wizarding children. The stories include The Fountain of Fair Fortune, The Wizard and the Hopping Pot, Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump, and The Tale of the Three Brothers, the text of which is [unfortunately] included in The Deathly Hallows. Unbelievably I read somewhere that The Three Brothers was Albus Dumbledore’s favourite story.

To be honest everybody, if you ask me, these wizarding fairy stories sound absolutely ghastly. JK Rowling does a good job on naming many, many fictional books over the course of the Harry Potter series, but here it seems as though she’s lost the ability, and maybe even got a bit bored of her creation. I mean, Babbity Rabbity and her Cackling Stump? Really?

Also mentioned is Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches. Ron gives a copy to Harry. It’s supposed to help you get a girlfriend, and once you’ve got over that important hurdle, advise you how to keep her happy. And there’s also Nature’s Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy which must have belonged to Sirius Black’s dreadful family and now belongs to Harry.

And I discover there’s also Grumble the Grubby Goat. Although I think, from context, that it must be in the version of Beedle the Bard written by JK Rowling. I suppose it’s about a grubby goat.

Incidentally, if anyone is interested, the house used as Hermione’s childhood home in the (film of) The Deathly Hallows (part 1) is just around the corner from where I used to live. I used to walk the dog near there all the time. It was a bit of a surprise one day to find the road lined with thousands of excited teenagers: they knew about the filming, I didn’t.

Photographs by me