The Tales of Beedle the Bard
Contents ( 4)
Text and interior illustrations copyright © 2007, 2008 by J. K. Rowling
Cover illustration by Mary GrandPré copyright © 2008 by J. K. Rowling
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2008934360
ISBN-13: 978-0-545-12828-5 - ISBN-10: 0-545-12828-5
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 08 09 10 11 12
Printed in the U.S.A. 55
First edition, December 2008
 | Mixed Sources |
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CONTENTS
Introduction
THE WIZARD AND
THE HOPPING POT
Commentary
THE FOUNTAIN OF
FAIR FORTUNE
Commentary
THE WARLOCK’S
HAIRY HEART
Commentary
BABBITTY RABBITTY AND
HER CACKLING STUMP
Commentary
THE TALE OF THE
THREE BROTHERS
Commentary
About the Children’s High Level Group
INTRODUCTION
THE TALES OF BEEDLE THE BARD is a collection of stories written for young wizards and witches. They have been popular bedtime reading for centuries, with the result that the Hopping Pot and the Fountain of Fair Fortune are as familiar to many of the students at Hogwarts as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty are to Muggle (non-magical) children.
Beedle’s stories resemble our fairy tales in many respects; for instance, virtue is usually rewarded, and wickedness punished. However, there is one very obvious difference. In Muggle fairy tales, magic tends to lie at the root of the hero’s or heroine’s troubles — the wicked witch has poisoned the apple, or put the princess into a hundred-year’s sleep, or turned the prince into a hideous beast. In The Tales of Beedle the Bard, on the other hand, we meet heroes and heroines who can perform magic themselves, and yet find it just as hard to solve their problems as we do. Beedle’s stories have helped generations of Wizarding parents to explain this painful fact of life to their young children: that magic causes as much trouble as it cures.