Harry Potter books The Tales of Beedle the Bard |
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UK (left) and US (right) covers of the standard edition of the book. |
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Author | J. K. Rowling |
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Illustrator | J. K. Rowling |
Genre | Fantasy |
Auction date | 13 December 2007 (handmade edition) |
Winning bid | £1.95 / $3.98 million (Amazon.com) |
Publishers | Bloomsbury (UK and Canada) Scholastic (United States) Amazon.com (Collector's Edition} |
Publication date | 4 December 2008 |
Pages | 157[1] (handmade edition) |
The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a book of children's stories by British author J. K. Rowling. It purports to be the storybook of the same name mentioned in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last book of the Harry Potter series.[2]
The book was originally produced in a limited edition of only seven copies, each handwritten and illustrated by J. K. Rowling.[3] One of them was offered for auction in late 2007 and was expected to sell for £50,000 ($103,000); ultimately it was bought for £1.95 million ($3.98 million) by Amazon.com, making the selling price the highest achieved at auction for a modern literary manuscript.[4][5] The money earned at the auction of the book was donated to The Children's Voice charity campaign.[6]
The book was published for the general public on 4 December 2008, with the proceeds going to the Children's High Level Group.[7][8][9]
Contents |
The Tales of Beedle the Bard first appeared as a fictional book, used as a plot device, in J. K. Rowling's 2007 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final novel of the Harry Potter series. The book is bequeathed to Hermione Granger by Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It is described as a popular collection of Wizarding children's fairy tales, so that while Ron Weasley is familiar with the stories, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger had not previously heard them due to their non-magical upbringing.[2]
The book Hermione receives in Dumbledore's will is a copy of the original edition of the fictional book.[10] It is described as an ancient-looking small book with its binding "stained and peeling in places". In the novel it is also said the book has a title on its cover, written in embossed runic symbols.[2]
The book acts as the vehicle for introducing the Deathly Hallows.[6] Above the story "The Tale of the Three Brothers", Hermione Granger finds a strange symbol which later is revealed by Xenophilius Lovegood to be the symbol of the Hallows. The triangle from the symbol represents the Invisibility Cloak, the circle inside the triangle symbolizes the Resurrection Stone, and the vertical line represents the Elder Wand.[10]
These three objects are also mentioned in the story itself (see below), and are said to belong to the Peverell brothers,[10] who are later revealed as being Harry Potter's ancestors.[11] Towards the end of the novel, Albus Dumbledore also confirms Harry's connection to the Peverells, and states that the three brothers might in fact have been the creators of the Hallows.[12]
Rowling started writing the book soon after finishing work on the seventh Harry Potter novel.[13] During an interview with her fandom she also stated that she used other books as a source of inspiration for the tales. More specifically, "The Tale of the Three Brothers", the only story included entirely in The Deathly Hallows,[10] was inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Pardoner's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales.[14]
Originally The Tales of Beedle the Bard had only been produced in a limited number of seven handmade copies, all handwritten and illustrated by the author herself.[1] The books were bound in brown morocco leather, and decorated with hand-chased silver ornaments and mounted semiprecious stones by silversmith and jeweller Hamilton & Inches of Edinburgh.[15] The silver pieces each represent one of the five stories within.[16] Rowling also asked that each of the seven copies be embellished using a different semiprecious stone.[17]
Six of these original handwritten copies were uniquely dedicated and given by Rowling to six people who were most involved with the Harry Potter series.[17] The recipients of these copies were not initially identified. Since then, two of these people have been named. One is Barry Cunningham,[18] Rowling's very first editor. Another is Arthur A. Levine,[19] editor for Scholastic, the U.S. publisher of the Harry Potter books. Cunningham and Levine had lent their personal copies as part of Beedle the Bard exhibits in December 2008.[18][19]
Rowling also decided to create a seventh handwritten copy (distinguished from the others by its moonstone jewelling) to sell at auction in order to raise funds for The Children's Voice charity campaign.
The idea came really because I wanted to thank six key people who have been very closely connected to the 'Harry Potter' series, and these were people for whom a piece of jewellery wasn't going to cut it. So I had the idea of writing them a book, a handwritten and illustrated book, just for these six people. And well, if I'm doing six I really have to do seven, and the seventh book will be for this cause, which is so close to my heart.
—J. K. Rowling[20]
The 157-page[1] "Moonstone edition"[17] of the book was first put on display prior to bidding on 26 November in New York and on 9 December in London.[21] The book was auctioned 13 December 2007, at Sotheby's in London. The starting price was £30,000 ($62,000), and originally it was expected to sell for approximately £50,000 ($103,000).[22] The closing bid far exceeded all prior projections, as ultimately the book was purchased by a representative from London fine art dealers Hazlitt Gooden and Fox on behalf of Amazon, for a total of £1.95 million ($3.98 million). This was the highest purchase price for a modern literary manuscript at the date.[4][5] The money earned at auction later was donated by Rowling to The Children's Voice charity campaign.[6]
Sotheby's printed a forty-eight page promotional catalogue for the auction.[23] The catalogue featured illustrations from the book, as well as comments from J. K. Rowling on The Tales of Beedle the Bard. The catalogue was sold as a collector's item, and the money from the sales also has been donated to The Children's Voice.[24][25]
On 31 July 2008, it was announced that The Tales of Beedle the Bard will also be published in standard and collector's editions for the public, by Bloomsbury, Scholastic, and Amazon.com. The decision was taken due to disappointment among Harry Potter fans after it had initially been announced that a wide public release was not intended.[8][26]
Similarly to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages (two other storybooks mentioned in the Harry Potter novels which have been printed as well) the standard and the collector's editions of The Tales of Beedle the Bard feature commentary and footnotes from Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts and one of the main characters of the series. The standard edition also includes illustrations reproduced from the handwritten edition auctioned in December 2007, and the introduction by the author. The limited collector's edition features ten illustrations by J. K. Rowling not included in the standard edition or the original handcrafted edition, as well as an exclusive reproduction of J. K. Rowling's handwritten introduction, and other miscellaneous objects such as replica gemstones and an emerald ribbon.[27][28]
The book, released on 4 December 2008, was published in the United Kingdom, and Canada by Bloomsbury, while the US edition was published by Scholastic, and the special limited collector's edition of the book, which is available in all three countries, by Amazon. The limited edition retails for £50 ($100), and around 100,000 copies have been printed. Profits from the sale of the book will be given to the Children's High Level Group, and it is expected to raise an estimated £4 million ($7.6 million).[9]
Rowling wrote five stories for the book. One, "The Warlock's Hairy Heart", is not mentioned in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows;[17] three others, "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot", "The Fountain of Fair Fortune", and "Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump", receive cursory attention.[2] "The Tale of the Three Brothers" is the only story also included entirely in The Deathly Hallows.[10]
This first story of the book features an illustration on its first page representing a pot standing on a single foot with five toes.
The picture of a sparkling, flowing fountain accompanies this story, and around it a few stars and sparkles. Below the text, there is a second drawing of a small rose bush.
This is the only one of the five stories featured in The Tales of Beedle the Bard which is not also mentioned in Deathly Hallows. A hairy heart covered in coarse hair and dripping blood is drawn on this story's page while beneath the text, there is a second drawing of an old-fashioned key with three loops at the top, lying in a pool of blood.
The drawings that are found on this story's page represent a large tree stump, with 20 growth rings. A little crack can be seen at the bottom of the stub, and inside, in the dark, two glowing eyes. Under the text is a small narrow paw print, with four toes.
This is the only one of the five stories featured in The Tales of Beedle the Bard whose plot is also given in Deathly Hallows, in chapter XXI. It is accompanied by two illustrations: the first one, located in the upper part of the page represents three human skulls, the one in the middle having the Hallows' symbol on its forehead. The second one, located in the lower part of the page is a drawing of the three Hallows.
As the book has just been released it has not been widely reviewed. However, Sotheby's deputy director Dr. Philip W. Errington described the handmade edition as "one of the most exciting pieces of children's literature" to have passed through the auction house.[3] After buying the book, Amazon also released a review, describing it as "an artifact pulled straight out of a novel".[1]