Оглавление
Дж. К. Роулинг. The Tales of Beedle the Bard
Introduction
1
THE WIZARD AND THE HOPPING POT
Albus Dumbledore on ‘The Wizard and the Hopping Pot’
2
THE FOUNTAIN OF FAIR FORTUNE
Albus Dumbledore on ‘The Fountain of Fair Fortune’
3
THE WARLOCK’S HAIRY HEART
Albus Dumbledore on ‘The Warlock’s Hairy Heart’
4
BABBITTY RABBITTY AND HER CACKLING STUMP
Albus Dumbledore on ‘Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump’
5
THE TALE OF THE THREE BROTHERS
Albus Dumbledore on ‘The Tale of the Three Brothers’
Отрывок из книги
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 or heroine’s troubles – the wicked witch has poisoned the apple, or put the princess into a hundred years’ 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.
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It seems only right to make one small, additional comment on Professor Dumbledore’s notes. As far as we can tell, the notes were completed around eighteen months before the tragic events that took place at the top of Hogwarts’ Astronomy Tower. Those familiar with the history of the most recent wizarding war (everyone who has read all seven volumes on the life of Harry Potter, for instance) will be aware that Professor Dumbledore reveals a little less than he knows – or suspects – about the final story in this book. The reason for any omission lies, perhaps, in what Dumbledore said about truth, many years ago, to his favourite and most famous pupil:
Whether we agree with him or not, we can perhaps excuse Professor Dumbledore for wishing to protect future readers from the temptations to which he himself had fallen prey, and for which he paid so terrible a price.
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