'Beedle the Bard' spellbinds readers
Courtesy of uwire
For the dedicated fans of J. K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series, the freshly-released "Tales of Beedle the Bard" is sure to captivate its audience.
A quick but fascinating read, this collection of magical folk tales contains five stories: "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot," "The Fountain of Fair Fortune," "The Warlock's Hairy Heart," "Babbitty Rabbitty and the Cackling Stump" and "The Tale of the Three Brothers."
Although Harry Potter and his friends are not a part of these stories, fans will be pleased to note that "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" is based on the book that Harry's friend, Hermione Granger, received as a gift from Albus Dumbledore in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."
In "Deathly Hallows," Hermione translates Beedle's Tales from ancient runes.
After translating the story of "The Three Brothers," Hermione uncovers the lore centered on the three Deathly Hallows. Doing so enables her to help her friends Harry and Ron in their quest to find said Hallows and defeat Lord Voldemort.
Not only is "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" a good addition to the Harry Potter collection, but it is also a great original compendium of folk tales.
Yet again, J. K. Rowling displays her extraordinary talent for storytelling with "The Tales of Beedle the Bard."
Rowling enchanted the world with her novels of the young orphan wizard, Harry, and now proves that she can also produce short stories that rival the likes of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson.
Much like selections from Grimm's Fairytales, Rowling's magic folklore has morals for witches and wizards to adhere to.
The most prevalent underlying theme in "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" is that magic should be dealt with cautiously and only for positive purposes.
The Harry Potter empire now has a collection of 10 books: the seven novels in the original Potter series plus "The Tales of the Beedle Bard," "Quidditch through the Ages" and "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."
The first five books in the series have since been made into blockbuster movies and the sixth installment, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," is slated to arrive in theaters on July 17, 2009.
Katie Taylor is a reporter for the East Carolinian. This article is courtesy of UWire.