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The Captain of the Brigade of Witch-Hunters

was eager to make the experimentbut as he

raised the axe the charlatan fell to his knees

screaming for mercy and confessing all his

wickedness. As he was dragged away to the

dungeonsthe tree stump cackled more loudly

than ever.

“By cutting a witch in halfyou have

unleashed a dreadful curse upon your kingdom!”

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

76

it told the petrified King. “Henceforthevery

stroke of harm that you inflict upon my fellow

witches and wizards will feel like an axe stroke

in your own sideuntil you will wish you could

die of it!”

At thatthe King fell to his knees tooand

told the stump that he would issue a proclama-

tion at onceprotecting all the witches and

wizards of the kingdomand allowing them to

practise their magic in peace.

“Very good” said the stump“but you have not

yet made amends to Babbitty!”

“Anythinganything at all!” cried the foolish

Kingwringing his hands before the stump.

“You will erect a statue of Babbitty upon me

in memory of your poor washerwomanand to

remind you for ever of your own foolishness!”

said the stump.

Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump

77

The King agreed to it at onceand promised

to engage the foremost sculptor in the landand

have the statue made of pure gold. Then the

shamed King and all the noblemen and women

returned to the palaceleaving the tree stump

cackling behind them.

When the grounds were deserted once more

there wriggled from a hole between the roots

of the tree stump a stout and whiskery old

rabbit with a wand clamped between her

teeth. Babbitty hopped out of the grounds and

far awayand ever after a golden statue of the

washerwoman stood upon the tree stumpand

no witch or wizard was ever persecuted in

the kingdom again.

Albus Dumbledore on

“Babbitty Rabbitty and her

Cackling Stump”

78

The story of “Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling

Stump” isin many waysthe most “real” of Beedle’s

talesin that the magic described in the story

conformsalmost entirelyto known magical

laws.

It was through this story that many of us first

discovered that magic could not bring back the

dead – and a great disappointment and shock it

wasconvinced as we had beenas young children

that our parents would be able to awaken our dead

rats and cats with one wave of their wands.

Though some six centuries have elapsed since

Beedle wrote this taleand while we have devised

innumerable ways of maintaining the illusion of

Professor Dumbledore’s Notes

79

our loved ones’ continuing presence

1 wizards still

have not found a way of reuniting body and soul

once death has occurred. As the eminent wizarding

philosopher Bertrand de Pensées-Profondes writes

in his celebrated work A Study into the Possibility of

Reversing the Actual and Metaphysical Effects of

Natural Deathwith Particular Regard to the

Reintegration of Essence and Matter: “Give it up. It’s

never going to happen.”

The tale of Babbitty Rabbitty doeshowever

give us one of the earliest literary mentions of an

Animagusfor Babbitty the washerwoman is pos-

sessed of the rare magical ability to transform into

an animal at will.

Animagi make up a small fraction of the

1 [Wizarding photographs and portraits move and (in the case of the latter)

talk just like their subjects. Other rare objectssuch as the Mirror of

Erisedmay also reveal more than a static image of a lost loved one.

Ghosts are transparentmovingtalking and thinking versions of wizards

and witches who wishedfor whatever reasonto remain on earth. JKR]

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

80

wizarding population. Achieving perfectsponta-

neous human to animal transformation requires

much study and practiceand many witches and

wizards consider that their time might be better

employed in other ways. Certainlythe application

of such a talent is limited unless one has a great

need of disguise or concealment. It is for this

reason that the Ministry of Magic has insisted

upon a register of Animagifor there can be

no doubt that this kind of magic is of greatest use

to those engaged in surreptitiouscovert or even

criminal activity.

2

Whether there was ever a washerwoman who

was able to transform into a rabbit is open to

doubt; howeversome magical historians have

2 [Professor McGonagallHeadmisrress of Hogwartshas asked me to make

clear that she became an Animagus merely as a result of her extensive

researches into all fields of Transfigurationand that she has never used

the ability to turn into a tabby cat for any surreptitious purposesetting

aside legitimate business on behalf of the Order of the Phoenix where

secrecy and concealment were imperative. JKR]

Professor Dumbledore’s Notes

81

suggested that Beedle modelled Babbitty on the

famous French sorceress Lisette de Lapinwho was

convicted of witchcraft in Paris in 1422. To the

astonishment of her Muggle guardswho were

later tried for helping the witch to escapeLisette

vanished from her prison cell the night before she

was due to be executed. Although it has never

been proven that Lisette was an Animagus who

managed to squeeze through the bars of her cell

windowa large white rabbit was subsequently

seen crossing the English Channel in a cauldron

with a sail fitted to itand a similar rabbit later

became a trusted advisor at the court of King

Henry VI.

3

The King in Beedle’s story is a foolish Muggle

who both covets and fears magic. He believes

that he can become a wizard simply by learning

3 This may have contributed to that Muggle King’s reputation for mental

instability.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

82

incantations and waving a wand.

4 He is completely

ignorant of the true nature of magic and wizards

and therefore swallows the preposterous sugges-

tions of both the charlatan and Babbitty. This is

certainly typical of a particular type of Muggle

thinking: in their ignorancethey are prepared to

accept all sorts of impossibilities about magic

including the proposition that Babbitty has turned

herself into a tree that can still think and talk. (It

is worth noting at this pointhoweverthat while

Beedle uses the talking-tree device to show us how

4 As intensive studies in the Department of Mysteries demonstrated as far

back as 1672wizards and witches are bornnot created. While the

“rogue” ability to perform magic sometimes appears in those of apparent

non-magical descent (though several later studies have suggested that

there will have been a witch or wizard somewhere on the family tree)

Muggles cannot perform magic. The best - or worst - they could hope

for are random and uncontrollable effects generated by a genuine magical

wandwhichas an instrument through which magic is supposed to be

channelledsometimes holds residual power that it may discharge at odd

moments – see also the notes on wandlore for “The Tale of the Three

Brothers”.

Professor Dumbledore’s Notes

83

ignorant the Muggle King ishe also asks us to

believe that Babbitty can talk while she is a rabbit.

This might be poetic licencebut I think it more

likely that Beedle had only heard about Animagi

and never met onefor this is the only liberty that

he takes with magical laws in the story. Animagi

do not retain the power of human speech while in

their animal formalthough they keep all their

human thinking and reasoning powers. Thisas

every schoolchild knowsis the fundamental

difference between being an Animagusand

Transfiguring oneself into an animal. In the case

of the latterone would become the animal

entirelywith the consequence that one would

know no magicbe unaware that one had ever

been a wizardand would need somebody else to

Transfigure one back to one’s original form.)

I think it possible that in choosing to make his

heroine pretend to turn into a treeand threaten

the King with pain like an axe stroke in his own

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

84

sideBeedle was inspired by real magical traditions

and practices. Trees with wand-quality wood have

always been fiercely protected by the wandmakers

who tend themand cutting down such trees to

steal them risks incurring not only the malice

of the Bowtruckles

5 usually nesting therebut also

the ill effect of any protective curses placed around

them by their owners. In Beedle’s timethe

Cruciatus Curse had not yet been made illegal by

the Ministry of Magic

6 and could have produced

precisely the sensation with which Babbitty

threatens the King.

5 For a full description of these curious little tree-dwellerssee

Fantastic

Beasts and Where to Find Them.

6 The CruciatusImperius and Avada Kedavra Curses were first classified as

Unforgivable in 1717with the strictest penalties attached to their use.

87

There were once three brothers who were travel-

ling along a lonelywinding road at twilight. In

timethe brothers reached a river too deep to

wade through and too dangerous to swim across.

Howeverthese brothers were learned in the

magical artsand so they simply waved their

wands and made a bridge appear across the

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

88

The Tale of the Three Brothers

89

treacherous water. They were halfway across it

when they found their path blocked by a hooded

figure.

And Death spoke to them. He was angry that

he had been cheated out of three new victims

for travellers usually drowned in the river. But

Death was cunning. He pretended to congratu-

late the three brothers upon their magicand

said that each had earned a prize for having been

clever enough to evade him.

So the oldest brotherwho was a combative

manasked for a wand more powerful than any

in existence: a wand that must always win duels

for its ownera wand worthy of a wizard who

had conquered Death! So Death crossed to an

elder tree on the banks of the riverfashioned a

wand from a branch that hung thereand gave it

to the oldest brother.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

90

Then the second brotherwho was an arrogant

mandecided that he wanted to humiliate Death

still furtherand asked for the power to recall

others from Death. So Death picked up a stone

from the riverbank and gave it to the second

brotherand told him that the stone would have

the power to bring back the dead.

And then Death asked the third and youngest

brother what he would like. The youngest

brother was the humblest and also the wisest

of the brothersand he did not trust Death.

So he asked for something that would enable

him to go forth from that place without

being followed by Death. And Deathmost

unwillinglyhanded over his own Cloak of

Invisibility.

Then Death stood aside and allowed the three

brothers to continue on their way and they did

The Tale of the Three Brothers

91

sotalking with wonder of the adventure they

had hadand admiring Death’s gifts.

In due course the brothers separatedeach for

his own destination.

The first brother travelled on for a week or

moreand reaching a distant villagehe sought

out a fellow wizard with whom he had a quarrel.

Naturallywith the Elder Wand as his weapon

he could not fail to win the duel that followed.

Leaving his enemy dead upon the floorthe

oldest brother proceeded to an innwhere he

boasted loudly of the powerful wand he had

snatched from Death himselfand of how it

made him invincible.

That very nightanother wizard crept upon

the oldest brother as he laywine-soddenupon

his bed. The thief took the wand andfor good

measureslit the oldest brother’s throat.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

92

And so Death took the first brother for his

own.

Meanwhilethe second brother journeyed to

his own homewhere he lived alone. Here he

took out the stone that had the power to recall

the deadand turned it thrice in his hand. To his

amazement and his delightthe figure of the girl

he had once hoped to marry before her untimely

death appeared at once before him.

Yet she was silent and coldseparated from

him as though by a veil. Though she had

returned to the mortal worldshe did not truly

belong there and suffered. Finallythe second

brotherdriven mad with hopeless longing

killed himself so as truly to join her.

And so Death took the second brother for his

own.

But though Death searched for the third

The Tale of the Three Brothers

93

brother for many yearshe was never able to find

him. It was only when he had attained a great

age that the youngest brother finally took off the

Cloak of Invisibility and gave it to his son. And

then he greeted Death as an old friendand went

with him gladlyandequalsthey departed this

life.

Albus Dumbledore on

“The Tale of the Three Brothers”

94

This story made a profound impression on me as a

boy. I heard it first from my motherand it soon

became the tale I requested more often than any

other at bedtime. This frequently led to arguments

with my younger brotherAberforthwhose

favourite story was “Grumble the Grubby Goat”.

The moral of “The Tale of the Three Brothers”

could not be any clearer: human efforts to evade

or overcome death are always doomed to dis-

appointment. The third brother in the story (“the

humblest and also the wisest”) is the only one who

understands thathaving narrowly escaped Death

oncethe best he can hope for is to postpone their

next meeting for as long as possible. This youngest

Professor Dumbledore’s Notes

95

brother knows that taunting Death – by engaging

in violencelike the first brotheror by meddling

in the shadowy art of necromancy

1 like the second

brother - means pitting oneself against a wily

enemy who cannot lose.

The irony is that a curious legend has grown up

around this storywhich precisely contradicts the

message of the original. This legend holds that the