Notes

Syen - Slytherin - G6

The exception to this rules - the unnamed maiden of "The Warlock's Hairy Heart" - acts more like our idea of a storybook princess, but there is no "happily ever after" at the end of her tale.

Beedle the Bard lived i the fifteenth century, and much of his life remains shrouded in mystery. We know that he was born in Yorkshire, and the only surviving woodcut shows that he had an exceptionally luxuriant beard. If his stories accurately reflect his opinions, he rather liked Muggles, whom he regarded as ignorant rather than malevolent; he mistrusted Dark Magic, and he believed that he worst excesses of wizardkind sprang from the all-too-human traits of cruelty, apathy or arrogant misapplication of their own talents. The heroes and heroines who triumph in his stories are not those with the most powerful magic, but rather those who demonstrate the most kindness, common sense and ingenuity.

One modern-day wizard who held very similar views was, of course, Proffesor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. Order of Merlin, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Supreme Mugwump of the international confederation of wizards, ad Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot.

The similarity of outlook notwithstanding, it was a suprise to discover a set of notes on The Tales of Beedle the Bard among the many papers that Dumbledore left i his will to the Hogwarts Archives. however, we have been graciously granted permission by Proffesor Minerva McGonagall, now Headmistress of Hogwarts, to print Proffesor Dumbledore's notes her, alongside a brand new translation of the tales by Hermione Granger. It is the belief of all who knew him personally that Proffesor Dumbledore would have been delighted to lend his support to this project, given that all royalties are to be donated to the Children's High Level Group, which works to benefit children in desperate eed of a voice.

It seems only right to make one small, additional comment on proffesor Dumbledore'notes. As far as we can tell, the notes were completes around eighteen months before the tragic evets that took place at the top of Hogwarts's Astronomy Tower. Those familiar with the history of the most recent wizarding war (everyone who has read all secen volumes on the life of Harry Potter, for instance) will be aware that Proffesor Dumbledore reveals a little less that he knows - or suspects - about the final story in this book. The reason for any omissio lies, perhaps, in what Dumbledore said about truth, many years ago, to his favourite and most famous pupil:

"It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution."

Whether we agree with him or not, we can perhaps excuse Proffesor 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.