deathtocapslock | Let's Read Tales of Beedle The Bard, part four: (Reply)

Summary of the Story: Muggle king (surprise. :P) wants to be the only one who can perform magic. Unfortunately, his view of magic is mostly people waving twigs at one another, and a local Wormtongue-esque charlatan decides to take advantage of this, complete with threatening the titular washer-woman, Babbity Rabbity, into coming with him and helping him out (to be fair, he was pretty desperate):

" 'Crone!' roared the charlatan. 'Your cackling has cost me dear! If you fail to help me, I shall denounce you as a witch, and it will be you who is torn apart by the king's hounds!'" (Page 67)

Things seem to go swimmingly for the Muggle king at first, except when it comes to the bit about necromancy -- let's say one of the dogs ate a poisonous toadstool and died. :(

Anyways, the king tries it out and -- surprise surprise -- Babbity (who's of course been secretly assisting him) can't do it.

Then things start to get hairy, as the charlatan pulls a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness + Burn The Witch on Babbity Rabbity, who uses her trickery to make it look like she's turned into a tree, the woodsmen do the sensible thing and cut it down -- or not so sensible considering the stump starts cackling.

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...

Anyways, Babbity uses her witchy powers to trick the king into leaving the magical folk alone, the charlatan's exposed as the dickweed he is, and all is well. (For the Wizarding World, anyway)

Dumbledore's commentary: Opens thus: "The story of 'Babbity Rabbity and Her Cackling Stump' is, in many ways, the most 'real' of Beedle's tales, in that the magic described in the story conforms, almost entirely, to known magical laws." (78) Of course, some might beg to differ. :P He then goes on about death and how it's irreversible and blah blah blah...actually quite interesting bit of historical information...and this:

"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 incantations and waving a wand. He is completely ignorant of the true nature of magic and wizards, and therefore swallows the preposterous suggestions of both the charlatan and Babbitty. This is certainly typical of a particular type of Muggle thinking: In their ignorance, they are prepared to accept all sorts of impossibilities about magic, including the proposition that Babbity has turned herself into a tree that can still think and talk. (It is worth noting at this point, however, that while Beedle uses the talking-tree device to show us how ignorant the Muggle King is, he also asks us to believe that Babbitty can talk while she is a rabbit. This might be poetic license, but I think it more likely that Beedle had only heart about Animagi, and never met one, for 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 form, although they keep all their human thinking and reasoning powers. This, as every schoolchild knows, is the fundamental difference between being an Animagus and Transfiguring oneself into an animal. In the case of the latter, one would become the animal entirely, with the consequence that one would know no magic, be unaware that one had ever been a wizard, and would need somebody else to Transfigure one back to one's original form." (Page 85)

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*Dumbles Rage-O-Meter trembles, threatening to reach the breaking point*

Behave. <.<

Yeah...there's also a footnote about witches and wizards being born, not made -- and while I'm guessing JKR was going for Force Sensitivity or something, it comes off eerily like Umbridge's words to Mrs. Cattermole in DEATHLY HALLOWS. (You know, the "she must have stolen the wand" douchequakery? That's what it sounds like)

And then Dumbledore goes on about Babbitty's technique: blah blah trees, wandmakers, Bowtruckles, the Cruciatus Curse...

Yeah, I shit you not:

"In Beedle's time, the Cruciatus Curse had not yet been made illegal by the Ministry of Magic, and could have produced precisely the sensation with which Babbity threatens the king." (86) Basically, sort of like an ax hitting his side.

*Sighs*

Look, I can understand Values Dissonance -- a little -- but considering DEATHLY HALLOWS again...yeah. :/ Nice to see the whole It's Okay If A Good Guy Does It approach to the Unforgivables is still intact. :P

>:(

Dumbles Rage-O-Meter: 11. *It explodes again*

*Hauls it off to maintenance to get it fixed...again*

Take heart, guys...one more and it's over. :)