The Tales of Beedle the Bard

There have been a lot of disappointed readers of this slim volume of fairy tales from the world of Harry Potter. However, this is much the result of those readers being uninformed. This book should be viewed as more akin to “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” as opposed to one of the Harry Potter novels. It is simply a glimpse into the literary myth of the characters’ world. They are sweet little stories – the whole collection is probably only an hours worth of reading.

Each story is accompanied by notes from Albus Dumbledore – whose witty tone still does not fail to amuse. Rowling herself adds footnotes to the piece, to allow muggle readers to understand Dumbledore’s notes. These are often as fascinating as the stories themselves. On a further connection, Hermione is credited with the translation of the stories from the original runes.

This is a bit like walking down memory lane, nothing more. No mentions of Harry, but this shouldn’t be a surprise.