The second story in The Tales of Beedle the Bard is described by Dumbledore as “a perennial favorite” (p. 35) and “probably the most popular” of the Beedle stories (p. 39). After an amusing story about an attempted theatrical version of the play to celebrate Christmas at Hogwarts (who ever thought we’d get backstory on Silvanus Kettleburn?), Dumbledore explains that this story has been challenged in the school library by Lucius Malfoy, because it contains a Muggle-Witch union. This was the original source of Dumbledore’s longstanding conflict with Lucius, and the impetus for the latter’s frequent attempts to oust the former from his position as Headmaster. Dumbledore’s response to Lucius is witty, yet firm – and classic Dumbledore.
Two points in particular:
- This is the first tale that demonstrates something of a “feminist” story-telling on the part of Beedle. There are three heroines and one hero. The “hero” is a weak and pathetic Muggle man until the very end, but the three witches actively pursue the fountain to remedy their problems, dragging the weak knight along with them. In the end, all three witches solve their own problems apart from the fountain, and the man is deluded into thinking the fountain – which really has no magical properties at all – has cured him of his cowardly, pathetic nature.
- Despite the story’s telling of the strength of three women and the weakness of one man, the conflict over this tale is about the Muggle marrying the witch. I wonder what this says about the conversations about social equity happening in the Wizarding World. Through the stories, we got very little hint of a battle against sexism (apart from Hermione’s insistence that the Half-Blood Prince could be a female – and Hermione may have brought her fighting feminist spirit with her from the Muggle world). The “race” issue remains the dominant one in the Wizarding World. Has the issue of gender equality hardly be raised? Does it need to be, based on what we know of the Wizarding World? What would that look like?
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I think you’re being too hard on Sir Luckless, Travis. Aside from not being a wizard, and not being too skilled at “jousting or duelling with swords nor anything that distinguishes the non-magical man”, he’s a pretty good guy. In fact, he’s quite a liberated man: he recognizes the women are more powerful than he is, and respects them for it rather then becoming angry or bitter or vindictive; he does his best during the Quest (tries to dismember the Worm; gives up all his coin) and is generally very chivalrous. In fact, he is recognized as a man worthy of the hand and heart of a powerful woman (who in her turn recognizes that the greatest happiness is being well-rid of her cruel and faithless ex). Sounds a bit autobiographical to me.
All very fair points! Yes, I think I was being too hard on the man.
If there was a tired part of the book, it was Rowling unfurling the Betty-Friedan banner. Yawn… Can you say “SPEW”?
But, to sound like a broken record, how about that White Worm? Right out of Bram Stoker’s last novel, ‘Lair of the White Worm.’ Gothic to the heights.
Like the ‘other’ experience Travis notes even wizard fairy tales have to have in not being ‘real-world magic’ (!), it seems Rowling feels obliged to throw down a Gothic marker in each tale. The horror marker here is the White Worm; the knight and damsels on a quest, another.
We could start a game: ‘Name That Gothic Cliche!’ They’re everywhere.
Rowling loves the dark elements of the old Grimm tales, and she thinks it’s silly and underestimating of children to remove the horror elements. Hence, the “Gothic markers”!
I’m not sure this tale is a Rowling SPEW-moment, though I’ll think about it some more. I think the tale is fairly simple and unpretentious. Women are the key players, and they’re strong women. I’ll read the story to my daughter lots of times. And I think Red Rocker’s corrective to my misreading of the knight levels out any overbearing imbalance.
John, you just have gothic on the brain!
Anyway, I haven’t written anything on this tale yet but it was one of my favorites. I didn’t find it overtly feminist. At least not in the bad sort of feminism. I thought JKR’s introduction to the tales discussing this tale & the warlock with the hairy heart to be a bit pushy. Best to leave the tales to talk for themselves. An introduction by her was really, in a sense, unnecessary. Let us read the tales first & draw meaning from them, rather than prejudicing us on them, & then let us read Dumbledore’s commentary afterwards. Her introduction was really like an artist telling us how to view her art. A bit annoying really.
As for Sir Luckless, well, he’s the epitome of a true knight, even before he enters the fountain & even though he’s described as luckless & not skilled at most knightly things. But as we look at all the obstacles they face he is the first one to act. And despite his lack of skill he acts bravely, boldly, generously, & humbly. The true qualities of a knight. All these make him worthy of Amata & not his bathing in the fountain. The fountain for Sir Luckless is like the medal of courage the Wizard of Oz gives the cowardly lion, who really isn’t cowardly at all but labors under the delusion that he is but ends up doing the brave & bold thing. Sir Luckless is a true knight & just needs a little encouragement to realize the reality that already exists. The fountain provides this.
Anybody else notice the Deathly Hallows symbol on the drawing of the fountain? I wonder what those other three symbols mean.
Could Sir Luckless, “a dismal-looking knight” who owns a “bone-thin horse,” be a reference to Don Quixote?
miles365, I noticed them too & hadn’t heard too many people mention them or examine them except for Greg over at HP Progs. The bottom symbol is the deathly hallows, the next one up seems to be the all seeing eye, the third up is the Greek letter “omega,” the last letter in the Greek alphabet, & I can’t figure out what the top one is. There also appears to be some writing on the various edges of the fountain but it’ll take better eyes than mine to figure out if it says anything.
At first glance, I thought the top symbol was a fish, especially since in the J.K. Rowling documentary, there was footage of her signing books for fans with a ichthys sign (or Jesus fish, a secret sign used by early Christians to denote that they were Christians) next to her signature. However with more digging, I found that it’s a symbol for platinum, combining the sign for gold and silver. There are also some symbols on the rim of the bowls above the prominent symbols. Above the platinum sign is the symbol for the male gender; above the Greek letter Omega is the number 4 or more accurately the symbol for the planet Jupiter or relating to platinum, the symbol for electrum, an alloy of silver and gold (alchemical reference, perhaps?); above the All Seeing Eye is the symbol for the female gender; and finally above the Deathly Hallows symbol is a “th”, which is the symbol for Saturn, a planet usually associated with time and death (C.S. Lewis liked Saturn the least of all the planets: for more details consult chapter nine of Planet Narnia by Michael Ward), which given its placement above the Deathly Hallows symbol is telling.
Okay, I get it, I have to read Planet Narnia!
Thanks for tracking all that stuff down, Johnny. Hopefully it will stir John to greater heights of analogical examinations.
Hmm, Saturn placed above the Hallows. From the site you referenced, “He [Saturn] seems to have been portrayed as an old man with a sickle and a pruning knife in his hands. It is probably from that way to portray Saturn we have our image of personified Death, the old man with a sickle.” That makes sense. I’m still not sure how to connect Saturn to Father Christmas as the referenced article does
And Jupiter. From the referenced article, “The key word for ‘4′ as a symbol for psychological functions is expansion. Jupiter also represents the establishment, the society, institutionalized religion, authorities, and enlightened government. It also stands for empathy and philanthropy. When used in psychological astrology Jupiter indicates the ability to understand and adapt to the established social structure and the desire to expand in knowledge, for instance, via studies and travelling.”
Still not sure what to make of that. For Lewis Jupiter represents ‘winter past & sin’s forgiven.’ At least, that’s all I remember from Planet Narnia right now. Anything that indicates that JKR may have read Ward’s book?
Johnny,
All that talk about platinum, gold, silver, electrum makes me think of all the treasure I hauled out of the lair of a dragon in a D&D game.
If my eyes (and my reading glasses) serve me well, I can see six out of seven symbols of the classical planets in ancient astrology. On the edges of the bowls from bottom to top: Saturn, Mercury, Jupiter and Mars; on the side of the topmost bowl: Moon and Sun (which were considered to be planets in the Middle Ages). The only symbol I could not detect is Venus. Maybe JKR deliberately omitted it because it is also the emblem of feminism and she thought there was already enough women power in the story. Or she didn’t bother to complete the set, just as she didn’t add an alpha to the omega. Or she merely forgot it. We know she is not especially fond of astrology.
What do we make of the snake / dragon? C.G. Jung might have seen it as rising Kundalini energy symbolizing the process of individuation. Freud, however, would probably have interpreted an illustration of an erect snake quite differently. Sir Luckless hopefully benefited from his bath in every respect.
I have to say it.
The Fountain of Fair Fortune is really the story of how Sir Luckless got lucky?
Matthew, I never played D&D, and all this talk of treasure reminds me that I need to read The Hobbit again. I’ve been meaning to for quite some time.
revgeorge, I’m not sure about the connection between Saturn and Father Christmas. It might have been, but the jovial nature of Father Christmas is mostly a Jupiter connection than anything else. Of course that is why C.S. Lewis featured Father Christmas in his Jupiter Narnian novel (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe). I’m not sure if JKR read Planet Narnia although Rena’s comment is interesting.
Rena, I agree, JKR did use all the planets in medieval astrology. The Platinum symbol combines the symbols for the moon and sun; and the male sign is also the symbol for Mars, while I incorrectly labeled Mercury as a feminine symbol, although Mercury (or Hermes) is really double-sexed, a hermaphrodite. Venus could be on there as well, represented by the All Seeing Eye. I found the story of Cupid and Pysche where Psyche thinks to herself, “In what solitude can I hide myself from the all-seeing eye of Venus?” It’s probably a stretch, but all the planets could be represented here.
Going back to what you wrote revgeorge, John Granger does need to stop by and offer his take on anything we can gleam from the possible alchemical signs in the picture.
Red Rocker, brilliant.
You called?
Check out the chart in Burckhardt’s Alchemy that spells out the correspondences between the seven planets and seven metals (also available in transit via Lewis’ Discarded Image). I’m not going to break this down now, but I’d re-visit the platinum tag; the conjunction of sun and moom, gold and silver, is the resolution of contraries, geometrical origin or point, and metaphysical arche or first principle, not just a valuable metal.
I think someone over at HP Progs indicated the symbol that seemed to be the letter ‘omega,’ can also be the symbol for Libra the constellation. So maybe more of an astrological connection rather than biblical?
As for the Saturn & Father Christmas connection, that’s what the article you linked to, Johnny, put forward. I couldn’t quite see the connection, though.
I put up a post on the esoteric meaning of the Fountain of Fair Fortune over at HogPro lest I derail or redirect this thread’s conversation.
revgeorge, sorry for not making myself clear. I know what the article said, but like you, I wasn’t sure of the Saturn connection to Father Christmas, especially in light of what C.S. Lewis’ views on Jupiter and Saturn and of course Michael Ward’s book.
John, thanks for posting the link. Heading over now to read it.