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New Poll: Favorite Beedle Tale

by Travis Prinzi on December 31, 2008

Check the sidebar to the right and vote in our new poll! It’s been a few weeks since Beedle came out. What’s your favorite of the five stories?

Vote in the sidebar, and tell us why that story’s your favorite in the comments here.

{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }

John Granger December 31, 2008 at 12:24 am: I don’t see a poll so I’ll come back and vote later. It’s a toss-up for me between the Twilight Zone gothic piece, ‘Hairy Heart,’ and the postmodern and Christian fairy tale, ‘Fountain of Fair Fortune.’ If forced to choose, I think the complexity and layered quality of ‘Fountain,’ though it has little of the in-your-face shock value of ‘Heart,’ make it the best of the set. The symbols on the Fountain she drew alone are a decent day’s work to unpack, not to even start with the names…
revgeorge December 31, 2008 at 12:40 am: Didn’t see the poll earlier but I see it now. I picked the Three Brothers, mainly because of it’s huge role in the story of HP plus the fact that it, in a sense, is the story of HP.

But Fountain of Fair Fortune comes in a close second.
Red Rocker December 31, 2008 at 12:42 am: I picked Fountain, and I think I’ve already explained why, but don’t mind repeating myself. I like the way each protagonist gets her (or his) heart’s desire through her (or his) own efforts, rather than depending on the “magical” fountain. Two lessons there. One is that in life, it’s often the getting there that’s more important than the final destination (summarized in the saying: life is what happens when you’re busy making plans). The other is the same lesson Dumbledore tried to impress upon Harry about the prophecy. There was no particular compulsion to the prophecy. In fact, it may have been as empty as all the rest of Trelawney’s prophecies. The important point was that Voldemort believed it, and the actions he took in order to prevent it helped bring about the outcome he dreaded. Sort of like Oedipus’ dad. Just so the protagonists of Fountain brought about the ends they desired by believing that the Fountain could give them what they desired.

Part of me really appreciates the message of empowerment of the moral. And part of me feels like a child who’s just discovered there is no Santa Claus. Because what I hear JKR saying is that yes, there is magic, but magic is not the most important thing. What you believe and want and work towards are more important.

Well, ok.
Eeyore December 31, 2008 at 2:19 pm: I picked the Fountain of Fair Fortune. But I really like all of them, well, except the Hairy Heart, which is just a bit too grim for me.
Brent December 31, 2008 at 4:42 pm: This was hard for me because I liked most of the Tales fairly close except for being underwhelmed by the Hopping Pot. I picked Babbity Rabbity and Her Cackling Stump. I think I was the most entertained by that story when I read the book. Something about the king getting sucked in by the swindler spoke to me in this age when it seems to happen to the world around us. Maybe, I missed the point. I really liked Fountain, Hairy Heart, and the Three Brothers for all of the reasons everyone else mentioned about.
John Granger January 1, 2009 at 10:22 pm: True confession: I don’t think of ‘Tale of the Three Brothers’ as a Beedle story. It’s so much part and summary of Deathly Hallows, with Voldemort the brother holding the Death Stick, Dumbledore dying because of the Resurrection Stone, and Harry, Mr. Invisible Eye/I conquering death (if you will), that I didn’t consider it as part of the poll.

Anyone want to argue that Volde, Dumby, and Harry are a second and more important body, mind, Spirit triptych cued to relations with death? Just a thought…
David January 3, 2009 at 6:52 pm: I picked ‘Fountain of Fair Fortune’ as well. I really liked the theme of how the characters in the story found that what the” fountain” was proclaimed to to do for ones desires or needs, they fulfilled themselves by helping each other along the path to a fountain that had no magical power in itself. The “magic” was within each of them looking to the needs of the other first. Very JKR ‘ish.

Like John Granger, I was reading the ‘Tale of the Three Brothers’ thinking I had “Deathly Hallows’ in my hand at the same time. That one would have to be a close second though
Brent January 6, 2009 at 12:04 am: John, I’ll push back if you still want to discuss. Do you think that Voldy, Dumbly, and Harry are the “death triptych” because Voldy and DD were both died as a result of their interactions obtaining the elder wand and the resurrection stone, respectively? And Harry always had the cloak.

Are you also implying that that trio is more important to the story than the body, mind and soul of Ron, Hermione, and Harry?

I was also listening to a lecture on Plato’s Republic today and found the Ring of Gyges interesting since it had the same effect as Harry’s cloak. Plato seemed to think that it would corrupt anyone who had the power to be invisible because they would have the temptation to steal whatever they want. It was interesting that Xeno made the comment that in DH that the owner of the cloak would be rich for the reason that Plato described (I think I need to give credit to Greg at HPProgs because I think he made that point in one of their podcasts). It makes it interesting that the Cloak would be the object that you’re suppose to pick in the Tale of the Three Brothers, and only if you’re a more moral person that most.