Tale of the Three Brothers

Here’s the great irony of Dumbledore’s commentary on “The Tale of the Three Brothers” – The man who knows the dangers of temptation to power, particularly the temptation of deathlessness, used his authority as a well-respected, even revered, member of the Wizarding community to convince the Wizarding World that the three Deathly Hallows have no basis in reality.

This last bit of commentary is not Dumbledore explaining the real dangers of the Hallows and the need to abandoned them, destroy them, etc.  It is Dumbledore burying the story further in the aura of legend and fable – and in doing so, attempting to accomplish, by the deception, the philosophical and moral point of the story for the entire Wizarding World.

Here are Dumbledore’s attempts at burying the Hallows legend:

• The Cloak: Dumbledore writes, “Throughout all the centuries … nobody has ever claimed to have found Death’s Cloak” (p. 97). This is likely true, in and of itself. We can’t even be sure James knew what the Cloak really was. Having written this commentary just 18 months prior to his death, Dumbledore had both possessed the cloak and knew its present location. What this means, in conjunction with his gift of the Beedle tales to Hermione, is: he trusted Harry to keep the secret.
• The Stone: He simply states that it’s never been found. Now, 18 months before his death, this was probably still true in Dumbledore’s mind. If he discovered the stone in the summer between Harry’s 5th and 6th year, then he wrote this line approximately 6-8 months before he discovered the Stone. His commentary then reverts to the lesson of Babbitty Rabbitty (no magic can raise the dead) and the fifth tale’s point that the Stone was Death’s trick to lure the second brother to his death. We can assume, of course, Dumbledore did believe the Stone existed.
• The Elder Wand: More of Dumbledore’s clever trickery here. He is obviously the wand’s possessor at this point, but he simply recounts the “bloody trail of the Elder Wand,” seemingly dismissive of the idea that there is one true Elder Wand passing from hand to hand (“the so-called history of the Elder Wand,” p. 106).
• On the whole, he reinforces his lesson to Harry from Book 1: That humans choose precisely the wrong things for themselves. Very few are those as wise as the brother who chose the Invisibility Cloak.

The final line is chilling: “Even I, Albus Dumbledore, would find it easiest to refuse the Invisibility Cloak; which only goes to show that, clever as I am, I remain just as big a fool as anyone else” (p. 107).

So Dumbledore, with knowledge of the Hallows in hand, chooses to use his authoritative voice in the Wizarding World to attempt to put a stop to any future seeking of the Hallows. More than that, he sought to protect the Wizarding World not only from themselves, but from wizards like himself.

Now, the question to be debated is: Was Albus Dumbledore right to do so?

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