“The Warlock’s Hairy Heart” is a tale of dehumanization because of unwillingness to love, for fear of being hurt. Fear vs. Love the overriding theme of the Harry Potter stories.
I love it when I come across a comment written by someone decades or hundreds of years ago that perfectly describes a newer story I’ve recently read. In this case, C.S. Lewis provides insightful commentary on this dark Beedle tale:
Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. (The Four Loves)
This is not the first time Lewis has provided insight into our Potter stories.
“The Warlock’s Hairy Heart.” Now that’s one freaky story. The heart of a man who does not want to love is locked away, and over time, loses its humanity and because the heart of a beast.
The darker elements of fairy stories are the things that Mrs. Bloxam and the Nice People don’t think children should hear, because they might get scared. The monsters become pink fluffy bunny rabbits and apples filled with dark magic become nice old ladies’ apple pies.
An excellent article by Melanie McDonagh appeared in The Telegraph a couple days ago. The whole article well worth your full attention, but mine zeroed in on an interesting paragraph:
One ground-breaking book on the Brothers Grimm, The Owl, the Raven and the Dove, by a Jesuit scholar, G Ronald Murphy, makes clear the extent to which the brothers infused the old pagan tales with their own religious sensibility – they were humane Calvinists.
I’ve heard it said that Rowling must be a Calvinist for many reasons – her being a Presbyterian, though she’s not a Calvinistic one; the seemingly fated and even Deus ex machina moments in the series; Voldemort’s apparent predestined path of evil, etc. [click to continue…]
- John Granger in Touchstone – Book Binders: What I Learned About Great Books & Harry Potter. This is an interesting read, and Mr. Granger has much more about this coming in his book, Harry Potter’s Bookshelf, available for pre-order.
- You’ll also want to stop over at Hogwarts Professor, where John’s been on a roll with posts the past couple days, including a big one on Dumbledore’s commentary in Beedle, and an argument – and effective one, in my estimation – that “The Fountain of Fair Fortune” is about gay marriage.
- HP Progs Episode #95 is on Beedle. I haven’t had a chance to listen yet, because my weekend’s been busy, and I’ve been occupied with this recording of John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Once I’m driving back and forth to work on Tuesday, I’ll finally have a chance to listen.
- Yesterday, Thinking Matters, an online Christian publication in New Zealand, ran a lengthy article on Potter – Muggle Matters: Is Harry Potter a doorway to the occult? I have to agree with the Hogwarts Professor in saying that it’s nice to see that, on the whole, the “Harry Potter is evil” battle is over.
- I’m out of town today – traveling to Schenectady for Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb of God concert. After we get back tomorrow, and in between trying to get all my final papers in, I’ll be writing more about Beedle and fairy tales in the coming few weeks.
The seven Hog’s Head Beedle the Bard discussion links:
For the record, Aberforth’s not jumping in on this discussion. He’s over in the corner grumbling about some goat story that didn’t get included.
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