The Pardoner’s Tale in Deathly Hallows

by Johnny

J.K. Rowling’s reference to “the Pardoner’s Tale” as the realworld myth or faerie tale basis for the articles known as the Deathly Hallows is interesting because of the obvious Christian references in Chaucer’s work, The Canterbury Tales. If the Pardoner’s Tale is a morality tale then the idea of JKR tapping into Chaucer implies that Harry Potter is a morality tale for the 21st century. JKR has always said that she never sets out to preach in her writing but that morals are definitely drawn. By reading Chaucer’s tale of the Pardoner, we can have a greater understanding of the moral behind the story of the three Deathly Hallows and its implications on Harry Potter’s actions towards the end of the last novel.

The Pardoner’s Tale starts off with a grotesque and hypocritical Pardoner, who sells indulgences to the faithful. He is portrayed as a charlatan, who peddles fake relics, and merely preaches, through stories, out of deceit. He is honest to say that:

Of avarice and of such cursedness
Is all my preaching, to make them generous
To give their pennies, and namely unto me.
For my intention is only to make a profit,
And not at all for correction of sin (400-404).

The Pardoner discusses greed, avarice, gluttony, lechery, and other sins for quite a bit before he tells his tale. The story begins with three rioters drinking in a tavern where they hear from a servant boy that someone was killed the previous evening. The boy identifies the murderer as “stealthy thief men call Death” (675) and offers this warning, a couple of lines later:

And, master, before you come in his presence,
It seems to me that it would be necessary
To beware of such an adversary.
Always be ready to meet him (680-683).

After hearing the tavern-keeper confirm the boy’s story, the three rioters make a vow to become brothers and go after Death to kill him. On the way they encounter an old man who tells them that they can find Death underneath a tree. When they find the tree, they find gold coins and excited about their newly discovered treasure, subsequently forget about Death. One of the rioters is sent to a nearby town to fetch food and drink while the other two guard the treasure. These two then conspire to kill the one sent to the town; the other rioter meanwhile buys some rat poison from an apothecary and poisons the wine. When he returns, the other two kill him and then drink the poisoned wine, dying as a result. The Pardoner emphasizes that the theme here Radix malorum est Cupiditas, which is Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 6.10, “Greed is the root of evils.”

In Hermione’s tattered, old copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, we find a similar tale, that of the Peverell brothers in The Tale of the Three Brothers. The story starts off with three brothers using magical means to cross a very dangerous river. Death appears and is enraged that these three outsmarted him so he decides to give them each a gift. Antioch, the eldest, asks for a wand that is unbeatable in battle; Cadmus, the middle, asks for the power to recall the dead so Death gives him a Resurrection Stone; and Ignotus, the youngest asks for a means to hide from Death so that he would not follow him and Death gives him his Invisibility Cloak.

Antioch equipped with the Elder Wand, goes after a man who wronged him and kills him with the wand. He then enters a bar where drunk, he boasts of his wand and its power. He is killed in the middle of the night and his wand is taken. Death claims him. Cadmus uses his stone to bring back his love that he was going to marry. The woman appears sad, cold, and distant so he kills himself so that he can join his love. Death claims him. Finally Ignotus evades Death all his life and in the twilight of his years hands his son his Invisibility Cloak and meets Death as a friend and walks with Death as equals.

The servant boy’s words (“Always be ready to meet him [Death]“) to the three brothers in Chaucer’s tale rings true for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. How does one face Death? In the Tale of the Three Brothers we see a desire to master Death but eventually the first two brothers were not able to accomplish this because of their misuse of their “Hallows” articles. Ignotus chose a wise gift (judging from Death’s unwillingness to part with it) and when he was ready, embraced Death on his own terms, as a friend, as an equal. We learn through Xenophilius Lovegood that wizards and witches went beyond this “morality tale” (as Hermione herself called it on page 414) and went on a Quest to find the three articles of the Deathly Hallows; whoever possessed them all would become the Master of Death. Albus Dumbledore, through the influence of his friend Gellert Grindelwald, was obsessed with the Quest, believing his ambitions of power would ultimately lead to the greater good. His mistake was no less similar to the three rioters who were seduced by greed. Dumbledore’s heart was in the Deathly Hallows, which led to ultimately the death of his sister, Ariana. It is no wonder that Dumbledore choose the words of Jesus in Matthew 6.21, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” for her tombstone. The Deathly Hallows becomes even more crucial to the story as Harry Potter is tempted to find them instead of concentrating on destroying Voldemort’s horcruxes:

But Harry’s imagination was racing ahead, far beyond Ron and Hermione’s

Three objects, or Hallows, which, if united, will make the possessor master of Death/Master/Conqueror/Vanquisher/ The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

And he saw himself, possessor of the Hallows, facing Voldemort, whose Horcruxes were no match. “Neither can live while the other survives.” Was this the answer? Hallows verses Horcruxes? Was there a way, after all, to ensure that he was the one who triumphed? If he were the master of the Deathly Hallows, would he be safe (429-430).

Harry’s desire to emerge from his final battle with Voldemort unscathed temporarily held sway over him. Hermione kept reminding him that he was getting “carried away,” “sidetracked”, and warned him to “forget the Deathly Hallows” (433). Even during the battle of Hogwarts when Harry was sprinting towards the Whomping Willow to kill Nagini and jets of spells were shooting past him, he was “half believing he could outdistance death itself” (650). It was only after Harry saw the flood of memories of Severus Snape and Dumbledore talking about his fate in “The Prince’s Tale” did he realize that he had to die in order to defeat Voldemort:

Finally, the truth. Lying with his face pressed into the dusty carpet of the office where he had once thought he was learning the secrets of victory, Harry understood at last that he was not supposed to survive. His job was to walk calmly into Death’s welcoming arms. (691).

Harry finally knew what he must do. His job wasn’t to save his life but to lose it in order to save the wizarding world. He made that choice by going to meet Voldemort, to ultimately meet Death. Dumbledore’s words to Harry at King’s Cross are poignant, “You are the true master of death, because the true master of death does not seek to run away from Death. He accepts that he must die, and understands that there are far, far worse things in the living world than dying” (720-721). I am reminded of what Jesus said in Matthew 10.39, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Before we learn that Dumbledore withheld any information on the Deathly Hallows because of his fear that Harry will fail where he had failed. However as Dumbledore said, Harry was the better man because of his choice to eschew safety and sacrifice himself. Later on after Voldemort was defeated, Harry made another choice, to return the Elder Wand to Dumbledore’s tomb and to not go after the Resurrection Stone, which dropped in the Forbidden Forest. Harry was the rightful possessor of the Deathly Hallows and decided to only keep the Invisibility Cloak. This shows that he went where Dumbledore and others failed to go.

Both Chaucer and JKR bring up the question of how we face Death in their respective works. Chaucer, through the wicked Pardoner, show that while the three rioters were trying to kill Death, they unknowingly found him when their greed made them kill each other. In Deathly Hallows, Antioch and Cadmus used their Hallows foolishly and met early deaths while Ignotus used the Cloak to hide from Death until he was ready to meet him as an old friend. Harry was tempted but he made a choice to face Death and sacrifice himself for others. We are reminded of Dumbledore’s words to Harry in the first novel that it is our choices that show us what we truly are. In the end we learn that love conquers all. JKR’s debt to Chaucer is telling and of course Deathly Hallows and the Pardoner’s Tale point backward to the one who suffered on our behalf and three days later, truly conquered Death. Our hope is the Resurrection: Christ’s and ours, and this hope allow us to say to Death, “Where is your sting?”