The Great Skirazi reads The Wizard and the Hopping Pot by Beedle the Bard
The story of Beedle the Bard gave many Potter fans something to love and we’re looking into the tale that led to the Deathly Hallows!
Did you grow up reading the Muggle-hating story, The Wizard and the Hopping Pot? If you have fond memories of an unoffending wizard being persecuted by Muggles, then you have never read the original story by Beedle the Bard.
In his notes to The Wizard and the Hopping Pot, Dumbledore tells us that we are lucky to have the original at all, because it is so pro-Muggle that generations of people in the magical community have grown up with either an anti-Muggle rewriting, or a nauseating, child-safe one.
In the fifteenth century, when Beedle wrote this tale, anti-magic among Muggles was rising, and magical parents didn’t want their children to learn a story that told children it was kind to help Muggles with magic.
We can see how parents wouldn’t want to put themselves and their own children in danger with a story that encourages them to offer magic to their fearful Muggle neighbors. Parents could recognize the danger without necessarily being anti-Muggle. For Beedle to have written this tale at that time shows what an empathetic person he was.
The Wizard and the Hopping Pot
As we all know from History of Magic classes, after centuries of Muggle hysteria the magical community finally had enough. The voluntary and wise choice of hiding magic became law with the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy in 1689. But forced hiding created an even more precarious fate for Beedle’s altruistic tale. Pureblood and anti-Muggle tendencies became a feeling common across the magical community.
Brutus Malfoy, ancestor of our own Most Beautiful Death Eater, Lucius Malfoy, used his magazine, Warlocks at War, to push prejudice against any witch or wizard who liked Muggles. Brutus made his case with the typical, magic-proud condescension of the Malfoys, arguing that a magical person’s fondness for Muggles was based in their own weak magic, which would look powerful next to non-magical people. Character assassination existed even then.
Before listening to Beedle the Bard’s The Wizard and the Hopping Pot, you should be aware that it ignores grown up sensitivities, no matter what they may be. The bouncy pot is filled with messy stuff children love: bodily fluids, smelly food, slimy critters, flinging them at a selfish wizard. Kids find it hilarious that the pot uses such disgusting chaos to teach compassion.
If you would rather your kids not be subjected to such things, please just ignore this story, instead of trying to rewrite it as Beatrix Bloxam did in the 19th century. You’ve never heard of Beatrix’s rewritten Hopping Pot? That’s because “the pure minds of our little angels” generally object to sugary morality tales that teach them to not be “grumpy-wumpkins”.
Next: Jack Thorne is taking on Star Wars and we’re a little angry
Take Dumbledore’s advice – stick to the original story, read here beautifully by the Great Skirazi.