The Harry Potter Series
With the recent release of "The Cursed Child", a new play set within the Harry Potter universe, and "Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them", a film about a magical zoologist in the series, the world of Harry Potter is being talked about everywhere once again: J.K. Rowling created a true world of magic when she first wrote "The Philosopher's Stone", and today that world spans ever wider.
For those who have never read the series or watched the films: Harry Potter's parents are murdered by a dark wizard when he's a baby, and although he's raised by his Muggle (non-magical) aunt and uncle, at eleven years old he receives an invitation to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The initial series of books covers his adventures at Hogwarts, and his eventual defeat of the man who killed his parents: it's a fantasy series, but it's also about growing up, and about the polarizing differences between some people and others.
J.K. Rowling, who studied classics at university, incorporates all manner of historical and mythological references into the series, and the world itself is bright and colourful, featuring all manner of people, monsters, magic and the like: throughout the series, we see dragons, phoenixes, centaurs, and even a diviner named Sybil. It's no wonder that the series has captured so many hearts, but it had to struggle to get its way into the world.
J.K. Rowling's manuscript of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was rejected by no fewer than twelve publishers before Bloomsbury picked it up – they paid Rowling a £1500 advance, and the initial printing of "Philosopher's Stone" was 500 copies, with 300 of these copies going to libraries.
The series went on to sell more than 450 million copies worldwide, in numerous languages - and those first few copies of "The Philosopher's Stone" now sell for between £25,000 and £40,000. Many of those publishers are no doubt feeling significant regret.
Despite being such a relatively contemporary series, the Harry Potter books are very carefully collected by many - given the wide range of available printings, with different illustrators, covers, languages and formats to choose from, there seems to be no end to the number of Harry Potter books available.
Different printings of certain books seem wildly different in their covers.
And outside of the bulk of the series, covering the seven books of Harry's life, more followed. "Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them" and "Quidditch Through The Ages" were canonical textbooks within the series, but for Comic Relief, Rowling created real, paperback versions of the books. The former explains the different magical beasts in the world of Harry Potter - later becoming the inspiration for the new film of the same name - and "Quidditch Through The Ages" explored the fantasy sport of Quidditch, which is played on broomsticks and often involves heinous injuries for its players.
Perhaps most exciting of J.K. Rowling's extra additions to the series is "The Tales of Beedle The Bard". Within Harry Potter's universe, Rowling makes clear that wizards, separated societally from the non-magical, have different fairy tales – and five of these are laid out in the book.
Personally, I adore the Harry Potter series – my favourite books being "Prisoner of Azkaban" and "The Goblet of Fire" – but there's something sublimely chilling and especially exciting about the stories in the "Beedle The Bard" book. They're fairy tales where magic isn't a part of the fantasy, and they carry lessons for young wizards just as our fairy tales carry lessons for the children who hear them.
Even without interest in the rest of the Harry Potter series, the "Tales of Beedle the Bard" (left) will fascinate any fan of folk tales, myths and fairy tales.
The third story in the five story collection is that of the "Warlock's Hairy Heart": a handsome young wizard thinks his friends are wasting their lives by enjoying food and games, and getting married to each other. Considering such fun to be weakness, he turns to dark magic, and he becomes cold to everything.
Over time, the warlock's parents die, leaving him alone to rule their castle, and he does not mourn them. His friends settle and have children, and he finds the antics of the young children and their parents distasteful. Women do their best to woo him, fascinated by his dark air, but he is entirely untouched by their interest.
He feels nothing at all, until he hears two of his lackeys talking about him - they express pity that he could amass so much wealth, and own a castle, but not be able to attract a wife.
Angry and prideful, he resolves to find a woman to marry, and he romances a maiden visiting the neighbourhood.
When she visits his home for a great feast held in her honour, she says, “I would be delighted by your attentions, if only I thought you had a heart!”
He shows her his heart.
Having turned to the Dark Arts long ago, he drew his heart from his chest: when the maiden sees it in its enchanted crystal casket, it's beating, but has never known music, or beauty, or any feeling at all: the heart is shrunken and covered in long black hair (above right).
Beseeching him to return his heart to his chest, he replaces his heart in his chest, but the sudden sensation of feeling after so many years, the warlock is driven mad by his hairy heart, and he murders the maiden in his madness. The other guests of the feast find him attempting to draw the heart from his chest again, but it is too strong, and it will not relinquish its hold on his senses.
Unable to stand it, the warlock hacks it from his chest with a silver dagger, and for a mere moment, he is triumphant, holding his twisted, gnarled and malnourished heart in his hand. With that, he dies (left).
There's something in the Harry Potter series for absolutely everyone, and it's a beautiful series to enjoy. I hope that in the future, we see many more additions to the world and its timelines - and, if we're lucky, perhaps some more fairy tales.
Contributed by Johannes
(Published on 15th Jul 2016 )
