The Pardoner, the Beedle and the Three Brothers., What links them? |
 Nov 30 2008, 05:14 AM
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Madame Pince's House Elf  Posts: 4,712 Joined: 5:46pm January 28, 2005 Location: In HP Book Club 5, awaiting Deathly Hallow's release.  |
THE PARDONER, THE BEEDLE AND THE THREE BROTHERS Geoffrey Chaucer will always remain one of the earliest and most influential English writers in literary history. His Canterbury tales was one of the first works written in English as we know it, and also one of the first to be disseminated by William Caxton's newfangled printing press, during the upheavals of the late 1400's. In her new publication, The tales of Beedle the Bard, it is easy to see how Joanne Kathleen Rowling has added to that formidable tradition. One of Chaucer's most striking tales is that of the Pardoner. This less than noble character was in the habit of selling indulgences, sort of get out of Hell cards. The Pardoner's tale tells of 3 young men who happen by a stash of gold, a gift from Death, and relates how they sent one of their number to the village for the means to celebrate, whilst plotting his death so that the horde of gold need only be shared among two of them. But the third young man poisons the food he brought, so that the two men who killed him were in turn killed. A Scribbulus Essay compares this Canterbury tale with that of the Three Brothers, which features in both Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Remember that in the Tale of the Three Brothers, Death gives each of the three brothers a gift of their choosing. The two elder brothers received the Elder Wand and the Resurrection Stone, but Death was soon able to claim these two brothers as his own. Whereas the third brother, who was given the Invisibility Cloak, got to live a natural life. What similarities do you see in these two tales? And how do these tales contrast? The Pardoner considered that Greed was the foundation of all other sins. What sin do you think that Beedle the Bard considered the foundation of all other sins? Unlike the Beedle's other tales, the Tale of the Three Brothers is well known to readers of the Harry Potter series. What impact did this tale have on you? Why were wizards like Hermione, even Xenophilius Lovegood, unable to accept all the realities of the Tale of the Three brothers? This post has been edited by WaggaWaggaWerewolf: Dec 3 2008, 04:15 PM --------------------  Check out Book Number 5 POA edition. |
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