Monday 11 May 2020

DEATHLY HALLOWS & 'THE TALE OF THE THREE BROTHERS'

The Deathly Hallows by Xenophilius Lovegood
Today, The Stones and The Grandma have listened to The Tale of the Three Brothers, a wonderful story explained by Xenophilius Lovegood.

This tale is included in The Tales of Beedle the Bard, an amazing book that the family recommends. The Tale of the Three Brothers talks about three brothers and The Deathly Hallows, the magical objects searched by Harry Potter and his friends.

Before listening to this exciting tale, The Grandma has offered her family a new Cambridge Key English Test A2 Example.
   
  

The Deathly Hallows are three highly powerful magical objects supposedly created by Death and given to each of three brothers in the Peverell family

They consisted of the Elder Wand, an immensely powerful wand that was considered unbeatable; the Resurrection Stone, a stone which could summon the spirits of the dead, and the Cloak of Invisibility, which, as its name suggests, renders the user completely invisible.

According to the story, both Antioch Peverell (owner of the Wand) and Cadmus Peverell (owner of the Stone) came to bad ends. However, Ignotus Peverell's wisdom in requesting the Cloak was rewarded.

According to legend, he who possesses these three artefacts would become the Master of Death. Albus Dumbledore told Harry Potter that he and another wizard, Gellert Grindelwald took this to mean that the uniter of the Deathly Hallows would be invincible.

The Tale of the Three Brothers
The story of the Deathly Hallows was originally told by Beedle the Bard and subsequently passed from family to family as a wizard fairytale. 

Few wizards ever realised that the Deathly Hallows were genuine items.

Most people thought that there were things that Beedle had made up to entertain young wizards and witches.

No one but Harry Potter has been known to have been in command of all three at the same time, though he was never in possession of them all at once, he dropped the stone in the Forbidden Forest just before gaining the wand that he had won the alliance of in a previous scuffle at Malfoy Manor.

Albus Dumbledore had also possessed all three, but not all at once, much like Harry Potter, as he was never the true owner of the Cloak.

In The Tales of Beedle the Bard, the author presented his own version of the origin of the Hallows. Hundreds of years ago, the three Peverell brothers were travelling at twilight, and reached a river too dangerous to cross.

The three brothers, being trained in the magical arts, simply waved their wands and created a bridge across the river. They were then stopped by Death himself, who felt cheated that they had gotten across the river, as most travellers drowned in it.

More information: Wizarding World

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a collection of stories written for young wizards and witches by Beedle the Bard. It was published by Chelf Press and had original illustrations by Luxo Karuzos.

They were popular bedtime stories for centuries, with the result being that The Wizard and the Hopping Pot and The Fountain of Fair Fortune were as familiar to many of the students at Hogwarts, as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty are to various Muggle children.

Death, a cunning liar, then pretended to congratulate them on being clever enough to evade him, and offered each of them a powerful magical item. 

Xenophilius explains The Deathly Hallows
The first brother, Antioch Peverell, wished to have the most powerful wand out of his combative personality; Death broke a branch off a nearby elder tree and created for him the Elder Wand, a wand more powerful than any other in existence.

The second brother, Cadmus Peverell, out of arrogance, wanted to humiliate Death even further, and wished to have the power to bring loved ones from the grave; Death then took a stone from the riverbed and created for him the Resurrection Stone, a stone capable of bringing the dead back to the living world.

The third brother, Ignotus Peverell, who was a humble man, did not trust Death and asked to go on from the river without being followed by Death; Death then gave him his own Cloak of Invisibility, an invisibility cloak that never lost its power through curses or age. In time, the brothers went their separate ways.

The three legendary objects, (the cloak, the wand and the stone) together make up the Deathly Hallows.

More information: Wizarding World

So the oldest brother, who was a combative man,
asked for a wand more powerful than any in existence:
a wand that must always win duels for its owner,
a wand worthy of a wizard who had conquered Death!"

Antioch Peverell receiving the Elder Wand

Antioch
Peverell travelled to a wizarding village where he killed the man he once duelled with, he then boasted of the power of the Elder Wand, that it was unbeatable and in his possession, invoking envy amongst the many wanting to possess it for themselves. His throat was slit in his sleep by another wizard who stole the Elder Wand.

Then the second brother, who was an arrogant man,
decided that he wanted to humiliate Death still further,
and asked for the power to recall others from Death. 

Cadmus Peverell receiving the Resurrection Stone

Cadmus
Peverell travelled back home and used the Resurrection Stone to bring back the woman he loved, but was dismayed to find that it was only a pale imitation of her: the dead did not belong in the living world and could not truly be brought back.

He found that she was cold, lifeless, and miserable in the land of the living, nothing like she used to be. In the end Cadmus Peverell committed suicide by hanging himself so he could truly join her.

It was only when he had attained great age
that the youngest brother finally
took off the Cloak of Invisibility and gave it to his son.

Ignotus Peverell passing on the cloak

Ignotus
Peverell used the cloak to remain hidden from Death for a long time. When he was an old man, he passed the cloak onto his son, greeted Death as an old friend, and went with him to the next world.

The cloak continued to be passed down through the descendants of the Peverells, although the name became extinct in the male line. The wand passed from wizard to wizard, nearly always by the murder of its previous owner. The wand, during its passing from wizard to wizard, has been called The Death Stick and the Wand of Destiny.

More information: Wizarding World

On an interesting note, no witch is ever stated to have held possession of the wand. The stone was also passed down through the Peverells' descendants.

It eventually ended up in the possession of the House of Gaunt, and was later stolen by Tom Riddle, neither Tom nor Marvolo Gaunt were aware of the powers of the stone, nor that it was a Hallow.

The Tale of the Three Brothers
Marvolo was solely concerned with the noble origins of the stone, made into a ring, and thought that the Hallows symbol on it was the family coat of arms.

Lord Voldemort could not have been aware of the stone's true origin either, as he transformed the stone into a Horcrux.

Overtime, the legend of the Deathly Hallows was dismissed by most as a mere fairy tale, and the few who desired to reunite all three misunderstood the title Master of Death is a form of immortality. The quest for these fabled items were considered a lure for fools, and many have died in their quest for them.

The Hallows played a particularly important role in the lives of Albus Dumbledore, Gellert Grindelwald, and Harry Potter.

Harry Potter is the only known Master of Death, having gathered and mastered all three Hallows and most importantly, accepted death, as the true master understands that death is inevitable and that there are worse things in life than dying. He did not unite all three of them physically at the same moment, as he possessed no more than two at the same time.

Albus Dumbledore had also gathered all three, though physically owning no more than two at the same time, and did not master the usage of the Cloak, but he could qualify for the title of the Master of Death as he fulfilled the most important criteria needed by accepting death. With the Stone lost, it is unlikely there will ever be another to hold the title.



"The Elder Wand,"
he said, and he drew a straight vertical line on the parchment.
"The Resurrection Stone,"
he said, and he added a circle on top of the line.
"The Cloak of Invisibility,"
he finished, enclosing both line and circle in a triangle,
to make the symbol that so intrigued Hermione.
"Together," he said, "the Deathly Hallows".

Xenophilius Lovegood

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