Hogwarts Library: Fantastic
Beasts & Where to Find Them; Quidditch Through the Ages; The Tales of
Beedle the Bard. By J.K. Rowling. Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic. $38.99.
The new editions of three
ancillary books in the Harry Potter canon, nicely transformed from their
original small paperback format to a larger and more-elegant hardcover
appearance and placed within a library-style cardboard slipcase, offer fans of
J.K. Rowling’s books a new chance to appreciate the world-creating that has helped
make her tales so wildly popular. One way Rowling went beyond traditional
fantasy-adventure stories was by suggesting the sorts of things that students
of magic might study at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry – and then
producing some of the actual books that the students might have used in their
classes. That is what these three slim volumes are. In addition, Rowling wove
the “study” books into the fabric of the Harry Potter tales by, for example,
having The Tales of Beedle the Bard (“translated
by Hermione Granger”) contain “notes by Professor Albus Dumbledore,” and then
writing the book in two separate voices – one representing Hermione’s
“translation” of that of the storyteller of long ago, the other sounding much
like that of the headmaster of Hogwarts in Harry’s time. This authorial
complexity, for which Rowling does not always get sufficient credit, helps make
the Harry Potter tales a good deal more than just another example of escapist
magical fantasy.
Now, of course, these little
literary sidelights on the Harry Potter world are in the process of becoming
extended items of their own. This actually began within the primary Harry
Potter books themselves, since the Beedle stories are crucial to the final book
in the series, Harry Potter and the
Deathly Hallows, and to the two movies made from that book. But now Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them
is in the process of becoming its own multi-movie franchise, and although no
plans for a quidditch movie have been announced, who knows what the future may
bring? Potterphilia has already shown its ability to move beyond the original
fans of the seven Rowling novels – many of those fans literally grew up
alongside Harry, Ron and Hermione, and now have families of their own and are
ready to bring the Rowling universe to a new generation. And the nostalgia
value of revisiting a world of magic and miracles, one in which evil is
pervasive but conquerable by those of good will and good heart, should not be
underestimated.
As for these three books
themselves, they are essentially the same in 2017 as they were when they first
appeared in 2001 (Fantastic Beasts &
Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through
the Ages) and 2007 (The Tales of
Beedle the Bard). The ostensible author of Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them, Newt Scamander, is the
central character in the new films, but the focus of the book itself is not its
author but the beasts herein discussed. Rowling apparently had a lot of fun
with this little book. For example, in a passage about the Fwooper, “an African
bird with extremely vivid plumage” that looks amusing even in the
black-and-white illustration, and whose song “will eventually drive the
listener to insanity,” there is this footnote: “Uric the Oddball attempted at
one time to prove that Fwooper song was actually beneficial to the health and
listened to it for three months on end without a break. Unfortunately the
Wizards’ Council to which he reported his findings were unconvinced, as he had
arrived at the meeting wearing nothing but a toupee that on closer inspection
proved to be a dead badger.” The beasts themselves are fascinating to read
about, including the “Quintaped (also known as Hairy MacBoon,” which has “a
particular taste for humans,” the Dugbog, “which resembles a piece of dead wood
while stationary,” and many others. The book is intriguing enough so that it
could be an entry point to the Harry Potter novels themselves, for those not
yet initiated into their pleasures.
The other two books are more
rarefied. Quidditch Through the Ages “by
Kennilworthy Whisp” is strictly for those enamored of the sport in which Harry
excels at Hogwarts and in which many of his friends also participate – it helps
to know the books’ passages about quidditch matches before launching into discussions
of “creaothceann,” which is “the most dangerous of all broom games,” as well as
“shuntbumps,” “swivenhodge” and other games. Details of how quidditch is
played, which teams play it, and so on, are for fans of fantasy sports – that
is, sports that really are fantasies. As for The Tales of Beedle the Bard, its stories are interesting in
themselves, but they are so tightly woven into Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that they make a poor entry
point to Rowling’s world – they are really best read while exploring that
final, very long novel, or as a sort of appendix afterwards. Taken as a whole,
these new hardcover editions of the three short books, collected under the overall
title of Hogwarts Library, will make
an excellent addition to the shelf of anyone who already has the original
seven-book Harry Potter sequence. And they will be even more enjoyable for
Potterphiles who are eagerly following the expansion of Rowling’s original
conception into the stage play Harry
Potter and the Cursed Child, the new set of movies featuring Newt Scamander
as protagonist, and into who-knows-what other realms of magic and muggles.
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