Beedle Talks: The Three Brothers Explained

"Beedle the Bard was a storyteller who wove his tales in the 15th century. Although much of his life remains a mystery, we do know he was born in Yorkshire and that he was a wizard. There is also one surviving woodcut that depicts him with ‘an exceptionally luxuriant beard’. Aside from his facial hair, it’s impossible to truly know Beedle, but perhaps we can catch a glimpse of him in his stories. A wizard who was sympathetic to Muggles, ‘mistrusted Dark Magic’ and believed that ‘kindness, common sense and ingenuity’ were more admirable than even the most powerful magic". (W.W. Feature, "Everything you need to know about The Tales of Beedle the Bard)

The final tale is a wildly known story due to it being a crucial factor in Harry's journey near the end to find and destroy the remaining Horcruxes (something that is believed that THE WARLOCK is tied to in his story). To me, as it is very known and it is easily memorable, I often find it as a one-off story to tell as it is also the simplest told story in Beedle's collection.

The story is as-is: Three brothers needed to get across a large body of water but could not get across without the possibility of drowning. But these brothers had magic by their side and fashioned up a bridge to walk on and across the water. A shadow appeared in front of them, angry, hooded, he was of bones, fragile. In anger, he decided to amuse himself and pretended that all went well and decided to give them a gift for each of the three. The eldest brother asked for a wand that is powerful and whose owner could win every battle who conquered death. A wand of Elder was made for his keepings. The second arrogant child wanted a stone to bring back one from Death and a stone was given from the water to do just that. The Last child was clever enough to see lies in the stranger and asked for a way to be hidden from death. Death gave him his Cloak. The first brother went to search for his enemy and struck him down before telling everyone that he has a powerful wand that was the reason for his winning. That night, someone stole it and cut his throat. The second brother turned the stone three times before seeing his beloved who passed away before marriage, who screamed in agony for she could not be in the living. He killed himself to be with her. After Death took the two brothers, HE searched long and hard for the third until one day, he took off the cloak to be seen as he gave it to his son. Death saw him and saw an equal. Greeting him as a friend, they walked alone away.

The Elder wand is a constant subject of theories and stories from many fans. Way more than the stone or cloak. How does the wand work? Why does it keep changing allegiances? The wand has its own rules that do not abide by the rules of others but do abide by the ways of one other, its first user.

The Three Brothers that it tells the story of is none other than the Peverells, a distant relative of two known families of the Gaunts and the Potters. They are Antioch the elder, Cadmus the middle child, and Ignotus the youngest. A name extinct in the male bloodline as reported by Hermionie in 1998.

So what is exactly going on in this story regarding the objects and the relation to death? Antioch did do one mistake that is common in stories about a human meeting a shadow of power. Djinn, Genies, Grim Reaper, and the man in the boat in hell that takes you across the sea. Words are of great importance if one wants to get what is wanted. Aladdin asked in the 2019 Disney remake "Make me a Prince" to which the Genie replies "there are a lot of grey areas.... be specific with your words". Antioch was not specific in wanting the wand for himself. He asked for a wand to be powerful and will win battles of its owner who conquered death. That is what he got, but he fails to mention himself. This is where Death was talking about when he said he was going to be 'Cunning", humans do no think of what is meant to be said and HE will not correct him.

The second brother asks for ones to come back from death. When I first read it, I read it as ones coming from the act of death but it meant Death himself. He wanted a stone to bring back souls that Death himself took and a stone was given. He saw his wife and wanted to be with her so he killed himself. I could say that this is part of Death's joke or plan. It was Death who showed Cadmus his wife before pulling her back in with him. It is not that the stone brought it back, it is the mere belief that it did. Death was pulling strings. But, in 1998, Harry used the stone and his family was seen. In this case, it is not that he saw them, the stone did not bring them back from the dead but revealed that his family was always present in every step he made within himself. Nothing can bring back the dead, if that is true then the stone only shows presence and that means Cadmus's to-be-wife was always there.

"In Greek mythology, Cadmus was the first Greek hero and, alongside Perseus and Bellerophon, the greatest hero and slayer of monsters before the days of Heracles. Commonly stated to be a Phoenician prince, son of king Agenor and queen Telephassa of Tyre and the brother of Phoenix, Cilix and Europa, he was originally sent by his royal parents to seek out and escort his sister Europa back to Tyre after she was abducted from the shores of Phoenicia by Zeus." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmus )

Ignotus was cleverer to want to be hidden by Death. He could not find him for years. The take away is that Death often is presented as a friend to few in the realm of the living. Death saw Ignotus as his equal and as a friend. The story says Ignotus saw Death as a friend and equal because he showed him that one can escape from Death.

The brother's death was sealed from the very beginning before the bridge. They were supposed to fall into the ocean and die. They cheated Death. The fact that Death gave them a gift that was supposed to kill them, per his cleverness, is the very idea that death is following you. If you saw "Final Destination" you know what is meant by that. One cheats death and death will still occur because, in reality, you are already dead. It is how long one can survive before death comes again. Ignotus is the only one to survive death, he was the true victor when it comes to the Master of Death.

Ignotus had a son, whose identity is unknown, and a granddaughter named Iolanthe who was given the cloak. (The rule was every son was to have the cloak, and not just the son but the first son in that generation. They took it by surprise that a girl was born and so it changed to the first child.) Iolanthe married Hardwin Potter til one day... Harry Potter was given the cloak by his Godfather, Sirius on Christmas of 1991.

Ignotus was born July 12, 1214, and died May 19, 1292.

Cadmus was born1214 as well as Antioch.

As Albus puts it: "Human efforts to evade or overcome death are always doomed to disappoint." and what is more, even Albus accounted on the fact that Bride was never really there: " Beedle's story is quite explicit about the fact the second brother's lost love has not really returned from the dead. She has been sent by Death to lure the second brother into Death's clutches...".

This now comes to the end of this piece and the final part of Beedle Talks. There is no reason for me to go into more on the wand, or stone, or cloak as the prime purpose this article and series is the tale itself as told by Beedle the Bard. But that is not to say I do not have some fan-fiction theories myself regarding these Deathly Hallows as it is all a Belief system and this belief is the motivation for such characters such as one Dark Wizard of the 20th Century, Gellert Grindelwald.