In The News
Video Showing "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" Security Measures and More Now Online
Harry Potter and the Deathly HallowsThere is a new video online this evening from Yahoo!News which gives a closer look at “The Tales of Beedle the Bard,” the handwritten and illustrated book by J. K. Rolwing containing five stories referenced in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” The video shows the immense security measures taken to guard this most valuable item and gives a few details on the unique aspects of the book. Daphne Durham, Managing Editor of Books for Amazon.com, is interviewed and reveals when viewing the book up close, you can tell the original text in the book was done in pencil, then followed over in ink by J. K. Rowling. Seeing details such as that, along with others, Miss Durham explains “is like shaking hands with the author.” Other topics including J. K. Rowling’s handwriting, the illustrations, and the upcoming Amazon.com contest to spend a weekend reading the book are also featured in this short video.
As readers will remember, Amazon.com announced the contest to win a trip to London and a private viewing of “The Tales of Beedle the Bard” early last week. In order to enter the contest, those over the age of 13 are asked to “creatively write a short, English-language submission of 100 or fewer words answering one of the following three questions:
- What songs do wizards use to celebrate birthdays?
- What other sports do wizards play besides Quidditch?
- What have you learned from the Harry Potter series that you use in everyday life?”
Submissions must be received by April 22nd. For more information and links to enter the contest, click here.
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That was great video – seeing the book in a Pelican (brand) case and the handcuffs, whether just for show or not, are appropriate. The book is a treasure and I’m glad to see all the security (I don’t think Frak could take those two guards) I would hate for anything to happen to the book.
My feeling is that some time in the future the book will be published for all to see, but in a way I like the mystery and mystique surrounding it now. I LOVE that there is a Harry Potter artifact out there that still remains hidden. It’s comforting to know that we haven’t seen EVERYTHING yet!

I do hope that it gets published. There is a minute chance that anyone would win the competion.

I turn 13 in one month so I can’t enter. Such a let down. I agree with ‘jess’.

I hope this book gets published so i can read it sometime


Wow, it looks so beautiful, the book I mean! The one who wins this contest is going to be so very lucky!!

Good luck to all who enter! The new envy of the HP fandom.
I agree with Ravenclaw it’s kind of nice to imagine a treasure hunt for another significant Harry Potter artifact. How special those must mean to the people who received them.

Perhaps in the future, they’ll be some sort of Indiania Jones type, hunting for the lost “Tales of Beedle the Bard” hehe

“Perhaps in the future, they’ll be some sort of Indiania Jones type, hunting for the lost “Tales of Beedle the Bard” hehe”
Yeah, and that way they’ll become the REAL Tales, as told about in ‘Deathly Hallows’! Are the stories real or not? How did they come in existence..?

I just pictured Indiana Jones hunting for the lost “Tale of Beedle the Bard” lol. Do we know who was given the other copies?

Damn it!! I couldn’t see my last post, so I thought it hadn’t post. Ignore my last ; )

You can imagine in the future people trying to track down the locations of the legendary seven copies.

Hey, on that Beedle the Bard newsvideo, they start by saying Jo burst out into crying on the trial – which, as far as I know, hasn’t happened? How many journalists bend the truth- you start noticing it now!


Anything related to the six handwritten books is of very bad taste, IMVHO. Somehow the Potterverse has lost its innocence. Well, may be it was not innocent from the beginning… because in the Garden of Eden, there was the Snake, but certainly there was not anything like copyright.

I think Jo likes storytelling so much that she’ll prefer the books to be rare: it makes for way better stories, guessing and mystery! :-D

Although… If there are only six – shouldn’t there one day be a seventh, seeing as there’s seven HP books and there’s seven horcruxes? Just a thought…

Emmy, I think there is seven. Though I’m not a 100% sure, so I could be wrong. But you would think Jo writing seven copies, would make sense, seen as you said, there have been seven HP books.

@ Neil,
Whoops, yes, 6 being sold and a seventh for auction… My mistake! So that might mean there’ll always be seven….. :-D

Sorry, comments are closed for this article.
Leaky Poll
Who should win the JKR/WB vs RDR lawsuit?
- JKR and WB: The HPL takes too much and adds too little7503 (78%)
- RDR: Lexicons are fair use1571 (16%)
- I'll answer in the comments449 (4%)
Hope the winner has a good time reading The Tales of Beedle The Bard. And congraulations to Daphne Durham.
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