What's the Moral? - The Warlock's Hairy Heart

The Warlock’s Hairy Heart is one of Beedle the Bard’s tales, part of a short anthology of wizard fairy tales. It’s horrifying and gruesome, yet compelling to say the least, and certainly not the story to tell children before bedtime (big brothers and sisters, I’m looking at you). That being said, it has important implications for how individuals interact with others.

The story, if you haven’t already read it (which, by the way, you should be doing NOW) is of a young wizard who realized his friends became foolish when they fell in love, and decided he never wanted to be that moron, so he took to doing some very dark and complicated magic, through which he managed to literally remove and lock away his heart. Now, while the wizard was convinced that this was the best thing ever for him (citing that he’d never have to waste money on a wife or children) he realized that others believed him to be a sad, lonely, pathetic man who, despite his riches, couldn’t even get himself a lady. So, the wizard proceeded to hunt out the richest, most beautiful maiden available and vied for her hand in marriage, ultimately succeeding. And while everyone was blown away at this sudden development, the maiden told the wizard that she was truly underwhelmed by him, that something was missing. So what does our genius wizard do? Take the maiden down to his dungeon and pull his now hairy heart out of its box and hands it to her. The maiden is obviously, and quite understandably, horrified and insists he put it back where it belongs: inside of him. So he does. And the heart is overcome with sensation and drives the wizard to cut open the maidens chest and take her heart. Upon realizing what has happened, the wizard kills himself.

There are many noteworthy points in this story, the most important of which is the fact that this man cut his heart out and locked it up. As a reader, it was almost impossible for me to fathom that the foolish behavior resulting from falling in love and the costs of providing for a wife and a few children would be enough to warrant such rash behavior from any man. (You could seriously not pay me enough money to do this…even if I had the magical powers allowing such a venture to succeed.)

That being said, the first thing we notice about this man is that he wants to live his life on his own terms, something that is very easy for today’s society to understand. And that’s not something he should be judged for: we all have a right to live our life as we deem fit. It’s also true that this doesn’t just happen, you have to do something to ensure that life will go the way you want it to – and that’s what he did.

But it’s clear that the warlock is not just content with being comfortable living his life the way he wants to. He wants other people to validate his lifestyle and choices, thus he is deeply offended when he realized that no one understands that he lives his isolated life not because he’s not good enough to share his wealth and life with others, but because he chose not to. He’ll go as far as he has to in order to prove that he’s living the happiest, most satisfied life possible: he gets married to a woman he doesn’t love, despite having literally no interest in having a wife or family.

No one told the warlock that he can’t have his lifestyle and be in everyone’s good-books at the same time!

As the plot develops, readers see that the warlock doesn’t need validations from strangers alone, he desires his wife-to-be’s validation as well – he recites poetry for her, buys her expensive gifts, compliments her looks; in short he does everything you’re supposed to do to secure your place as THE BEST HUSBAND EVER. But none of this quick-tricks work, and so, to please the fair maiden, the warlock hands her his heart (literally).

The lessons this fairy tale tries to implement are:

1) Don’t rip out and lock away your heart. And if you do, either put it back quickly, OR, don’t put it back at all – you may just end up killing people.

2) You cannot please everyone. If you want to live your life alone and save all of your money, DO THAT. And if you decide that you’d like to share your life with others (family, friends, significant others, etc.) then DO IT. But don’t expect that everyone will shower you with kind words and think the best of your choices. Others will say and think less than positive things about your choices, and not everyone will agree with them. But if you must have your choices validated by strangers and loved ones alike, you’ll never be satisfied. Life is meant to be lived and enjoyed, and that means different things for everyone.

#TheTalesofBeedletheBard #HarryPotter #Books #WhatstheMoral