What's the Connection Between Harry Potter and The Tales of Beedle the Bard?

The Tales of Beedle the Bard (publication date: December 4, 2008), by J.K. Rowling, was first mentioned in the final book in the Harry Potter series. The Tales of Beedle the Bard is the volume of five wizarding fairy tales left to Hermione Granger by Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The tales contained clues that turned out to be crucial to Harry Potter’s final mission to destroy Lord Voldemort’s Horcruxes. Only one of the tales, “The Tale of Three Brothers,” appears in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

In The Tales of Beedle the Bard, J.K. Rowling recounts the four remaining stories for the first time. According to Rowling, “The new edition will include the Tales themselves, translated from the original runes by Hermione Granger, and with illustrations by me, but also notes by Professor Albus Dumbledore, which appear by generous permission of the Hogwarts Headmasters’ Archive."

According to Scholastic, the U.S. publisher of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, “The five tales in The Tales of Beedle the Bard are: ‘The Fountain of Fair Fortune’, ‘The Warlock’s Hairy Heart’, ‘The Tale of the Three Brothers’, ‘The Wizard and the Hopping Pot’ and ‘Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump.’”

So, there you have it: the connection between the Harry Potter series and The Tales of Beedle the Bard.