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Ellen Siebel-Achenbach

The Tale of Three Brothers and the Legend of the Three Living and Three Dead

Submission: The Journal of Fantasy and Fan Cultures- Harry Potter

March 24, 2020.

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The Tale of Three Brothers and the Legend of the Three Living and Three Dead

“I thought little on th’oure of death, so long as I enjoyed breath … Nothing but Truth comes

from my tongue: and if ye should see me this day, I do not thinke but ye would say, that I had

neuer beene a man; so much altered now I am” (Weever 205-206). These lines, inscribed upon

the tomb of Edward the Black Prince, perfectly encompass the medieval concept of memento

mori (“remember death”), in which a theoretical contempt for the material world combined with

a vivid fear of death (Jacobs 96-97). By the fifteenth-century, memento mori had become

increasingly prevalent in the arts and leant itself to the popular Legend of the Three Living and

Three Dead. The legend, often preserved in private devotional texts, follows three men who

come across three dead, warning them that material wealth in this world will do nothing for them

in the next (echoing Philippians 3:7). J.K. Rowling’s The Tale of Three Brothers, which

likewise follows three men who cross paths with a physical manifestation of death, bears striking

resemblance to this legend. Death, in both tale and legend, is revealed as the ultimate equalizer,

eventually taking all regardless of worldly position. However, while the tale follows the same

moral as the legend, there are deeper connections between the two stories: the evolution of the

dead in the legend over several centuries, changing from peaceful dialogue to active aggression,

predicts Death’s actions in the tale as perceived by the two elder brothers and the dead of the

legend, urging the living to prepare their souls in order to avoid the torments of hell, are

themselves reflected in the guilt of the two eldest brothers. Regardless of similarity, public

reaction to the legend inspired genuine devotion (Dialogue and Violence 137) whereas the tale

seemingly inspired exactly what it warned against, the quest for immortality.

One of the earliest representations of the legend of the Three Living and Three Dead is

attributed to Baudouin de Condé (Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal 3142 fol. 311v.), a minstrel active in
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thirteenth-century Flanders (Walters 25). Baudouin’s poetic setting of the legend served as a

basis for ensuing depictions of the story, allowing the legend to both warn and become popular

amongst European nobility (A Matter of Life and Death 2). Baudouin’s poem sees one of the

living claim that the dead, sent by God, mirror the future and is thus inspired to reflect upon his

temporality, ridding himself of all pride (Dialogue and Violence 137). The first of the dead

follows this revelation, claiming that “As you are, so we once were; as we are now, so shall you

be!” (Dialogue and Violence 137). It further becomes evident that the dead are not damned as

the third dead asks the living to pray for them (Kinch 71); through earthly prayers they may be

permitted entry into heaven. The poem is accompanied by an illumination in which one of the

living holds a hawk, reminding the reader that indulgence in worldly pleasures (hunting in this

case) will provide no benefit in the world to come. The living quickly grasp the message of the

dead and, upon accepting their fate, agree to change their ways and pray for the souls of the dead

in purgatory (Dialogue and Violence 138). These key features of Baudouin’s plot are echoed

and built upon in all following representations of the legend discussed in this paper.

The Tale of Three Brothers is introduced in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows upon the

bequeathment of The Tales of Beedle the Bard to Hermione Granger in the will of Albus

Dumbledore. It later becomes evident to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, upon Xenophilius

Lovegood’s interpretation of the tale with regards to the deathly hallows, that the tale is

inextricably linked to Voldemort’s ultimate quest for immortality. The Tale of Three Brothers

follows the Peverell brothers (Rowling 336), who, whilst travelling, come across a river and, as

wizards, “they simply waved their wands and made a bridge appear across the treacherous

water” (Rowling 331). Death, feeling cheated, appeared before them, offering congratulatory

gifts. The first brother requested the powerful Elder Wand; the second requested the
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Resurrection Stone; the third requested Death’s own cloak of invisibility. These gifts are the

deathly hallows; together, the possessor, in Lovegood’s view, attains immortality as the “master

of Death” (Rowling 333-334). The three brothers then part ways. The first brother, sick with his

new power, uses the Elder Wand to murder a wizard with whom he had had a quarrel and, upon

boasting of his success, is murdered in the night. Upon returning home, the second brother uses

the stone to resurrect the woman whom he had once hoped to marry but, “separated from him as

though by a veil,” (Rowling 333) she grew sad, and, driven mad with hopeless longing, the

second brother committed suicide so as to truly be with her. The third brother, although Death

searched for him for many years, only went with Death once he had reached old age.

Voldemort’s quest for the hallows and his inability to accept death eventually leads him to an

early grave and, in great irony, it is Harry who manages to possess all three hallows. However,

Harry chooses to place the Elder Wand in Dumbledore’s tomb, thus also choosing mortality

(Rowling 612-613).

To begin with, The Tale of Three Brothers and the Legend of the Three Living and Three

Dead both follow the moral that death cannot be evaded, only postponed. Death, in both stories,

is the ultimate equalizer, taking without discrimination. Death is also embodied, “paradoxically

giving tangibility to the ephemeral,” (Dialogue and Violence 149), reminding the living of their

eventual fate. It is the perception of death by the living which firstly differentiates the two

stories. While, in early examples, the three living are alerted to their fates through spoken

warnings from the dead, thus allowing them to become better Christians, the three wizards are

expected to discover Death’s warning themselves, a warning which only the third brother is wise

enough to grasp.
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In early settings of the Legend of the Three Living and Three Dead, the three men come across

three skeletons in varying states of decay, the degree of corruption perhaps indicating the sins

weighing upon the soul (Chihaia 266). After Baudouin’s representation, perhaps the most

influential is De Tribus Regibus Mortuis (The Three Dead Kings), an early fifteenth-century

English poem attributed to John Audelay (Bennett 344). Here, the first dead informs the fearful

kings that “Nay, are we no fyndus,” quod furst, “that ye before you fynden” (No, we are not

fiends, said the first, you find yourselves before you) (Audelay 92). Then the second dead

suggests that the living should “Levys lykyng of flesche and leve not that lare” (Abandon fleshly

desire, and rely not on clay) (Audelay 112). The third dead echoes the sentiment of the second:

“Methoght hit a hede thenke at husbondus to hene fore that was I hatyd with heme and with hyne

bot thoght me ever kyng of coyntons so clene” (I thought it was an excellent thing to oppress

farmers and for that I was hated by villagers and servants alike, but I still considered myself as

being held in high regard by others) (Audelay 122-124). Audelay’s kings are wise enough to

grasp the warning of the dead and resolve to mend their ways: “Holde thai never the pres be hew

ne be hyde, bot ay the hendyr hert after thai hade; and thai that weryn at myschip thai mend ham

that myde. And throgh the mercé of God a mynster thai made” (Never again did they act

oppressively towards their villagers and servants, but afterwards they had kinder hearts, and they

were mindful of God’s ultimate reward) (Audelay 135-138).

Unlike the poem, in which the living are explicitly warned of their inevitable fate, the warning

of Death in The Tale of Three Brothers is implied by the fates which eventually befall the

brothers. The tale’s elder brothers are unable to grasp Death’s hidden intentions and are not

given time to mend their ways as Audelay’s kings are. In contrast, the third brother hid under the

Cloak of Invisibility until he had achieved a great age, eventually greeting Death as an old friend
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and departing as his equal. In Rowling’s tale, the third brother is the only one who is wise

enough to distrust Death and to realize the impossibility of conquering what can only be delayed.

Described as “the humblest” (Rowling 332), he is also the only brother who doesn’t request

material gain, choosing instead to make peace with his fate. It is in this way that the youngest

brother resembles the kings in the Three Living and Three Dead legend, who are humbled and

moralized by their encounter with death. The two elder brothers serve as a warning against

material greed and their ends are met as a result of their luxury, avarice, and pride, a fate which

would have likewise befallen the kings had they been unwise.

“Whatever you do, remember that some day you must die. As long as you keep this in mind,

you will never sin” (Sirach 7:36). The Tale of Three Brothers and the legend of the Three Living

and Three Dead both present Death as the ultimate mutual fate, who turns brothers and kings

alike to dust (Genesis 3:19). Both stories give the idea of death a physical body and, whilst the

presence is intended to warn the living, only one of the three brothers is wise enough to request

temporal security over material gain. It is the youngest brother who reflects the three kings who,

openly warned of death and the fleeting pleasures of earth, resolve to mend their ways.

While depictions of the legend of the Three Living and Three Dead originally followed a

dialogue between the two realms, the physical bodies of death became increasingly aggressive

and clever over decades of evolution. Designed to inspire fear, these later figures often stalk the

living and, as the living reach their ends, the dead are shown mocking and laughing at them

(Dialogue and Violence 135). Later medieval Books of Hours (books of private prayers popular

amongst the aristocracy) often used the visual motif of the legend as a preface to the prayers for

the dead, thus encouraging the owner to ponder their mortality (Biggs). The evolution of the

legend sees conversation give way to violence (Dialogue and Violence 135), a development
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which mirrors that of Death in The Tale of Three Brothers as perceived by the two eldest

brothers. Although the two brothers believe themselves worthy of Death’s praise, their false

sense of security allows them to be tricked into meeting early graves.

The Second Council of Lyons of 1274 asserted the Doctrine of Purgatory, in which it was

decreed that prayers from the living could help the dead on their journey to salvation (Dialogue

and Violence 148). Thus, the legend of the Three Living and Three Dead, based around

memento mori, also focused memory on the departed, urging the viewer to pray for the souls of

the deceased. The later acquisition of violent dead only reinforced the urgency of these prayers,

reminding the reader that they were of benefit to themselves as much as the deceased. The

“London Rothschild Hours” (British Library Add MS 35313 fol. 158v.) was produced in Ghent

around 1500 (Biggs) and it is possible that the illuminated legend is a copy of a similar

illumination which belonged to Mary of Burgundy (Kupferstichkabinett-SMPK, 78 B 12 fol.

220v.) (Biggs). Both versions feature a woman amongst the three living, riding below circling

ravens and dark clouds. The corpses depicted in both illuminations are very aggressive, chasing

and pointing spears at the living, seeking to drag them into death. The Italian Stuart de Rothesay

Hours (British Library Add MS 20927 fol. 119v.) follows the violent dead theme as the

illumination is placed beneath a miniature of the story of Lazarus, in which he is raised from the

dead by Christ (John 11:14-15). The pairing of the two illuminations invokes Christ’s promise to

bring eternal salvation to humanity (John 10:28-30), reminding the viewer that all are united in

death (Romans 6:5). The three dead in the Rothesay Hours also appear to cast shadows,

suggesting full physical presence in the world of the living (Violence and Dialogue 148) similar

to Death’s presence in The Tale of Three Brothers, a departure from the apparently separate

realms of the living and dead in earlier renditions of the legend. The Rothesay dead do not
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appear to have attempted dialogue with the living, merely acting aggressively, seeking to add

members to their ranks. While the earlier forms of the legend saw the dead encouraging the

living to change their ways, warning them of the temptations of the material world, the later

versions of the legend present death’s embodiments as dangers in themselves.

In The Tale of Three Brothers the timely evolution of death in the legend of the Three Living

and Three Dead, changing from well-intended dialogue to aggression, is mirrored in the

perception of the two elder brothers. The eldest brother, flattered by Death’s congratulations,

asked for “a wand worthy of a wizard who had conquered Death!” (Rowling 332), and, upon

receiving the Elder Wand, is tricked into trusting Death. Likewise, the second brother, also

flattered by Death’s congratulations, “decided that he wanted to humiliate Death still further, and

asked for the power to recall others from Death” (Rowling 332), and, upon being gifted the

Resurrection Stone, is also tricked into trusting Death. The third brother, who “did not trust

Death” (Rowling 332), is the anomaly. From the perspective of the two eldest brothers, Death is

not violent and aggressive, seemingly allowing them to continue their journey whilst admiring

their new acquisitions. It is only after the three brothers go their separate ways that Death begins

to embody the aggression seen in later versions of the Three Living and Three Dead Legend.

Death first finds the eldest brother who, after committing murder and boasting of his powerful

wand, is crept up upon whilst sleeping by a thief seeking to steal the wand who, “for good

measure, slit the oldest brother’s throat” (Rowling 333). Death next finds the second brother

who, upon seeing the suffering of the resurrected woman he had once hoped to marry, is “driven

mad with hopeless longing” (Rowling 333) and commits suicide to be truly with her in death.

The third brother, whose gift reflected his wisdom in distrust of Death, remained hidden beneath

the Cloak of Invisibility and only revealed himself to death upon reaching a great age. The two
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eldest brothers, who were foolish enough to trust Death, never realize their mistakes and, as a

result, meet unnatural ends. Death, whom they believe themselves to have conquered, is enabled

to take them precisely because of their original misplaced trust in him. The elder brothers, like

the later depictions of the living in the legend, are actively tricked by Death, albeit through

cunning means. Interestingly, Death is also portrayed as an enabler of eternal life in the tale, a

biblical concept explored in the legend, through his last encounter with the third brother who

“went with him gladly, and, equals, they departed this life” (Rowling 333).

While illuminations of the Three Living and Three Dead originally followed a warning-based

conversation between the two realms, the embodiment of death became increasingly aggressive

and clever over time. Death’s physical presences were designed to inspire fear in later

illuminations of the legend by openly threatening and attacking the living, a sentiment echoed in

The Tale of Three Brothers. The two elder brothers, who are foolish in their trust of Death,

quickly follow Death to early graves. They are tricked by an aggressive and cunning Death and

are thus defeated by the very thing they believe themselves to have conquered. In contrast, it is

only the youngest brother, wisest of all, who distrusts Death and is able to postpone his end

rather than challenging its inevitability.

“Great riches here I did possess whereof I made great nobleness. I had gold, silver,

wardrobes, great treasure, horses, houses, land. But now a caitiff poor am I deep in the ground,

lo here I lie. My beauty great is all quite gone, my flesh is wasted to the bone” (Weever 206).

Here Edward the Black Prince, like the three living of the legend, reflects upon the worthlessness

of the material world. However, unlike the prince, the three living are given a chance to mend

their ways; death is merciful. The three dead of the legend are not shown death’s mercy and they

are mirrored by the two elder brothers of Rowling’s tale. By analyzing the characters of the
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three dead, guilty of deadly sins, we can conclude that the two eldest brothers were probably

condemned to the torments of purgatory whilst the third brother, wisest of all, lived long enough

to repent for his lesser sins.

In the legend of the Three Living and Three Dead, the three dead make clear to the living that

they are guilty of several of the seven deadly sins. Due to it’s written dialogue, the woes of the

dead are best described in Audelay’s poem The Three Dead Kings, in which the youngest dead is

the first to speak, confessing the true nature of his sin: “Those that bene not at your bone ye

beton and byndon; bot yef ye betun that burst, in bale be ye bondon” (Those who disobey you,

not doing your bidding, you beat, bind, or flog) (Audelay 96-97). Guilty of wrath, the youngest

then points to the worms writhing in his bowel (Audelay 98), comparing them to the ropes which

now bind him (Audelay 99-100). The youngest dead, seeking to avoid the torments of hell, asks

the living to pity him by praying for his soul. The middle dead likewise confesses the nature of

his sins: “Fore wyle we wondon in this word, at worchip we were; whe hadon our wife at our wil

and well fore to ware” (For while we lived we were held in high esteem, we had our wives at our

will and wealth to spare) (Audelay 107-108). Guilty of lust and greed, he urges the living to

forget the pleasures of the flesh (Audelay 112), claiming they will only lead them astray

(Audelay 114). The oldest dead, unlike the others, implies his sin: “Wyle I was mon apon mold,

morthis thai were myne … To me wil enclyne, to me come, Bot yif he be cappid or kyme”

(While I was upon earth, I committed deadly sins … There is not an idiot or fool who now bows

to my tomb) (Audelay 121, 126-127). The oldest dead, lamenting that he no longer possesses

servants to serve his every need, is guilty of sloth and it is he who warns the three living of the

remorseless and cruel nature of time (Audelay 128-130). Following the individual confessions

of the three dead, it is made evident that they are all guilty of pride. Described Biblically as “a
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fountain pouring out sin, and whoever persists in it will be full of wickedness” (Sirach 10:13),

Thomas Aquinas later expressed that those guilty of the sin of pride were the last to return to

God (Aquinas, q. 162, a. 7, reply to rejection 4). The pride of the living is a common theme

throughout the evolution of the legend and is echoed in a late fifteenth-century Book of Hours

from Paris (British Library Harley MS 2917 fol. 119r.), in which a pope, an emperor, and a king

meet three corpses wearing matching crowns.

While the youngest brother in The Tale of Three Brothers is not characterized as guilty of

deadly sins, the two eldest brothers are implied to follow the legendary dead, doomed to the

torments of purgatory as a result of their unrepenting nature. The eldest brother, like Audelay’s

youngest dead, is guilty of wrath: “he sought out a fellow wizard with whom he had a quarrel …

he could not fail to win the duel that followed” (Rowling 332). Described as a combative man,

he is also unforgiving. The second brother, like Audelay’s middle dead, is guilty of lust: “To his

amazement and his delight, the figure of a girl he had once hoped to marry before her untimely

death appeared at once before him” (Rowling 333). With regards to the second brother, it is

important to note that the sin of lust includes all desire for physical and sensual pleasures (Cline).

The two eldest brothers are likewise guilty of the pride which befell the three dead. Indeed, the

first brother believes himself deserving of “a wand worthy of a wizard who had conquered

Death!” (Rowling 332) and the second brother is described as arrogant, wishing to humiliate

death further (Rowling 332). “Pride leads to destruction, and arrogance to downfall” (Proverbs

16:18); unrepenting, the elder brothers share the fates of the three dead whereas the youngest

brother, whose wisdom provided him with a lifetime of repentance, escapes the torments. He,

who chooses to meet Death in the end as an old friend, embodies the following verse: “It is better

to be humble and stay poor than to be one of the arrogant and get a share of their loot” (Proverbs
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16:19). While the two eldest brothers are too proud to fear death, and thus are too proud to fear

God, the youngest is able to depart life with absolution, greeting death as an equal (Rowling

333), a mercy which follows Audelay’s three living.

While death takes all alike, both The Tale of Three Brothers and the legend of the Three

Living and Three Dead imply the fates of the characters based upon their worldly deeds. The

three dead of the legend and the two eldest brothers are described as tainted by their guilt in

deadly sins and emphasis on worldly pleasures. It is the youngest brother who mirrors Audelay’s

three living. He alone is wise enough to take heed of Death’s implied warning, a warning that

Audelay’s dead implore the living to remember: “Do so ye dred not the dome, to tel youe we

have no longyr tome, bot turn youe fro tryvyls betyme!” (Those who do not dread the doom of

judgement day, remember that time is running out, so turn away from your worldly trifles soon!)

(Audelay 128-130).

Despite the great similarities between the legend of the Three Living and Three Dead and The

Tale of Three Brothers, they differ greatly regarding the public reactions they inspired. While

the legend was very successful in promoting genuine devotion, the tale seems to have inspired

exactly what it sought to dispel amongst the wizarding community. From this, we can assume

that the wizarding world is more prone to optimism in the face of the inevitable compared to the

later Middle Ages. The legend of the Three Living and Three Dead developed as a response to

the widespread fear of the later Middle Ages that judgement day was imminent (A Matter of Life

and Death 23). Indeed, the legend always includes the three dead presented in varying states of

decay, a reaction against the great emphasis placed upon sensuality in the world of the living,

present to inspire fear in lay viewers (A Matter of Life and Death 50). The nobility of Europe

who, perceived as preoccupied with worldly pleasures, were often challenged to become more
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devote by clergy and laymen alike (A Matter of Life and Death 190). The aristocracy were, as a

result, obsessed with memento mori and they commissioned Books of Hours filled with prayers

for the dead and prefaced by the Three Living and Three Dead legend in the hope that their

descendants would later do the same for their souls. This genuine devotional response to death

in the legend is not mirrored in the wizarding response to The Tale of Three Brothers. Shortly

after The Tales of Beedle the Bard surfaced, a legend which contradicts the original message of

the tale sprung up: that the person who possessed all three of Death’s gifts (the Elder Wand, the

Resurrection Stone, and the Cloak of Invisibility) would become immortal. While Xenophilius

Lovegood is not often understood to be a reliable source, Harry, Hermione, and Ron later

become aware that Lord Voldemort is actively searching for the Hallows, proving himself to be

as foolish as the two elder brothers. Voldemort, like many in the wizarding community, chooses

instead to emphasize his dependence on the material world rather than being inspired to change

his ways. He believes the tale to be a secret message, containing the exact opposite of the

principles it seeks to establish.

“Such as thou art, some time was I, such as I am, such shalt thou be” (Weever 205). Death, as

presented in the Legend of the Three Living and Three Dead and The Tale of Three Brothers,

takes all regardless of worldly station. A disgust of the material world combined with a vivid

fear of death to create the legend of the late Middle Ages, an inspiration mirrored in Beedle the

Bard’s tale of memento mori. The three dead of the legend and the two eldest brothers of the tale

fail to take heed of death’s warning and, by continued indulgence in earthly pleasures, they

secure their early graves and tormented fates. The three living and the youngest brother, in

contrast, come to understand that they can only mend their ways by choosing spiritual security

over worldly quibbles. Both tale and legend follow an ever-changing idea of death and, while
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the legend inspired genuine devotion (Dialogue and Violence 137), the tale seemingly inspired

the quest for immortality it had sought to dispel. The three living and the three brothers, taken

by death hundreds of years ago, leave an endlessly important moral legacy that transcends the

wizard-Muggle divide. Mortality, it seems, has always been the deepest of human mysteries and

hope often blinds us from the inescapable and unknowable truth. Death, in both communities, is

inevitable and the timeless test of wisdom sees one make peace with that fate. “He [Harry] let

them fall, his lips pressed hard together, looking down at the thick snow hiding his eyes from the

place where the last of Lily and James lay, bones now, surely, or dust, not knowing or caring that

their living son stood so near, his heart still beating, alive because of their sacrifice and close to

wishing, at this moment, that he was sleeping under the snow with them” (Rowling 268).
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