Harry Potter Wiki
Harry Potter Wiki
m (update redirects (2), update infobox, short links (1), remove full stop in caption (1))
Tag: apiedit
m (Bot: Replacing category Bronze cards from Chocolate Frogs with Bronze Chocolate Frog Cards)
Tag: apiedit
Line 73: Line 73:
 
[[ru:Беатрис Блоксам]]
 
[[ru:Беатрис Блоксам]]
 
[[pl:Beatrix Bloxam]]
 
[[pl:Beatrix Bloxam]]
  +
 
[[Category:1794 births|Bloxam, Beatrix]]
 
[[Category:1794 births|Bloxam, Beatrix]]
 
[[Category:1910 deaths|Bloxam, Beatrix]]
 
[[Category:1910 deaths|Bloxam, Beatrix]]
Line 82: Line 83:
 
[[Category:Married individuals|Bloxam, Beatrix]]
 
[[Category:Married individuals|Bloxam, Beatrix]]
 
[[Category:Wizards|Bloxam, Beatrix]]
 
[[Category:Wizards|Bloxam, Beatrix]]
[[Category:Bronze cards from Chocolate Frogs]]
+
[[Category:Bronze Chocolate Frog Cards]]

Revision as of 23:43, 22 May 2017

"Then the little golden pot danced with delight- hoppitty hoppitty hop! - on its tiny rosy toes! Wee Willykins had cured all the dollies of their poorly tum-tums, and the little pot was so happy it filled up with sweeties for Wee Willykins and the dollies!"
— An extract of Beatrix Bloxam's version of The Wizard and the Hopping Pot in The Toadstool Tales

Beatrix Bloxam (1794-1910) was a witch who wrote the infamous Toadstool Tales, a series of children's books featuring sanitised, "purified" adaptations of stories from earlier works, including The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

Biography

Early life

Young Beatrix Bloxam

A younger Bloxam

Beatrix was born in 1794 to a wizard father and his wife.[1] As a child, she listened at a keyhole and heard her aunt tell The Warlock's Hairy Heart to her older cousins, as well as parts of a lurid account involving her uncle Nobby, the local hag, and a sack of Bouncing Bulbs.[1] She was so traumatised by what she heard that she was bedridden for a week.[1] She also suffered from sleepwalking, returning to the keyhole nightly, until her father placed a Sticking Charm on her bedroom door when she went to bed.[1]

Later life

Beatrix married at some point.[2] Her maiden name is unknown, as is whether or not she and her husband had any children.

"...filling the pure minds of our little angels with healthy, happy thoughts, keeping their sweet slumber free of wicked dreams and protecting the precious flower of their innocence."
— Beatrix Bloxam on her goals as a children's writer

Beatrix's childhood experience motivated her to adapt classic stories into versions which she felt would be more suitable to a young audience.[3] She believed that children are extremely delicate, and that exposure to The Tales of Beedle the Bard harms them, due to what she described as the stories' "unhealthy preoccupation with the most horrid subjects."[3] As such, she reworked several of Beedle's tales, including The Wizard and the Hopping Pot, which became the story of Wee Willykins.[3] However, she was apparently unable to think of a way to tone down The Warlock's Hairy Heart, the story which deeply frightened her as a child, as she never rewrote it.[1] Her work was published in a series of books called The Toadstool Tales, which were universally loathed by children, and were eventually banned because they caused nausea and vomiting (ironically subverting her goal to create suitable tales for children).[3][4]

Etymology

The name Beatrix is derived from Viatrix, a feminine form of the Latin male name Viator, meaning "voyager."[5] It may have been chosen in reference to Beatrix Potter, who wrote several classic children's books, including The Tale of Peter Rabbit. The title "Toadstool Tales" may also refer to the fact that, in addition to being an author, Beatrix Potter was a mycologist.

Behind the scenes

  • Originally, Bloxam's date of death was given as 1810 on her Chocolate Frog Card; however, when taken with a birth date of 1794, it would have made her only sixteen years old at the time of her death. To further confuse the issue, the picture on her card depicted an elderly lady, hardly a sixteen year-old. The mistake was corrected in the video game adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, where she is pictured as a teenage witch. Beatrix's correct dates are listed in The Tales of Beedle the Bard, where her year of death is listed a century later, in 1910.
  • The character of Bloxam is believed by many fans to be an over-the-top parody of the many real-life parents and teachers who worried that Harry Potter was traumatising children.

Appearances

Notes and references

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 The Tales of Beedle the Bard, page 56
  2. Albus Dumbledore refers to Beatrix as "Mrs Bloxam" on pages 17-18 of The Tales of Beedle the Bard.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 The Tales of Beedle the Bard, pages 17-18
  4. Famous Wizard Card (Beatrix Bloxam)
  5. "Beatrix" on Behind the Name
Albus Dumbledore-101-chocFrogCard
Chocolate Frog Cards
Bridget-wenlock-card-lrg
Gold cards

Armando Dippet · Albus Dumbledore · Barberus Bragge · Bertie Bott · Carlotta Pinkstone · Dzou Yen · Falco Aesalon · Godric Gryffindor · Harry Potter · Herpo the Foul · Helga Hufflepuff · Montague Knightley · Phillipus von Hohenheim · Rowena Ravenclaw · Salazar Slytherin

Silver cards

Alberic Grunnion · Alberta Toothill · Andros the Invincible · Artemisia Lufkin · Blenheim Stalk · Bowman Wright · Chauncey Oldridge · Circe · Cliodna · Crispin Cronk · Cyprian Youdle · Daisy Dodderidge · Derwent Shimpling · Donaghan Tremlett · Dunbar Oglethorpe · Dymphna Furmage · Elfrida Clagg · Felix Summerbee · Fulbert the Fearful · Gaspard Shingleton · Gideon Crumb · Glenda Chittock · Gondoline Oliphant · Gregory the Smarmy · Gwenog Jones · Honoria Nutcombe · Ignatia Wildsmith · Joscelind Wadcock · Kirley Duke · Laverne de Montmorency · Leopoldina Smethwyck · Maeve · Mirabella Plunkett · Mopsus · Morgan le Fay · Oswald Beamish · Roderick Plumpton · Sacharissa Tugwood · Thaddeus Thurkell · Wendelin the Weird · Xavier Rastrick

Bronze cards

Adalbert Waffling · Almeric Sawbridge · Archibald Alderton · Balfour Blane · Beatrix Bloxam · Beaumont Marjoribanks · Bridget Wenlock · Burdock Muldoon · Cassandra Vablatsky · Celestina Warbeck · Cornelius Agrippa · Devlin Whitehorn · Dorcas Wellbeloved · Edgar Stroulger · Elladora Ketteridge · Ethelred the Ever-Ready · Flavius Belby · Gifford Ollerton · Glanmore Peakes · Glover Hipworth · Greta Catchlove · Grogan Stump · Gulliver Pokeby · Gunhilda de Gorsemoor · Havelock Sweeting · Hengist of Woodcroft · Heathcote Barbary · Herman Wintringham · Hesper Starkey · Jocunda Sykes · Justus Pilliwickle · Merlin · Merton Graves · Merwyn the Malicious · Miranda Goshawk · Mungo Bonham · Musidora Barkwith · Myron Wagtail · Newton Scamander · Norvel Twonk · Orsino Thruston · Perpetua Fancourt · Quong Po · Roland Kegg · Stoddard Withers · Tilly Toke · Uric the Oddball · Yardley Platt

Famous Vampires cards

Blodwyn Bludd · Vlad Drakul · Amarillo Lestoat · Carmilla Sanguina · Herbert Varney

Famous Hags cards

Babayaga · Malodora Grymm · Old Mother Hubbard · Cordelia Misericordia · Leticia Somnolens

Famous Giants cards

Bran the Bloodthirsty · Cyclops · Goliath · Morholt · Hengist of Upper Barnton

Famous Goblins cards

Alguff the Awful · Eargit the Ugly · Gringott · Ug the Unreliable · Urg the Unclean

Dragon cards

Common Welsh Green · Hebridean Black · Hungarian Horntail · Norwegian Ridgeback · Romanian Longhorn

Beast cards

Billywig · Bowtruckle · Doxy · Double-ended Newt · Giant Purple Toad · Giant Squid · Gnome · Gytrash · Imp · Kelpie · Manticore · Mountain troll · Streeler · Phoenix · Unicorn