Hey everyone,

Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In this video, we’re going to be discussing the life of none other than Nicolas Flamel.

In my last video we looked at the story of Merlin, an enigmatic figure that appears to have made his way in to endless adaptations of folklore and pseudohistorical accounts. The way that his story is told in some instances makes it seem as though Merlin really walked the earth in exactly the way that he has been described to us. However, by analyzing the texts, we can deduce that Merlin was created by Geoffrey of Monmouth combining two real and prominent historical figures Myrddin Wyltt, A north Brythonic prophet, and Ambrosius Aurelianus, a RomanoBritish war leader. So, Merlin was real, in a way. But the thing that makes Nicolas Flamel even more of an enigma than Merlin, is the fact that he completely and totally existed, and his name and identity didn’t really change along the way. Like Merlin, Flamel is included in all sorts of folklore, pseudohistorical accounts, and even historical accounts he’s all over the place, and it makes him that much more intriguing. His character and identity, the man he really was, was clearly interesting enough for people to adapt in to folklore, and that’s exactly the way Flamel found his way in to Harry Potter.

Let’s start by taking a look at the real Nicolas Flamel, the man that all of these fictional adaptations were based on. Flamel was a French scribe born in the year 1330 in the city of Pontoise he lived in Paris for the majority of his life, and spent much time there over the course of the 14th and 15th century. Flamel was such an influential figure in Parisian history that there is even a road named after him, called ‘Rue Nicolas Flamel’. Even more interesting than that, one of Flamel’s original houses still exists in Paris to this day, at 51 Rue de Montmorency. It’s been expressed that Flamel’s former home is the oldest stone house in the city, and there is even an inscription on the wall which states:

“We, plowmen and women living at the porch of this house, built in 1407, are requested to say every day an 'Our Father' and an 'Ave Maria' praying God that His grace forgive poor and dead sinners."

On a daytoday basis, Flamel worked as a scribe and manuscriptseller, and ran two shops offering these services in Paris. Flamel achieved a great deal of success in his career and as a result became quite wealthy. In the year 1368, Flamel would go on to marry his wife Perenelle, a generous benefactress who had a great deal of money from her former 2 marriages. Like Flamel, a road was named in her honour after her demise rue Perenelle.

The pair were a couple of wealthy philanthropists who lived good, solid lives. Perenelle passed away before Nicolas, in the year 1397, and Nicolas lived until the year 1418 which was a considerable amount of time for someone to live in that era.

But posthumously is when things really start to get interesting for the enigmatic figure that is Nicolas Flamel. Sometime in the 17th century, hundreds of years after his death, legends started to appear about Flamel claiming that he was a successful alchemist who A. Discovered the Philosopher’s Stone, and B. achieved immortality.

The Nicolas Flamel of the Harry Potter universe, like every other witch and wizard, of course also attended a wizarding school. In the early 14th century, Flamel began attending Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, a French wizarding school located in the Pyrenees Mountains of France. This is apparently also where he met his wife, Perenelle, who stayed by his side for their considerably long existence. Nicolas kept a relatively low profile for a lot of his life remaining in his Parisian home and pursuing all sorts of alchemical endeavours. In the 1890s, Flamel first met Albus Dumbledore, who at the time was a brilliant teenager that showed immense magical promise. As mentioned on Dumbledore’s chocolate frog card, Dumbledore also achieved a great deal of success in alchemy during his lifetime, and I have no doubt that this was the result of jointventures with Flamel.


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