Tale Spin

Embroidered stories, spin and lies didn't begin with the printing press, but that pivotal invention was like spreading fertilizer on weeds.  Creation myths, hero tales and even propaganda go all the way back to, well, probably the first "the one that got away" story heard around the Paleolithic camp fire  The mighty Battle of Kadesh between the Hittite and Egyptian empires was actually a draw, but to see Pharaoh tell it on wall inscriptions he was the undisputed victor.  Representations on coins of the ancient world are often the same sort of thing.

Actual events and people are behind the legends of King Arthur, El Cid and the Trojan War as well as Bible stories.  "Dragnet's" Sergeant Friday may have only wanted "the facts," but humans in general much prefer an epic story.

And so the life stories of a 14th Century French couple would have been long forgotten along with those of millions of others but for the imaginations of writers and generations of wide-eyed readers.  

Perenelle Delamere Flamel lived from 1320 to 1397, and was married to Nicolas Flamel in 1368 at age 48, after surviving two previous husbands   Nicholas, a scrivener (one who wrote for the illiterate and made copies) as well as a manuscript seller, lived on to a very old age (d/ 1418).  They owned several properties, and Perenlle was likely a wealthy widow.  They might have been remembered as philanthropists, if at all, since they donated generously to the needy, hospitals, churches and established two alms houses.  But their wealth and long lives excited dark speculation that their success was due to alchemy -- changing base metals into gold -- and having discovered the elixir of immortality in an ancient manuscript.  Perenelle was assumed to be a witch, having the "sight" and great powers as the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter.  It was said the couple had traveled the world for twenty years to find and grow these skills and had returned fabulously wealthy.  Tomb raiders were said to have found their graves empty, proof that they lived on.  Of course, there is no extant evidence of their world journey or being missing from their graves. 

Two centuries after they lived, printers, writers and publishers were competing to cater to a growing reading public eager to hear strange and fantastic tales -- which both came back from, and sent explorers to, the far East and West in search of El Dorado, Cathay, the Isle of California and the Fountain of Youth.  The remembered rumors about the mysterious French couple got the treatment also.  Present day writers J.K. Rowling, Dan Brown, Umberto Eco and Michael Scott continue to spin out the legend of the alchemist and the witch, who have actually found an eternal life in a way.

There are two streets in Paris named after the Flamels, and their home (or possibly one of the almshouses) still exists at 51 Rue de Montmorency, the oldest stone house in the city.  Whether they live on in some disguise or not, their story lives and grows, as good ones do, true or otherwise.

The Flamel home in Paris