Nicolas Flamel

[dorband at uwp.edu]

No: HPFGUIDX 22248

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., A.E.B.Bevan at o... wrote:
> Brian, dorband at u... wrote:
> 
> >>>
> Flamel was born in 1330 + 665 = 1995  That's not *very* askew, is 
it? 
>  Seems reasonably close to me.
> <<<



> Flamels age of 665 was as given in an old book.
> 
> Unless wizard world biographies in print are dynamic, that is 
> updating so that the age is correct at the time the reader picks up 
> the book, then that was his age at the time the book was written.
> 


Yes, after I posted that I realized that the Trio was reading from "an 
old book."  And then, amazingly, I thought the same thing you did - 
perhaps wizard books automatically update to remain current. I like 
the notion, but that doesn't make it so.  We can still say with 
certainty that Flamel is *at least* 665.  Like so many things in the 
book, we can't *really* make a determination based on canon.

One more point on Flamel.  Whether or not Flamel was/is a real-life 
character is irrelevant to JKR's Flamel.  I agree that it is an 
interesting insertion of a historical person, but the two ought not be 
confused as one and the same.  Ditto for the Stone: whether or not the 
*real* Philosopher's Stone was an object or a metaphysical abstraction 
is irrelevant - in JKR's world, it is clearly an object.
JKR "borrows" wonderfully from real-life, but she is not required to 
be historically accurate.  

Brian