With the re-release of the 20th anniversary of harry potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter 1) and the ongoing development of the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie series, one object has begun to be re-discussed, and that is the "Mysterious Philosopher's Stone" and its owner", "Nicola Flamel"! Nicolas Flamel and the Philosopher's Stone open the entire Harry Potter story, but it has little effect on the story of the subsequent Harry Potter sequel (everyone knows that the focus is on the "Relics of Death" and the "Split Spirits" of the Buddha Demon... So why did JK Rowling set the story of the Philosopher's Stone to kick off Harry Potter? And later in the "Monsters Series" of the second "Monsters and the Crimes of Gryndaywald" also arranged for Nicolas Flamel to actually appear?
1. What was Nicolas Flamel like in history?
Nicolas Flamel was a famous alchemist who lived in history, lived around 1330 to 1418 in young France, and his study of the legendary material "Sage Stone" made him famous all over the world.
The so-called "Philosopher's Stone" is a paraphrase of "Philosopher's Stone", in fact, the original English name of Harry Potter: The Mysterious Philosopher's Stone is also called "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone".
For the ancient description of the "Philosopher's Stone", it is a red stone, which can transform between "solid" and "liquid", and can "turn stones into gold" through it, while the liquid "Philosopher's Stone" is "elixir of immortality".
But later, after scientific research and historical research, the "Philosopher's Stone" believed by everyone in the 14th and 15th centuries was likely to be "arsenic"! Solid natural arsenic sand, also known as "Tatsu sand", is mainly mercury and sulfur compound "mercury sulfide", because it can be used to "gild" (of course, people at that time did not know that it was only a thin layer of gold on the surface) so it was considered to have the function of turning stones into gold; as for the "elixir of immortality", many people believed that mercury was one of the raw materials for refining elixirs, this concept originated from the research of the Byzantine Empire and the Arab Empire, and later influenced the imagination of immortal medicine in Europe and ancient China (from " The secret recipe for the Western Regions, from the beginning of the Qin Dynasty to the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, is convinced of this statement, and the TV series "The Biography of Zhen Huan in the Harem" also mentions that the elixir of elixir taken by Yongzheng has the ingredient of arsenic. ）
2. What was Nicola Flamel like in the Harry Potter series?
Although because of the underdevelopment of scientific knowledge, people at that time thought that "arsenic" was a "philosopher's stone" with magical functions, the existence of this historical story did give people a mysterious and romantic imagination, and also made Nicolas Flamel, who studied it the most thoroughly at that time, considered the most powerful alchemist and magician at that time! Based on this romance, Nicolas Flamel in Harry Potter certainly has some "JK Rowling-esque" settings!
According to the setting of JK Rowling's novel world, Nicolas Flamel's deeds are similar to the actual historical legends, in addition, he is also a good friend of Dumbledore, and a student of the French school of magic, Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, because the Philosopher's Stone became gold (because it is magic, so it is "real stone into gold" rather than the real history of "gilded"),Nicolas Flamel became the largest patron of the Boba Cave Academy. Even the fountain in the School of Boba Caves is named after Nile Lemae!
Also because the Philosopher's Stone of the Wizarding World really has the function of making elixirs, it is mentioned in the novel that he was 665 years old at the time of the harry potter: Mysterious Philosopher's Stone story, and in the prequel "Monsters and the Crimes of Greenwald", Nicolas Flamel made his first actual appearance on the big screen, played by Mexican actor Brontis Yuduroski Brontis Jodorowsky, who was set at 375 years old at the time, but due to the fact that "The Crime of Groendwald". The Monster and the Crimes of Grynday is set in 1927, so Nile Flamel was supposed to be 600 years old at the time (the books in the Harry Potter: The Mysterious Philosopher's Stone through Miriamé indicate that Nile Flamel was born in 1327, rather than the actual historical record of Nicolas Flamel's birth and death from 1330 to 1418), but in The Crimes of monsters and Greenwald, he also said that he had lived to forget how old he was, so "375 years old". It's just a symbol of his longevity, not his actual age in the setting.
In addition, JK Rowling said that she dreamed of Nicolas Flamel's laboratory when writing Harry Potter: The Mysterious Philosopher's Stone, so she wrote his deeds with the Philosopher's Stone into the book, and although the story development of the harry potter biography later had nothing to do with him, it can be seen that Nicolas Flamel still occupies an important position in JK Rowling's mind, so he actually appeared in the prequel "Monster Series Movies", feeling that in later developments, he would take back this biography after the "Monster Series Movies". Harry Potter: The Mysterious Philosopher's Stone story should play a fairly important role in its development!
Scholars studying Nicolas Flamel's notes and finding that in addition to alchemy and the Philosopher's Stone, Nicolas Flamel also has research on "mythical animals" (strange beasts), so he may also be a good beast scientist in the "Monster Series" of the Harry Potter series!
Scholars studying Nicolas Flamel's notes and finding that in addition to alchemy and the Philosopher's Stone, she also has research on "mythical animals" (strange beasts), so he may also be a good beast scientist in the "Monster Series" of the Harry Potter series!
3. In addition to the Harry Potter series, what other works are related to Nicolas Flamel's Philosopher's Stone?
Since he is the most powerful alchemist and magician in history, the story of Nicolas Flamel and the Philosopher's Stone will certainly not only appear in Harry Potter! In the famous Indiana Jones series, its unmade novel "Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone" tells the story of Indiana Jones's search for the legendary Nile Flamel's Philosopher's Stone; similar concepts, in the video game Tomb Raider: Chronicles, Lola found Nile Flamel's Philosopher's Stone in Rome.
The most recent film and television work directly about Nicolas Flamel and the Philosopher's Stone is the 2014 horror film "As Above, So Below", which tells the story of an archaeology student who studies Nyleleme and the Philosopher's Stone, and after investigation, she discovers that the Philosopher's Stone is hidden in the "Catacombs" in Paris, and the story combines with the "Hell Chapter" of Dante's "Divine Comedy", describing that as the team looking for the Philosopher's Stone goes deeper and deeper, they encounter the horror scene that occurs in "Hell"...