"THE FRENCH KING AND SALAMANDER" SOURCES STORY LOVERS WORLD STORY LOVERS WORLD SOS: SEARCHING OUT STORIES from Fairy Tales, Folklore, Fables, Nursery Rhymes, Myths, Legends, Bible and Classics The Story Lovers World home page is at: http://www.story-lovers.com To add to the lists below, please e-mail jackie@storyloversworld.com

"THE FRENCH KING AND SALAMANDER" SOURCES Scroll down or click on your choice below • Online links to information-"The French King & Salamander" • SOS: Searching Out Stories/Info - ~"The French King & Salamander" ~~Advice/References - Storytellers, Teachers, Librarians

ONLINE LINKS TO STORY AND INFORMATION ABOUT "THE FRENCH KING AND SALAMANDER"

Online links are in blue and underlined. Click on them to get more information.
To retell any of these stories, get permission from the copyright holder if the material is not in the public domain.
Short descriptions included for your convenience and to save you research time.

• http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/624553.html
King Francois I's Salamander Photo.

• http://www.monstropedia.org/index.php?title=Salamander
The mythical salamander from Monstropedia. Etymology, powers, places, symbol, history, stories, quotes, popular culture.

• http://tudorswiki.sho.com/page/Francis+I+Historical+Profile
The History of Francis I, King of France (1494-1547).

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIAj1HzNIJ4
Chateau Chenonceau 2 - King Francois I and Henri II (Renaisssance identity). Historical video in English on YouTube.

• http://fh.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/pdf_extract/3/2/232
French History.

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/subiyurek/sets/72157604148013300/
Chambord estate (chateau and park); dozens of pictures.

• http://www.francemonthly.com/n/0302/index.php
The Chambord Castle from Franch Monthly.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Château_de_Chambord
Chateau de Cahmbord from Wikipedia.

• http://podictionary.com/?p=389
A word root every day - salamander.

• http://flagspot.net/flags/fr-76-lh.html
Le Havre (Municipality, Seine-Maritime, France).

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SOS: SEARCHING OUT STORIES AND INFORMATION ABOUT "THE FRENCH KING AND SALAMANDER"
Advice, Discussion and References from Storytellers, Teachers and Librarians
(excerpts from Storytell listserv plus original research)

Online links are in blue and underlined. Click on them to get more information.
Storytell posts are added chronologically as they are received by Story Lovers World.

1) I'm venturing from my lurker's corner seeking help for a writer patron at my library. She was told a legend about France's King Francois 1 adopting a salamander for his coat of arms. Story went that there was a great fire in France. When king surveyed damage, he found only creatures alive to be the salamander and thus immortalized it for its ability to survive. I found many references to the salamander being part of the coat of arms and the encyclopedia had an article on the king. The sources for salamanders surviving fire was quickly found. Nowhere have I found reference to the legend. If anyone has references, I'd greatly appreciate them

2) Here's a little, from The Bestiary of Christ, by Louis Charbonneau-Lassay: The salamander also represented impartiality: because the ancient legendssay that it could live in the midst of flames by "maintaining the good fire and extinguishing the evil." This is what Francois I made his symbolic salamander express, by surrounding it with the legend: Nutrisco et exstinguo: "I nourish and I extinguish" - I nourish the good fire and extinguish the evil.

So it would seem that the motto proves his use of the salamander was not directly to do with simply its ability to survive fire, despite whatever the legend may say. Salamanders feature not infrequently in heraldry, and were long understood to be the spirit and King of fire, not just good at resisting it. You can find a very nice picture of the blazon, or coat of arms, at
http://www.ac-grenoble.fr/telepole/voissant/salamandre/page5.htm
but the page says nothing about the legend.
It says that "It was not François I who chose the salamander, it already formed part of the family emblems." This page mentions the story of the burning of the city, asnd the salamander, but not directly his choosing the salamander at the same time.

3) Some of the more romantic reference works on the aristocracy may have this sort of story. I find capsulized Irish family legends and leads to sources in the 1926 Complete Peerage, though Burke's is too sober-sided to indulge. So you might try some heraldry and geneaology books, and of course the WWW. Complete Peerage felt it was a waste of a good story that the descent of the viscountcy in the Preston family of Gormanston Castle was not in question, as the family tradition of the neighbourhood foxes mourning the death of the holder of the title, well documented by eye-witnesses in 1860, 1876 and 1907, would have stood as proof that he had been the legitimate viscount, as would be his eldest son. A Viscount Gormanston centuries ago had rescued a vixen and her litter from the hounds, and the foxes gathered round the house and mourned his and his descendants' deaths in gratitude. The Preston crest is described: "on a chapeau gu., turned up erm., a fox statant ppr."

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Created 2003; last update 6/10/09