The Chevalier Fortune

This is one of the stories contained in the "Disguised Heroes" motif (which is misnamed really, shouldn't it be "Disguised Heroines " since it's women disguised as men, not the other way around? The fact that they ARE WOMEN is integral to the stories...) I really liked her servants, each endowed with some fabulous ability.
One of my favorite movies is The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and having read "Chevalier Fortune" it's pretty clear that's where Gilliam got the characters of Baron Munchausen's servants, right down to a few heavily influenced scenes where the fast man falls asleep during his race and where the strong man makes away with ALL the treasure of the opposing king (possibly lifted straight from the story actually). Baron Munchausen is one of Gilliam's "three ages of man" movies and represents old age (Time Bandits is youth and Brazil is adulthood). Baron Munchausen is an old man, but telling stories literally makes him young again (and I do mean literally, not figuratively). In the movie it's never clear what's a story and what's the hard facts, clearly a war of mythos and logos. The Baron saves the city by telling stories and finally narrates his own funeral, before pulling back and revealing that this was just "one of many of his magnificent deaths".
I think the Baron goes along ways toward explaining why we tell stories that aren't even true: because stories help us work through problems, because stories explain and enlighten, because stories make us immortal, and because it is not always possible to IDENTIFY what is fact and what is fable.