Household Tales · Chapter
The Flail from Heaven explained
A countryman's oxen grow enormous horns, leading him to trade them for turnip-seed with a butcher.
What happens
A countryman's oxen grow enormous horns, leading him to trade them for turnip-seed with a butcher. After losing one seed, it grows into a sky-high tree. The peasant climbs to heaven, watches angels threshing oats, and escapes by making a rope from oat chaff. He uses a hoe to climb out of a deep hole and keeps a flail as proof of his journey.
Themes in this chapter
Greed and Its Downfall
The peasant's desire for more thalers leads to a precarious situation, though he ultimately escapes through resourcefulness.
Magic and the Supernatural
Magical elements include the growing horns, the seed that grows into a sky-touching tree, and the peasant's visit to heaven.
Characters to notice
- the countryman
The peasant who trades his oxen, climbs to heaven, and brings back a flail.
Key passages
“A countryman was once going out to plough with a pair of oxen. When he got to the field, both the animals’ horns began to grow, and went on growing, and when he wanted to go home they were so big that the oxen could not get through the gateway for them.”
A farmer set out to plow with two oxen, but their horns grew so large that they couldn't fit through the gate to return home.
Sets up the initial magical event that drives the plot.
“By good luck a butcher came by just then, and he delivered them over to him, and made the bargain in this way, that he should take the butcher a measure of turnip-seed, and then the butcher was to count him out a Brabant thaler for every seed.”
A butcher happened by, and the farmer traded the oxen for a deal: he would bring a measure of turnip seeds, and the butcher would pay one Brabant thaler per seed.
Highlights the peasant's clever but risky bargain.
“In the meantime, when he went on his way back, the seed had grown into a tree which reached up to the sky.”
On his return journey, the lost seed had sprouted into a tree that stretched all the way to heaven.
Illustrates the supernatural growth of the seed.
“So he climbed up, and saw that the angels above were threshing oats, and he looked on.”
He climbed the tree and watched angels threshing oats in heaven.
Describes the peasant's observation of heavenly activities.
“He likewise snatched a hoe and a flail which were lying about in heaven, and let himself down by the rope. But he came down on the earth exactly in the middle of a deep, deep hole.”
He grabbed a hoe and a flail from heaven, descended by the rope, and landed in a deep hole on earth.
Shows his resourcefulness in escaping and the tools he brings back.
“So it was a real piece of luck that he had brought the hoe, for he hoed himself a flight of steps with it, and mounted up, and took the flail with him as a token of his truth, so that no one could have any doubt of his story.”
Fortunately, he had the hoe, which he used to carve steps out of the hole to climb out, keeping the flail as proof of his adventure.
Concludes with the peasant's successful escape and evidence of his journey.