# How Simplicissimus Was in a Poor Lodging Kindly Entreated explained — The Adventurous Simplicissimus > Chapter companion for The Adventurous Simplicissimus by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen. ## What happens Simplicissimus awakens in the hermit's hut, terrified that the hermit will eat him, but is calmed and cared for. The hermit sings a night song praising God, and Simplicissimus falls asleep again. In the morning, the hermit offers to guide him to a village, but Simplicissimus reveals he does not know what 'people' or 'village' mean, prompting the hermit to decide to instruct him. ## Themes in this chapter ### Innocence and Experience Simplicissimus's complete ignorance of basic social concepts like 'people' and 'village' highlights his extreme innocence, which the hermit seeks to remedy through instruction. ### Religion and Morality The hermit's song and his compassionate care for Simplicissimus embody a life of Christian devotion and moral guidance. ## Character check-ins ### Simplicissimus Awakens in terror, is soothed by the hermit, and reveals his complete ignorance of the world outside the forest. ### The Hermit Cares for Simplicissimus, sings a devotional song, and resolves to teach the boy after discovering his profound innocence. ## Key lines > After what manner I was helped to myself again I know not; only this, that the old man had my head on his breast and my jacket open in front, when I came to my senses. I don't know how I was revived, but when I regained consciousness, the old man was holding my head against his chest and had unbuttoned my jacket. _Simplicissimus describes his confused awakening in the hermit's care._ > Yet the more he comforted me and soothed me the more I cried, 'Oh, thou eatest me! Oh! thou eatest me: thou art the wolf and wilt eat me.' The more he tried to calm me, the more I screamed that he was a wolf about to eat me. _Simplicissimus's irrational fear of the hermit, mistaking kindness for danger._ > Thereafter then I easily allowed myself to be enticed by the charm of sweet slumber to pay my debt to nature. After that, I was easily lulled into a deep, natural sleep. _Simplicissimus falls asleep, exhausted from his ordeal._ > Now when the hermit perceived my need of sleep he left me to occupy my place in his hut alone: for one only could lie therein. Seeing I needed rest, the hermit left me alone in the hut, which was only big enough for one person. _The hermit's selflessness and the hut's meager size._ > So about midnight I awoke again and heard him sing the song which followeth here, which I afterwards did learn by heart. Around midnight I woke up and heard him singing the song below, which I later memorized. _Simplicissimus recalls the hermit's night song._ > Now while this song did last it seemed to me as if nightingale, owl, and echo had of a truth joined therein, and had I ever heard the morning star or had been able to play its melody on my bagpipe, I had surely run out of the hut to take my trick also, so sweet did this harmony seem to me. During the song, I imagined the nightingale, owl, and echo were actually singing along, and if I had known the morning star's tune or could play it on my bagpipe, I would have joined in, the harmony was so beautiful. _Simplicissimus's imaginative and musical response to the hermit's singing._ > So I asked him, what be these things, 'people' and 'village'? 'What,' says he, 'hast never been in any village and knowest not what people or folks be?' 'Nay,' said I, 'nowhere save here have I been: yet tell me what be these things, folk and people and village.' I asked him what 'people' and 'village' meant. He was astonished and asked if I had never been to a village or known what people are. I replied that I had only ever been here, and asked him to explain. _Simplicissimus reveals his complete isolation and ignorance of society._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_adventurous_simplicissimus_se/chapters/vii-how-simplicissimus-was-in-a-poor-lodging-kindly-entreated - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_adventurous_simplicissimus_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_adventurous_simplicissimus_se/chapters