# X: Relation of Certain Peasants Concerning the Wonderful Mummelsee explained — The Adventurous Simplicissimus > Chapter companion for The Adventurous Simplicissimus by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen. ## What happens Simplicissimus, now free but with a depleted purse, entrusts his farm and household to his foster-parents Melchior and his wife, who manage it with thrift and skill, restoring its prosperity. He avoids society and marriage, preferring solitary walks. One day he joins a group of men listening to old peasants tell fantastical tales about the Mummelsee, a supposedly bottomless lake on a high mountain. The stories include claims that objects change parity when lowered into it, that throwing stones causes storms, and that water-spirits appear. Some peasants recount historical attempts by a Duke of Württemberg and an Archduke of Austria to sound or drain the lake, which ended in failure or were abandoned for fear of catastrophe. ## Themes in this chapter ### Folly and Wisdom Simplicissimus dismisses the peasants' tales as fables, yet the stories contain wisdom about nature and the supernatural, contrasting his skepticism with the collective lore. ### Fortune and Fate The tales of the Mummelsee involve mysterious forces that alter numbers, cause storms, and offer riches or doom, reflecting the capriciousness of fate. ### Deception and Appearance The lake's appearance as a simple body of water belies its magical and dangerous properties, and the peasants' stories blur the line between truth and illusion. ## Character check-ins ### Simplicissimus Narrator and protagonist; now free and managing his estate through his foster-parents, he takes solitary walks and listens to peasant tales about the Mummelsee. ### The Mummelsee The wondrous lake on a high mountain, described as bottomless and the subject of many strange tales and historical attempts to explore it. ## Key lines > So now did I find myself restored to mine ancient freedom, but with a purse pretty well emptied of gold, and yet a great household overburdened with cattle and servants. I regained my freedom, but my money was nearly gone, and I had a large estate with too many animals and workers. _Simplicissimus describes his situation after being set free, highlighting his reduced wealth and the burden of his household._ > For one said if any man should tie up an odd number of things such as peas or pebbles, or whatnot, in a kerchief, and let it down into the water, presently the number would be even. One peasant claimed that if you lower an odd number of items into the lake, they become even. _A peasant recounts a supernatural property of the Mummelsee, where numbers change parity._ > And if one should drop in an even number, at once it became odd. If you drop an even number, it immediately becomes odd. _Continuation of the same peasant's tale about the lake's magical effect on numbers._ > Others, and indeed the most part, declared, and confirmed what they said by examples, that if a man should throw in one or more stones, however fair the skies might be till then, at once there would arise a terrible storm with fearful rain, hail and hurricane. Most peasants agreed that throwing stones into the lake instantly causes a violent storm, even in clear weather. _A common belief among the peasants about the lake's power to summon storms._ > One told how on a time, as certain herdsmen were keeping cattle by the lake, there arose a brown ox out of the water that mixed with the other cattle, but there followed him a little mannikin to drive him back into the lake; who would not obey till the little man had sworn that if he did not come back he should suffer all the ills of human kind. A herdsman saw a brown ox emerge from the lake and mingle with the herd, followed by a small man who threatened the ox with human suffering if it didn't return. _A peasant tells a story of a water-spirit and a magical ox from the Mummelsee._ > Another said it happened at a time when the lake was frozen over that a peasant, with his oxen and sundry trunks of trees, such as we hew planks out of, passed over the lake without harm; but when his dog would follow him the ice broke, and so the poor beast fell in and was never seen again. A peasant crossed the frozen lake safely with oxen and timber, but his dog fell through the ice and disappeared. _A tale illustrating the lake's selective danger, sparing the peasant but taking his dog._ > And yet another swore 'twas solemn truth that a huntsman following in the track of game was passing by the lake, and there saw a water-spirit sitting with a whole lapful of coined money and playing therewith; at whom when he would have shot, the spirit sank into the water, and cried, 'Hadst thou but prayed me to help thee in thy trade, I would have made thee and thine rich for life.' A huntsman saw a water-spirit playing with a lapful of coins, but when he tried to shoot it, the spirit sank and said that if he had asked for help, it would have made him rich. _A story about a missed opportunity for wealth due to the huntsman's aggressive reaction._ > But that after the measures had already let down nine thread-cables (which is a measure of length better understanded of the peasants' wives of the Black Forest than of me or any other geometer) with a sinking-lead, and yet had found no bottom, the raft, contrary to the nature of wood, began to sink, so that they that were upon it must perforce give up their purpose and make all haste to land, and so to this day can be seen the fragments of the raft on the shore of the lake, with the arms of Würtemberg and other matters carved upon the wood for a memorial of this history. The Duke of Württemberg's men lowered nine thread-cables with a lead weight but found no bottom, and then the raft began to sink, forcing them to flee; remnants of the raft with the Duke's coat of arms remain as a monument. _A historical account of an attempt to measure the lake's depth, which ended in failure and left physical evidence._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_adventurous_simplicissimus_se/chapters/x-relation-of-certain-peasants-concerning-the-wonderful-mummelsee - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_adventurous_simplicissimus_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_adventurous_simplicissimus_se/chapters