The Adventurous Simplicissimus · Chapter
XXI: How They Thereafter Kept House Together and How They Set to Work explained
After Simon Meron recovers from his ordeal with the false Abyssinian, he confesses his sinful intent to Simplicissimus and seeks forgiveness.
What happens
After Simon Meron recovers from his ordeal with the false Abyssinian, he confesses his sinful intent to Simplicissimus and seeks forgiveness. Simplicissimus comforts him and suggests he build a cross as penance. Simon Meron constructs three crosses—one on the shore and two on the hill—with an inscription honoring God. They begin to live more religiously, marking days with notches on a post. The chapter ends with a strange phenomenon of glowing lights, which they initially fear as devilish but later recognize as fireflies.
Themes in this chapter
Religion and Morality
The chapter emphasizes repentance, forgiveness, and the construction of crosses as a means of spiritual redemption and protection against evil.
Deception and Appearance
The false Abyssinian's deception leads Simon Meron to contemplate betrayal, but the truth is revealed through confession and repentance.
Characters to notice
- Simplicissimus
Offers forgiveness and guidance to Simon Meron, suggesting the construction of crosses as penance.
- Simon Meron
Confesses his sinful intent to Simplicissimus, repents, and builds three crosses as an act of penance.
Key passages
“To the honour of God Almighty and in despite of the enemy of mankind, Simon Meron, of Lisbon in Portugal, with counsel and help of his faithful friend Simplicius Simplicissimus, a High German, did fashion and here set up this token of our Saviour’s sufferings, for Jesus Christ His sake.”
Simon Meron, with Simplicissimus's help, erected a cross on the hill to honor God and defy the devil.
This inscription marks the act of penance and dedication to God.
“We saw floating around us in the air an innumerable quantity of lights, which gave forth such a bright glow that we could discern the fruit on the trees from the leaves: this we deemed to be another invention of the enemy to torment us, but in the end found ’twas but a kind of firefly or glowworm.”
They initially feared the glowing lights as a demonic trick, but later realized they were fireflies.
This illustrates their heightened fear of supernatural threats and eventual rational understanding.