The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen · Chapter
IV explained
The Baron recounts a series of remarkable hunting adventures: shooting a stag with cherry stones that later grows a cherry tree between its antlers, killing a bear by causing a flint explosion in its stomach, turning a wolf inside out after
What happens
The Baron recounts a series of remarkable hunting adventures: shooting a stag with cherry stones that later grows a cherry tree between its antlers, killing a bear by causing a flint explosion in its stomach, turning a wolf inside out after thrusting his arm into its mouth, and escaping a mad dog only to have his fur cloak go mad and destroy his wardrobe.
Themes in this chapter
The Marvelous and the Absurd
The Baron's impossible feats—shooting a stag with cherry stones that later bears fruit, turning a wolf inside out, and a mad cloak—exemplify the absurd and marvelous nature of his adventures.
Self-Aggrandizement and Heroism
The Baron portrays himself as a resourceful and heroic hunter who overcomes dangerous animals through cleverness and daring.
Critique of Human Nature
The Baron's wry comment about holy sportsmen planting crosses on stags satirizes human tendency to embellish and mythologize.
Characters to notice
- Baron Munchausen
Narrates his hunting exploits with a stag, bear, wolf, and mad dog.
- Jack
The Baron's servant who reports that the fur cloak has gone mad.
Key passages
“I charged immediately with powder, and upon it a good handful of cherrystones, for I had sucked the fruit as far as the hurry would permit. Thus I let fly at him, and hit him just on the middle of the forehead, between his antlers; it stunned him—he staggered—yet he made off.”
With no shot left, I loaded my gun with powder and a handful of cherry stones I had just eaten, fired at the stag's forehead, stunning it, but it escaped.
The Baron's inventive use of cherry stones as ammunition.
“I beheld a noble stag with a fine full grown cherry-tree above ten feet high between his antlers. I immediately recollected my former adventure, looked upon him as my property, and brought him to the ground by one shot, which at once gave me the haunch and cherry-sauce.”
A year or two later, I saw the same stag with a ten-foot cherry tree growing from its antlers, recognized it as mine, shot it, and enjoyed both venison and cherry sauce.
The miraculous growth of a cherry tree from the earlier shot.
“I flung with all my might into the monster's open jaws, down his throat. It gave him pain and made him turn about, so that I could level the second at his backdoor, which, indeed, I did with wonderful success; for it flew in, met the first flint in the stomach, struck fire, and blew up the bear with a terrible explosion.”
I threw one flint into the bear's mouth, and when it turned, I shot the second flint into its rear; the flints collided in its stomach, sparked, and exploded the bear.
The Baron's absurd method of killing a bear using two flints.
“I laid hold of his tail, turned him inside out like a glove, and flung him to the ground, where I left him.”
I grabbed the wolf's tail, turned it inside out as if it were a glove, and threw it aside.
The Baron's grotesque and impossible maneuver against a wolf.
“I threw off my fur cloak, and was safe within doors in an instant. I sent my servant for the cloak, and he put it in the wardrobe with my other clothes. The day after I was amazed and frightened by Jack's bawling, 'For God's sake, sir, your fur cloak is mad!'”
I escaped a mad dog by shedding my fur cloak, which later went mad and attacked my other clothes, as my servant Jack discovered.
The absurd contagion of madness from the dog to the cloak.