# IV explained — The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen > Chapter companion for The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolph Erich Raspe. ## 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. ## Character check-ins ### 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 lines > 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._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_surprising_adventures_of_baron_munchausen_se/chapters/volume-i-iv - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_surprising_adventures_of_baron_munchausen_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_surprising_adventures_of_baron_munchausen_se/chapters