The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen Summary
The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a collection of tall tales in which Baron Munchausen recounts impossible adventures with a perfectly straight face, as if every word were true. Rudolf Erich Raspe published the stories anonymously in English in 1785, and Gottfried August Bürger's German edition the following year helped spread them further.
The Baron's travels begin in wintry Russia. He ties his horse to what looks like a post in a snowy field and goes to sleep, but by morning the snow has melted and the horse is dangling from the top of a church tower. A wolf attacks his sleigh and ends up pulling it in the horse's place, racing all the way to St. Petersburg. On his hunting trips, the Baron fires his gun with sparks struck from his own eye, and a stag shot with a cherry pit later reappears with a cherry tree growing from its head.
In the war against the Turks, the Baron's horse loses its back half and is stitched together again with a laurel branch. He rides a cannonball to get a look at an enemy fortress, and when he sinks into a swamp, he hauls himself and his horse out by his own hair. Taken prisoner, he follows a silver axe he has thrown by climbing a bean vine to the Moon. Along the way, the notes frozen inside a horn thaw out at an inn, and at sea, a great whale roused from its sleep drags his ship through the water. However impossible the story, the Baron carries on telling it without blinking.
Story summary
Episode 1I Woke Up. My Horse Was on the Steeple. — The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
In the mangaSeries premiere. Baron Munchausen falls asleep on a snowy plain and wakes to find his horse dangling from the top of a tower overhead. Theo, a young man out to expose the Baron's lies, is supposed to be noting every contradiction. Instead, his notebook slowly fills with "And then?"
In the original mythThe tale opens with the Baron setting out for Russia in the dead of winter. Editions disagree about where he starts, but his reasoning is the first joke: frost and snow, he figures, must surely improve the terrible roads through northern Germany, Poland, Courland, and Livonia (the last two are historic regions on the Baltic). So he goes on horseback, lightly dressed, and the cold gets worse with every mile.
Episode 2He Shot a Stag With a Cherry Pit. Then... — Baron Munchausen: The Stag and the Cherry Tree
In the mangaOut of flint and out of bullets, the Baron fires with whatever he has on hand, then gets hauled into the sky by a string of ducks. And the desperate shot of cherry pits he fired that day? Years later, it comes back out of the deep forest in a shape nobody saw coming.
In the original mythThe Baron tells these stories himself, in the first person and with a perfectly straight face. They are separate hunting adventures rather than one continuous plot. In the first, he spots wild ducks covering a large pond near his home, grabs his gun and runs out so fast that he smashes his face into the doorpost. Sparks fly from his eyes. When he reaches the pond, he finds the impact has knocked the flint out of…
Episode 3Why Won't This Horse Stop Drinking? — The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
In the mangaBaron Munchausen tames a wild horse no one can ride and charges first into an enemy town, but no matter how much the horse drinks at the fountain, it's never enough. Then the Baron looks behind him. *The storytelling frame and bloodless comedy are our adaptation; all the adventures are fiction.
In the original mythThe episode begins far from any battlefield. The Baron is staying at the Lithuanian home of a nobleman, Count Przobossky (the spelling may differ between editions). He is taking tea with the ladies while the gentlemen stand in the courtyard inspecting a young thoroughbred. A commotion brings him downstairs. The horse is so wild that even confident riders refuse to approach it. The Baron leaps onto its back in a…
Episode 4He Rode a Cannonball. No Return Ticket. — Baron Munchausen: The Cannonball Ride
In the mangaTo scout an enemy town no one can enter, Baron Munchausen leaps onto a flying cannonball. Only in midair does he notice the flaw in his plan: there's no way back. And later, stranded in a swamp with no one around, he grabs hold of his own hair. *The storytelling frame, the view from the sky, and the bloodless comedy are adaptations.
In the original mythThis tale belongs to the Baron's stories of his campaign against the Turks. Like the rest of his adventures, it is told in the first person, as a true account of his own deeds. His army is besieging a town, though he says he can no longer remember its name. The field marshal wants an exact picture of what is happening inside the fortress. The trouble is that outposts, guards, and fortifications make it almost…
Episode 5He Threw an Axe to the Moon. Plan: Beans. — Baron Munchausen: The Silver Axe and the Moon
In the mangaEpisode 5 of the series. Held captive and put on bee duty, the Baron sends a silver axe in his care flying to the moon, then answers with a straight face: "Very well. I shall plant a bean." Note: the storytelling frame and its listener, the Head Gardener and the inspection deadline, and the Sultan's appearance are additions made for this adaptation.
In the original mythThe episode is drawn from what English editions usually count as Chapter 6 of Baron Munchausen's adventures, though chapter numbers and divisions can vary by edition. The Baron, narrating in the first person, has been fighting the Turks when he is outnumbered and captured. He is then sold into slavery. His new job is more strange than hard: every morning he drives the Sultan's bees out to pasture, watches them all…
Episode 6Nobody Blew the Horn. It Sang Anyway. — Baron Munchausen: The Frozen Horn
In the mangaOn a freezing road home, the signal horn won't make a sound. When Baron Munchausen meets another carriage on a narrow road, he solves it by carrying his carriage and horses past it. But waiting by the fire at the inn is a sound that silences even the talkative Baron. *The storytelling frame and listener, the coachman's personality, the quiet inn scene, and the depiction of the musical notes are adaptations.
In the original mythAfter peace is made with the Turks, Baron Munchausen regains his freedom and leaves St. Petersburg during a political upheaval in which a child emperor and others are sent to Siberia. The winter is savage across all of Europe. The Baron jokes that the sun has been suffering from frostbite ever since, and he says the trip home was harder than the trip out. Traveling by post-coach, he reaches a narrow road and orders…
Episode 7Whales Don't Tow Ships. This One Did. — Baron Munchausen and the Whale
In the mangaIn the middle of the ocean, the ship slams into "something," and soon a giant whale, rudely woken from its nap, is dragging it across the sea. But the Baron forgot to mention the voyage home, where an even bigger crisis awaits, along with the world's most pompous solution. *Adapted elements: the storytelling frame and listener, the words and actions of the officer and sailors, the scene of raising sail to race alongside the whale, the tea props, and the pulling of the hair to restore the Baron's head.
In the original mythThe Baron sets sail from Portsmouth, England, on a huge British warship bound for North America. By his count, it carries 100 guns and 1,400 men. Nothing interesting happens until the ship is about 300 leagues (very roughly 900 miles) from the St. Lawrence River. Then it hits something with tremendous force. Everyone assumes it's a rock, but when the crew lowers a weighted line 300 fathoms (about 1,800 feet), it…