WORLD’S GREATEST LIAR

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 620, 23 March 1929, Page 28

WORLD’S GREATEST LIAR

Statue to Baron Munchausen

erected in Bedenwerder, Germany, where, Cia little more than 200 TJ Yt-Jj I years ago, Baron Munchausen was born. The statue now goes up in his honour. The son of wealthy parents, Munchausen was a wild and adventurous youth and it may be that some of his real adventures formed a basis for his better known if more mythical activities. Not until he was about 60 were any of Munchausen's “adventures” published, but when they were given to a credulous reading public they startled every one. Historians generally have agreed fhat Rudolph Erich Raspe, one-time curator of the Cassel Museum iu Germany, and not Berger, a German poet, first wrote of Hieronymous Karl Friedrich, Baron Munchausen. Raspe had been convicted of embezzlement at Cassel and while escaping from that city came upon Munchausen, who in his youth had run away from home and served with the Russian forces against the Turks. Here he had distinguished himself as a man of great daring and courage. Forced to retire from active service, he went to his German estates and amused himself by telling stories to any one who would listen. By chance Raspe heard some of Munchausen's tales, and, needing money, put some of them into readable form and upon arrival at London published a shilling book. Raspe's book was an instantaneous success. Soon after its publication, a second and larger edition was brought out, bearing the lengthy title, “Gulliver Revid'd: the Singular Travels, Campaigns. Voyages and Sporting Adventures of Baron Munchausen; as he relates them over a bottle when surrounded by friends." Raspe's book contained approximately fifty pages. The second volume was larger. Within a few years many hack writers produced two or three hundred books purporting to contain tales of Munchausen. It is said that Munchausen, deeply offended, became reticent. But, turning to old fables and tracing Munchausen’s ancestry back to Gulliver, the many writers found plenty of material upon which to base stories. Proof that some of the writers plagiarised other works is found in one of the so-called “adventure” of Munchausen in which sound was said to have been frozen in a horn. The story Is that during a bitter cold day one of Munchausen’s attendants blew into a horn without the expected result. Two days later, when warmer

weather set in, Munchausen was startled by hearing the horn, attached to his attendant’s saddle, give several loud blasts. It has been definitely proved that during the early half of the eighteenth century, in a Portuguese magazine called “Folheto de Ambas Lisboas,” a similar legend, going back to early Spain, was related. Rabelais, also, tells a similar tale. Bible Exploited The Bible gave Munchausen’s biographers ideas for some of the adventures. Jonah’s experience with the whale was the basis of one of them. While returning from a sea of milk—so the story runs —Munchausen was shipwrecked and swallowed by a huge fisli. For a few days he endured the confinement. Then he decided to escape by causing his host discomfort. This he did by executing hornpipes. The fish stood on his tail on the surface, was seen by sailors, caught and cut open. Munchausen was released. Some of Munchausen’s alleged adventures were related as having occurred on his great hunting estates. A huge flock of birds flew overhead, “blackening the skies as though night had come.” Undaunted by this awesome sight, the Baron shot into the flock and was rewarded with “fifty brace of fowl through this one shot.” Later Munchausen used a ramrod in his rifle in place of an ordinary bullet and killed seven partridges, all ready, except for plucking, for the spit. The same day he saw a fox with too fine a skin to be spoiled by a shot. Pinning the fox to a tree by some unknown method, the Baron “whipped the fox until he jumped out of his skin.” Stag and Cherry Tree It was also in his woods that Munchausen saw a stag which he admired greatly. For ammunition he was forced to use a handful of cherry stones. Shot from his rifle and landing on the stag’s head, they stunned him only slightly and he escaped. Two years later Munchausen spied the same stag, this time with a full grown cherry tree sprouting instead of the customary antlers. Killing the stag, he enjoyed both venison and ripe cherries. One of the more ingenious authors who wrote of Munchausen had the idea of giving the adventures a specious authenticity. The best he could do was to write an affidavit and place it in the preface of his volume. This affidavit was “signed” by Gulliver, Sinbad and Aladdin. The Lord Mayor of London being absent, John, porter at the City Hall, is credited with having taken the signature.