October 18, 1386, the University of Heidelberg was established-the oldest university in Germany. I have the book “Castle of Heidelberg, translated by Louis De Branges De Bourcia, published in 1956. This is wonderful old book of the castle with pictures and folded in layout of the castle.
Back in 2006, I visited Heidelberg, and looked over the town and university. This is a picture of us two college friends walking on the Heidelberg bridge with the castle in the background along the cliffs of the mountain. We had just driven across the pedestrian bridge. Oops. During a tour of the castle, we saw the largest wine cask (tun) in the world. It holds 58,574 gallons. There is a picture of me in front of it. A dance floor was built on top of the tun.
I have the book “A Tramp Abroad” by Mark Twain, published by the Library of America. Mark Twain gives a very good romantic discription of Heidelberg. In the appendix of the book, he talks of how beautiful the castle ruins look on the cliff of the Necker river. His writing is a riveting story of travel; and seeing for myself later, what he was writing about, makes me appreciate his words even more.
While Mark Twain spoke glowingly of the castle, he was less impressed with the giant tun:
“Everybody has heard of the great Heidelberg Tun, and most people have seen it, no doubt. It is a wine-cask as big as a cottage, and some traditions say it holds eighteen thousand bottles, and other traditions say it holds eighteen hundred million barrels. I think it likely that one of these statements is a mistake, and the other is a lie. However, the mere matter of capacity is a thing of no sort of consequence, since the cask is empty, and indeed has always been empty, history says. An empty cask the size of a cathedral could excite but little emotion in me.”
But Mark Twain did not mention Perkeo (Guardian of the Great Tun). When he (Perkeo) was asked if he would like another glass of wine, he would always say, “Perche’ no?” (“Why not?”). This picture from my Heidelberg book, of the giant tun, has a statue of Perkeo in the lower corner.
Perkeo was a dwarf that had an insatiable thirst for wine. He was the court jester in Heidelberg. The juxtaposition of a tiny person that could drink so much, guarding such a large container of wine, is at first confusing.
But thinking back on my college days, the fact the Heidelberg University- the first in Germany, and who’s student population still is about 1/4 of the total town, has the unofficial mascot of a wine-drinking dwarf guarding the world’s largest tun, makes perfect sense. It’s a true college town! It also makes my beer-bucket nights at McCabes in college, seem amateurish and trivial.
Cheers!
Librarytomes 