The Sorcerer's Apprentice

"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (German:"Der Zauberlehrling") is a poem byJohann Wolfgang von Goethewritten in 1797. The poem is aballadin 14stanzas.
The poem begins as an oldsorcererdeparts his workshop, leaving his apprentice with chores to perform. Tired of fetching water by pail, the apprenticeenchantsabroomto do the work for him, usingmagicin which he is not fully trained. The floor is soon awash with water, and the apprentice realizes that he cannot stop the broom because he does not know the magic required to do so.
The apprentice splits the broom in two with an axe, but each piece becomes a whole broom that takes up a pail and continues fetching water, now at twice the speed. At this increased pace, the entire room quickly begins to flood. When all seems lost, the old sorcerer returns and quickly breaks the spell. The poem concludes with the old sorcerer's statement that only a master should invoke powerful spirits.
Goethe's"Der Zauberlehrling"is well known in the German-speaking world. The lines in which the apprentice implores the returning sorcerer to help him with the mess he created have turned into acliché, especially the line "Die Geister, die ich rief" ("The spirits that I summoned"), a simplified version of one of Goethe's lines "Die ich rief, die Geister, / Werd' ich nun nicht los" - "The spirits that I summoned / I now cannot rid myself of again", which is often used to describe someone who summons help or allies that the individual cannot control, especially in politics.
Some versions of the tale differ from Goethe's, and in some versions the sorcerer is angry at the apprentice and in some even expels the apprentice for causing the mess. In other versions, the sorcerer is a bit amused at the apprentice and he simply chides his apprentice about the need to be able to properly control such magic once summoned.The sorcerer's anger with the apprentice, which appears in both the GreekPhilopseudesand the Dukas score (and its film adaptationFantasia), does not appear in Goethe's "Der Zauberlehrling".
Lover of Lies(Ancient Greek:Φιλοψευδής,romanized:Philopseudḗs,lit.'Lover of lies') is a shortframe storybyLucian, written c. AD 150. The narrator, Tychiades, is visiting the house of a sick and elderly friend, Eucrates, where he has an argument about the reality of thesupernatural. Eucrates and several other visitors tell various tales, intended to convince him that supernatural phenomena are real. Each story in turn is either rebutted or ridiculed by Tychiades.
Eucrates recounts a tale extremely similar to Goethe's "Zauberlehrling", which had supposedly happened to him in his youth. It is, indeed, the oldest known variation of this tale type.There are several differences:
In 1897,Paul Dukaswrote asymphonic tone poem based on the storyfrom Goethe's poem. This piece was popularized by its use as one of eight animatedshortsbased on Western classical music in the 1940Walt Disneyanimated filmFantasia.In the piece, which retains the title "The Sorcerer's Apprentice",Mickey Mouseplays the apprentice, and the story follows Goethe's original closely, except that the sorcerer (Yen Sid, which isDisneyspelled backwards) is stern and angry with his apprentice after he saves him.Fantasiapopularized Goethe's story to a worldwide audience. The segment proved so popular that it was repeated, in its original form, in the sequelFantasia 2000.  Four of the animated brooms have a brief cameo appearance in the 1988 filmWho Framed Roger Rabbit, working at cleaning a film studio while a human supervisor plays a saxophone version of Dukas' composition.
17th-century French author Eustace le Noble wrote a literary variant of this type of tale withL'apprenti magicien.
Other literary adaptations of the tale include several fiction and nonfiction books, such as the novelThe Sorcerer's Apprentice(1910) byHanns Heinz Ewers, andChristopher Bulis's novelThe Sorcerer's Apprentice(1995) based on the TV seriesDoctor Who. Nonfiction books with this title includeThe Sorcerer's Apprentice: A Journey Through Africa(1948) byElspeth Huxley, and the travel bookSorcerer's Apprentice(1998) byTahir Shah.
Karl MarxandFriedrich Engelsalluded to Goethe's poem inThe Communist Manifesto(1848), comparing modern bourgeois society to "the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells."
"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" is a 1962 episode ofAlfred Hitchcock PresentsfeaturingBrandon deWildeas mentally-troubled youth Hugo, coveting themagic wandof a kindly magician.
The poem's story is alluded to in several episodes of the fairy-tale dramaOnce Upon a Time, especially in "The Apprentice" (2014). A variation of the Dukas piece also plays in certain scenes. The apprentice himself is a recurring character, while the sorcerer is shown to beMerlin.
"Top Secret Apprentice", a segment of theTiny Toon Adventuresepisode broadcast in 1991, is a modern version of the story, with Buster Bunny messing around withBugs Bunny's cartoon scenery machine and getting into trouble.
The 2010 filmThe Sorcerer's Apprenticefeatures a scene based on theFantasiaconception of Goethe's poem. TheFantasiavariant also appears in the video game series,Kingdom Hearts, with the sorcererYen Sidserving as an adviser to the heroes, teaching Mickey,Sora, andRikuthe Keyblade skills needed to guard the universe from his former friendXehanort's plan. A world based on theFantasiaversion also appears throughout the series, serving as Yen Sid's home.
TheMagic: The Gatheringplaying card Sorcerer's Broom from Throne of Eldraine references the story and the replicating nature of the broom.