The Sorcerer's Apprentice him in his youth. It is, indeed, the oldest known variation of this tale type. While the similarities are so great as to make it obvious that Lucian was Goethe's inspiration, there are several minor differences: Similar themes (such as the power of magic or technology turning against the insufficiently wise person invoking it) are found in many traditions and works of art: Following Goethe's poem and Dukas' symphonic piece and the film "Fantasia", the term "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" has had numerous iterations as the title of various media pieces. These include several novels and nonfiction books, including novels by
The Sorcerer's Apprentice two with an axe – but each of the pieces becomes a whole new broom that takes up a pail and continues fetching water, now at twice the speed. When all seems lost, the old sorcerer returns and quickly breaks the spell. The poem finishes with the old sorcerer's statement that powerful spirits should only be called by the master himself. 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 has created have turned into a cliché, especially the line ' ("The spirits that I