Till Eulenspiegel
Trickster folk hero of a 1510 German chapbook tradition.
Last updated
Till Eulenspiegel is a trickster figure whose name translates literally to "owl-mirror" in High German.[1] The frontispiece of the 1515 chapbook renders the name as a rebus showing an owl and a hand mirror.[1]
Last updated 2026-10-03 from the source article.
Quick Facts
- Born
- c. 1300, Kneitlingen, Lower Saxony (per chapbook)
- Died
- 1350, Mölln, Schleswig-Holstein (of the Black Death, per chapbook)
- Field
- Folklore, literature
- Nationality
- German (Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg)
Facts from the source article.
Key facts and history
The folkloristic origins of the Eulenspiegel tradition are reasonably placed in the 15th century.[2] Candidates for authorship include Thomas Murner, Hermann Bote, and Hieronymus Brunschwig, but none has gained mainstream acceptance.[3] A legal register of Brunswick records a Till van Cletlinge incarcerated in 1339 for highway robbery.[4] Sixteen folia of printing proofs for the first known chapbook were found in 1971 inside the binding of a Latin edition of Reynard, and these were dated to around 1510/11 based on the type used.[5]
Johannes Grüninger in Strasbourg printed the two earliest editions, both in Early New High German.[5] The chapbooks depict Eulenspiegel as a trickster who reveals greed, folly, hypocrisy, and foolishness through his actions.[6] Fynes Moryson, in his 1591 Itinerary, references the 1544 stone.[7]
What the cited sources add
The same source reports the inscription claims the stone was made in 1350, Eulenspiegel's supposed death year.[8] That article adds that the play toured half the globe, had over 1,000 performances, and is still being staged.[9] According to the same source, more recent research dates the Hillen edition to between 1525 and 1546.[10]
References
- Wikipedia, "Till Eulenspiegel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: From the Middle Low German verb ulen ("to wipe") and spegel ("mirror"), the latter term being used in the meaning of "buttocks, behind" (used in hunting jargon (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Till Eulenspiegel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ruth Michaelis-Jena, "Eulenspiegel and Münchhausen: Two German Folk Heroes", Folklore 97.1 (1986:101–108) p. 102.; Paul Oppenheimer, Till Eulenspiegel: His Adventures (1991) (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Till Eulenspiegel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Authorship was first attributed to Murner by Lappenberg (1854) and was long taken for granted, but is "no longer taken seriously" (Oppenheimer 1991:xxviii).; Jürgen Schulz-Grobert, Das Straßburger Eulenspiegelbuch, Niemeyer, Tübingen (1999). Authorship of Bote was suggested due to the acrostic ERMAN B being formed by (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Till Eulenspiegel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ulrich Hucker, "Till Eulenspiegel: Beiträge zur Forschung und Katalog der Ausstellung vom 6. Oktober 1980 bis 30. Januar 1981", Stadtarchiv und Stadtbibliothek, 1980 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Till Eulenspiegel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Honegger, "Ulenspiegel—ein Beitrag zur Druckgeschichte und zur Verfasserfrage", Wachholtz, 1973 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Till Eulenspiegel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Peter E. Carels, "Eulenspiegel and Company Visit the Eighteenth Century" Modern Language Studies 10.3 (Autumn 1980:3–11) p. 3.; Quoted in Paul Oppenheimer's introduction to Till Eulenspiegel:His Adventures, paperback published by Oxford University Press, 1995, , page xxii. "Eulenspiegel: (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Till Eulenspiegel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: moelln-tourismus.de (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- moelln-tourismus.de. facts only, no text reused. moelln-tourismus.de
- Shimadina, "Lenkom Theater: From Soviet utopia to post-modern dystopia", Russia Beyond, February 18, 2017. facts only, no text reused. rbth.com
- Wikipedia, "Till Eulenspiegel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Vervliet, "The earliest Dutch edition of Till Eulenspiegel A problem of dating", Quaerendo, 1973, p. 20–22 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Till Eulenspiegel (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
More in German folklore
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Till Eulenspiegel (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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