Till Eulenspiegel

Till Eulenspiegel (c. 1290-1350), German clownish peasant born near Kneitlingen, Brunswick. In the numerous folk and literary tales that he inspired, Till appears as a shrewd country-bred trickster who, by pretending to be stupid, outwits arrogant townspeople, especially innkeepers, and such superior beings as clergymen and noblemen. Never bound by contemporary codes of morality or good taste, Till Eulenspiegel (or Howleglas, “owlglass”) frequently achieves his ends by means that in themselves satirize contemporary mores and social strata.

Till's adventures were first collected in 1515 in a High German chapbook probably based on an older Low Saxon original. Later this work was translated into most European languages. Till is also the subject of such works as Les aventures de Tyl Ulenspiegel (1867), by the Belgian novelist Charles de Coster, and the symphonic poem Till Eulenspiegels Lustige Streiche (Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, 1895), by Richard Strauss.