Eulenspiegel, Till

Eulenspiegel, Till tĭl oiˈlən-shpēˌgəl [key] [Ger.,=owl-mirror, hence English Owlglass], a north German peasant clown of the 14th cent. who was immortalized in chapbooks describing his practical jokes on clerics and townsfolk. The first Till chapbook (c.1500) was probably in Saxon, but the story it told spread all over Europe and North Britain. Till is the hero of a tone poem by Richard Strauss and of many novels, poems, and stories. Tyll Ulenspiegel is one of the variant spellings.

See K. R. H. MacKenzie's adaptation in English, Master Tyll Owlglass (1890).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: German Literature: Biographies