Till Eulenspiegel is the legendary German prankster, born in Kneitlingen part of Braunschweiger land in what is now northern Germany around the year 1300. He played pranks wherever he went, from his hometown to Rome, tricking the poor, the rich, even the pope. For the large part his tricks are based on his literal interpretation of people’s figurative language. His pranks range from harmless such as when he baked exactly what the baker told him to (owls and monkeys), to crude, when he fecated in the apothecary’s flask. The oldest known collection of Eulenspiegel’s stories are found in the Early New High German 1510/11 edition by Herrmann Bote entitled "Ein kurtzweilig Lesen von Dyl Ulenspiegel,…”. Only a fragment of the original edition remains. The 500 year anniversary of this book was celebrated last year in the Till Eulenspiegel-Museum located in Schöppenstedt, Germany. The book was translated into several languages as soon as the early 17th century and his stories have been pepertuated into poems, plays and dance.
Though in the Middle Ages it was rumoured that he died of the plague in 1350 and commemorated with a gravestone in 1591, most scholars today agree that Till Eulenspiegel is not based upon a real person.
The following is one of his stories with added comprehension questions. For the complete work of Herrmann Bote see Projekt Gutenberg – Spiegel Online.
Wie Eulenspiegel sich bei einem Schneider verdingte und unter einer Bütte nähte.