EULENSPIEGEL, orIen-spe-gel, a typical character associated in Germany with all sorts of frolics and fooling. The type originated in Till or Tyll Eulenspiegel, a German clown who lived probably in the first half of the 14th cen tury, and became celebrated for the wild pranks and escapades that he practised in all parts of Germany, and in some of the neighboring coun tries. According to popular account he was born at the village of Kneitlingen, near Bruns wick, and died at Malin, near Liibeck about 1350 where his tombstone with the design of an owl and a mirror on it may still be seen. The tricks and frolics currently attributed to Eulen spiegel first appear in a Low Saxon account written in 1483; the earliest edition, in High German, was published at Strassburg in 1515,a reprint of which was published in Halle (1885). A poetic treatment of the same theme was pub lished by Johann Fischart (q.v.) as 'Der Eulenspiegel Reimensweiss) (Frankfort A. M. 1572; reprinted in Kiirchner, J., 'Deutsche Na tional-Litteratur,) Vol. XVIII, pt. 2, Stuttgart 1892). The same collection published a reprint of the prose version in Vol. XXV. The work became very popular, and was translated into nearly every European language. In English
it first appeared as a miracle-play, with the title 'A Merry Feast of a Man that was called Howleglas> (Eulenspiegel meaning literally An edition of Murner's collection was published by J. M. Lappenberg at Leipzig in 1854, and by K. Simrock at Frankfort A. M. in 1864; English translations and editions ap peared in 1860 and 1890. In modern times a number of writers have used the same theme. Some of them drawing freely on the old source, but all of them creating more or less original results. Amongst these may be mentioned the work of the Dutch novelist, Charles de Coster, 'Tyll UlenspiegeP (1867, transl. into German by F. v. Oppelu-Bronikowski, Jena 1911) ; that of the German poet, Julius Wolff, 'Till Eulen spiegel Redivivus, kin (1875) ; and finally the musical rendition of the theme in form of a Rondo by Richard Strauss, 'Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks' (1894). Consult, besides any standard 'History of German Liter ature,' Brie, F. W. D., 'Eulenspiegel in En g land' (in Palmstra, Vol. XXVII, Berlin 1903).