Imagining a wily inde­pen­dent rogue who fol­lows his own paths, tells unpalat­able truths, takes jabs at con­ven­tional soci­ety and makes fools of pompous author­ity fig­ures, all while indulging in dirty humour is exactly what drew Richard Strauss to compose one of the finest examples of musical humour ever elaborated.

Goethe famously said, “Eulen­spiegel: All the chief jests of the book depend on this: that every­body speaks fig­u­ra­tively and Eulen­spiegel takes it lit­er­ally.” Till Eulen­spiegel is more than a charm­ing rogue, and his 95 tales are more than an enter­tain­ing col­lec­tion of pranks. There is almost no mor­al­iz­ing in the book, Till Eulen­spiegel takes peo­ple at their word, and acts on what they actu­ally say, rather than what they mean, thumbing his nose at society.

Till Eulenspiegel, the man is something of a mystery, the last of the tales say he died in 1350 of the plague. However, some references remain impossible to verify and the lovable character he has become in Western traditions would probably have little in common with any flesh and blood man who might have lived. The name of popular German jester called Till Eulenspiegel or Master Tyll Owlglass, in modern German is translated as “owl mirror,” or “wise mirror,” from which has been inferred the sub-title, “wise reflection,” befitting to a collection of tales meant to edify the reader. In any case, this presumably historical figure whose escapades are greatly exaggerated made him a staple of Germanic folklore.

Alixandra Porembski, English Language Annotator