Summary

Tyll Ulenspiegel, now a boy, practices daily walking on a cow rope pulled tautly between trees in the yard of the flour mill that his father runs. His pregnant mother, Agneta, is not pleased. The boy is a daydreamer, a slacker, who would rather practice his silly acrobatics than tend to the chores around the mill. Sepp, one of the mill workers who is nearly twice Tyll’s age, is the boy’s nemesis. He takes pleasure in bullying Tyll, bold behavior given that the boy is the son of Sepp’s boss. Sepp often jiggles the tightrope so that Tyll falls. Claus Ulenspiegel, Tyll’s father, is something of an eccentric like his son. Raised a Catholic in north Germany but now living in Lutheran southern Germany, Claus, although in charge of the mill operations, spends much of his day...