Tyll Ulenspiegel

Tyll Ulenspiegel is less a conventional literary character and more an embodiment of the age-old dangerous spirit of anarchy and irreverence. The character of Tyll Ulenspiegel, here an itinerant entertainer, juggler, court jester, accomplished singer, and preeminently a tightrope acrobat who roams about the war-ravaged countryside of central Europe at the bloody height of the Thirty Years’ War, does not possess the complicated psychology, nuanced motivational profile, and emotional and psychological evolution typical of a literary character. With roots in German folklore that date to the early Middle Ages, the figure of Tyll Ulenspiegel (spelled variously) is more the element in the human psyche that resists, even mocks the arbitrary exercise of authority, that demands freedom, that acts spontaneously and often recklessly, and, in so doing, always celebrates the sheer human will to survive even amid the most chaotic, dangerous, and dark times.

Given the character’s...