Till Eulenspiegel was happy go lucky and if his father hadn’t died so young, he would’ve definitely ended up well. He didn’t listen to his mother at all and he didn’t like to learn or work. When his mother kept pushing for him to learn something useful, he promised to learn the best of the best.
The good woman believed him and she was incredibly happy. But when she was working in the kitchen the next day and she heard people outside howl with laughter, she immediately thought: ‘Till has probably pulled something!’ And yes, when she looked out the window, she saw Till dancing on a cord above the river.
“Oh you wait’, she yelled angry, ‘I will make you stop cord dancing!’ And she went to the attic and cut the cord causing Till to fall into the water with a big splash. That made the spectators cry with laughter, because they soon realized what had happened. Dripping wet and mocked, Till snuck home.
‘If you laugh at me, I will laugh at you’, Till thought to himself. And again he put up the cord, but not so high this time and he spoke to the spectators: ‘Now pay close attention people, because you will see a trick like you’ve never seen before. But first I need 300 pairs of shoes and boots. Give them quickly and you will be amazed.’
Quickly big and small, young and old were giving him shoes and boots. All of them were eager to see his show. Till strung the shoes on a rope, pretended to count and yelled: ‘I don’t have enough shoes. Not by far! But because it’s late, I can’t perform my trick today. Here you have your shoes back.’
And before the surprised spectators could do something, Till cut the rope and all the shoes fell into the water. That caused a big stampede, because everyone wanted their shoes back. The stampede turned into a big fight and when everyone was busy fighting, Till yelled: ‘Who is the fool now? You or me? I fooled you!’
Shortly after, he went to a family party. Because he didn’t get much food at home, he ate as much as he could and quickly became lazy and sleepy. In the garden behind the house, he found a nice spot to take a rest. He climbed into an empty beehive and slept there soundly until deep in the night. In the middle of the night, however, two thieves came to the garden and took the heaviest hive they could find, because they thought that would make them the most money.
But that was the hive that Till was sleeping in. And Till was woken by the thieves and decided to prank them. When they were on the road for a while he started pulling firmly on the hair of one of the thieves. He of course thought that his pal was doing it and started complaining. A while later Till started pulling the other thiefs hair, who also thought his friend was doing it. Till kept doing this until the two thieves started a big fight. Till made smart use of this moment and ran away as fast as he could and left the thieves with an empty hive.
At a certain time Till went on a trip with some friends. They visited many countries and eventually came to a mountain. During the climb they were all unhappy and were complaining. Only Till was enjoying it. He was happily striding forward and didn’t show any sign of tiredness. During the descent, when all of them were happy, Eulenspiegel was quiet. His friends wondered why and asked him.
Till answered: ‘When I go up the mountain, I look forward to the easy descent, but when I go downhill I always think about the fact that I have to go uphill again and that makes me unhappy.’
Credits
Unknown writer — Till Eulenspiegel is a beloved German-speaking folk hero whose pranks and satirical humour have been retold across Europe since at least the 14th century, with the earliest known printed collection appearing in 1510 or 1511. The character's name has been interpreted as a crude visual joke, though his stories carry a sharp edge of social commentary beneath the slapstick.
