 | |||
 12  2  12  |
 |
 |
 |
Till Owlglass Tales
 |
| Till Owlglass farce tales |
Content
Stützende "gut, gut medleys" werden
gänzlich vorausgesetzt:1. How Till Owlglass was born, baptized three times on one day, and who his godfathers were
TILL WAS born by the forest Elm in the village of Kneitlingen in the Saxonia
country. His father was Claus Owlglass, his mother Ann Wibcken. The parents sent the child
to the village Ampleben to be baptised and called Till Owlglass. Till von Uetzen, the lord
of Ampleben, was his godfather. Ampleben is the castle that Magdeburg people destroyed over
fifty years ago with the help of other cities so as to do away with robberies. The church
and the village by the castle are now owned by the worthy abbot of St. Aegidien, Arnolf
Pfaffmeier.
After Till had been duly baptized the people carried the child into the beer house
and flocked to get drunk and merry, and the father was to pay for it all, as the custom was.
After some time the parents and their company wanted to carry the child back to Kneidingen.
The godmother who carried the child, wanted to hurry over a bar across a brook between
Ampleben and Kneidingen, but she had had much beer after the child baptism. She and the
child and some others fell into the pool and soiled themselves and the child so much that
the child nearly choked. The other women who accompanied the godmother helped out with the
child. They brought him to their village, washed him in a boiler and made him clean and
lovely again.
Thus Till Owlglass was baptised three times on one day: once in the chapel, once in
the dirty pool, and once in the boiler with warm water.
2. How all the farmers
and farmer's wives complained about the young Owlglass and said he was a good-for-nothing
and teaser; and how he rode with his father and in silence let people have a look at his
behinds
WHEN TILL got so old that he could stand and walk, he played much with the young
children, for he had a merry mind. Like an ape he tumbled on the cushions and in the grass
till he was three years old. Then he was eager to learn all kinds of pranks - so much that
all neighbours complained among themselves and to his father that his son Till was a
prankster. The father had a talk with his son and said: "How can it be that all our
neighbours say you are a prankster?"
Till said: "Dear father, I do nothing to nobody, and want to prove it clearly to
you. Take me with you on a horse-ride. I will set myself behind you and be quiet. They will
nevertheless lie about me and say what they like. Note that well."
His father did as suggested by his little son. As they were riding along, Till bared
his buttocks so that people they were passing, could see his behinds. The neighbours pointed
to him and said, "For shame! What a teaser you are."
Till said: "Listen, father. Here I sit in silence and do nothing to anyone. Still
the people say I am a teaser."
Now the father set his dear son Till in front of him on the horse. Till sat
completely quiet, but he gaped and grinned and stuck his tongue out at all they met.
People ran up to the riders and said, "What a prankster that child is!"
Then said the father to his young son, "You must be born in an unhappy hour. You sit
quietly and are silent and do nothing to anyone, and nevertheless people say you tease
them."
3. Claus Owlglass moved away from Kneitlingen to Magdeburg, where his wife was born, where he himself died, and his son Till learned to walk the tightrope
THE MOTHER of Till Owlglass came from Magdeburg. After her husband Claus died she lived with her son in a house there. Being widowed, she became poor, but Till did not want to learn any handicraft till he was about sixteen years old. In the meantime he learnt to entertain and walk the tightrope. For the house had a courtyard that led down to the river Saale and he could practice walking the tightrope across the river.
At first he did it in secret, for he did not want his mother to see what he was doing instead of working. First he had the rope fastened from the attic of his mother's house, hoping she would not notice it. She tolerated no foolishness from him, and threatened to beat him for playing on the rope. So once she found him on the rope, got a large club, and tried to shove him off it – so he ran away from her, out through a window and up to the roof where she could not reach him.
When Till became a little older he began to perform on the rope again, stretching it across the Saale from the back of his mother's house to a house opposite. Many young and old people noticed the rope and came eagerly along to see him walk across it. They were curious as to what sort of strange show he wanted to pull off.
When now Till Owlglass was sitting on his rope and performing at his best, his mother noticed it and went stealthily to the back of her house, where the rope was fastened, and cut the rope in two. As a result Till fell into the river and had quite a bath. The farmers laughed and the boys yelled: "Heh-heh, you have been asking for it for a while already!"
The scoffing and screaming annoyed Till so much that he did not mind being wet, but started to consider how to get even with them and pay them back for this. In the meantime he washed himself off as best he could.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Adjoined
| Literature | Layout | SITE MAP | First Page |
CLICK on 'Literature' for the references of about 2000 works.
ANNOTATIONS: Acronym letters in square brackets in the text refer to works. Click on 'Literature' above for examples. Page references are put right after reference letters. The abbreviation cf. means "compare". [MORE].
SEARCH THE SITE: Click on the rose in the upper left column for site searches, access to dictionaries, and further.
REFER to the page by its 'location' address (above).
PILOTING: Some pictures and texts on top of the pages are clickable, to ease navigation. [MORE]
| Model | Well's | Disclaimer | |
| © December 2005, Tormod Kinnes — | |||