Till Eulenspiegel. His Adventures ed. by Paúl Oppenheimer (review)

Abstract

h6arthuriana seen as false consciousness.' One ofthe many virtues ofthis book is that Newcomb shows that the reader ofromances—typically and dismissively presented as a female servant, as she points out—may be as sophisticated and politically aware a reader as anyone else. STEPHEN GUY-BRAY University ofCalgary paúl oppenheimer, ed. and trans., Till Eulenspiegel. His Adventures. New York: Routledge, 2001. Pp. xcv, 214. isbn: 0-415-93762-0. $16.95. The anonymous collection of tales dealing with the jester, social critic, clownish figure, fool, sarcastic observer, or rogue Till Eulenspiegel, first published in 1510, and many times thereafter, is one ofthe most fascinating literary enterprises in the history of late-medieval German literature. The author, as some scholars have suggested, might have been the Brunswick toll official Hermen Bote, but the evidence for this thesis is not yet fully established. In 1991, Paul Oppenheimer published a revised version of his English translation of Till Eulenspiegel (1972), which was accompanied by an extensive research report and an excellent introduction. The present volume, published ten years later, appears to be a completely new book, as the translator's foreword indicates, dated with 'March 2001.' In reality, it is, apart from very small additions, exactly the same book. Some years ago Routledge purchased Garland, and so also the rights to the titles published by the latter. Oppenheimers discussion ofthe key aspects in Eulenspiegelresearch still represents an excellent overview, though it is now outdated by ten years. In his bibliography he adds three titles from 1988, 1991, and 1999, but their findings are not incorporated in his examination of the historical and literary significance of the tales. The translations also prove to be of high quality and leave very little to wish for. Nevertheless, this book is a reprint, and to use the date of2001 at the bottom ofthe preface is simply misleading. Consequently, there is not much to say about this 'new' book, or reprint, but for the reader's sake some ofthe more important studies on TillEulenspiegel, published since 1991, but not included in Oppenheimer's bibliography, are listed below: —Albrecht Classen, 'Der vertrackte, widerspenstige Held Till Eulenspiegel: Sexualituät, der Korper, Transgression,' Euphorion 92, 2 (1998): 249-70. —Albrecht Classen, The German Volksbuch. A Critical History ofa Late-Medieval Genre (Lewiston-Queenston-Lampetcr: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1995). —Priscilla Roy Hayden, 'Till Eulenspiegd's Transgressions against Convention. Interpreting the Parasite,' Lynne Tatlock, ed., Writing on the Une. Transgression in Early Modern Literature (Amsterdam-Atlanta: Editions Rodopi, 1991), 7-31. —William C. McDonald, 'Mythos Eulenspiegel—Sieg eines zwitterhaften Listreichen,' Ulrich Müller, Werner Wunderlich, eds., Verfuhrer, Schurken, Magier. Mittehlter-Mythen, 3 (St. Gallen: UVK, 2001), 227-41. —Hermann Josef Müller, 'Eulenspiegel bei den Juden. Zur Überlieferung der jiddischen Eulenspiegel-Fassungen,' Eulenspiegel-Jahrbuch 30 (1990): 33-50. REVIEWS147 —Heinz-Gunter Schmitz, 'Der wiedererstandene Eulenspiegel: Zur Druck und Textgeschichte des Eulenspiegelbuchs,' NiederdeutschesJahrbuch 118 (1995): 57-98. Many more studies can be found in the journal Eulenspiegel-Jahrbuch. The reprint by itself is a welcome contribution and, considering its low price, might make it into the academic classroom. ALBRECHT CLASSEN University ofArizona caroline palmer, compiler, TheArthurian Bibliography: III, 1978—1992. Arthurian Studies 31. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1998. Pp. xxiii, 761. isbn: 0-85991-399-6. $200. The first volume in this series, published in 1981, consisted of an author listing which consolidated the data published in twenty-four years ofannual bibliographies ofcritical Arthurian literature in theModern Language Quarterly, from thirtyvolumes ofthe BibliographicalBulletin ofthe InternationalArthurian Society, and from other sources extending back to 1923. The editors, C. E. Pickford and R. W. Last, began the task ofcompiling their 10,000 entries in 1969, and they devoted much oftheir introduction to describing the complex chores involved in building a computerized database during a period when 'user-friendliness' was still far from reality. At the time of publication, the announced intention was to issue an updating volume every five years. Although a second volume, consisting ofa subject index to the first, followed in 1983, the third volume, covering Arthurian studies for the years 1978 to 1992, did not reach print until eighteen years later (although the fourth, extending the coverage through 1998, is scheduled...