Schildbürger
The Schildbürger ("residents of Schilda") are a topic in German Volksbuch (chapbook) tradition corresponding to the Wise Men of Gotham in English-language tradition.
Background
The "people of Schilda", of a German
The oldest known edition was printed in Strasbourg in 1597 under the title of Lalenbuch. Here, the town was known as Lalenburg (Laleburg) and its inhabitants Lalen. The second edition, printed in 1598, changed this to Die Schiltbürger.
The author of the original collection is unknown. One of the suggested possible authors is Friedrich von Schönberg (1543–1614), a native of Schildau.
The first edition was printed anonymously; the title page gives the "author's name" as a subset of the full alphabet.[a]
Sources used include Rollwagenbüchlein by
The 2010 Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle contains a fictitious entry about a supposed Chronica sive Historia de populo Schildorum.
See also
- Wise Men of Chełm
- Molbo story
- Till Eulenspiegel
- Wise Men of Gotham
Notes
- ^ "take away the superfluous letters and re-arrange the remainder to find the name of the author"
[...] auß Rotwelscher in Deutsche Sprach gesetzt / Durch: Aabcdefghiklmnopqrstuwxyz. Die Buchstaben so zu viel sindt/ Nimb auß & wirf hinweg sie geschwindt /Und was dir bleibt / setz rechtzusammen: So hastu deß Autors Namen.
References
Bibliography
- Ertz, Stefan (ed.): Das Lalebuch (1971).
- Kraft, Ruth (ed.): Das Schildbürgerbuch von 1598 (1985).
- Simrock, Karl: Die Schildbürger (2000).
- Wunderlich, Werner (ed.): Das Lalebuch (1982).
Notes
- ^ Wunderlich (1982: 660f.)