The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak

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The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak
LC Class
PQ2211.C4 L345
Original text
La Légende et les Aventures héroïques, joyeuses et glorieuses d'Ulenspiegel et de Lamme Goedzak au pays de Flandres et ailleurs at French Wikisource
"Thyl Ulenspiegel and Nele in Flanders" pen drawing by the Belgian artist René De Coninck (1907–1978)

The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak (

Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule in the Netherlands
.

Background history

De Coster was one of many 19th-century nationalist writers who made use of – and considerably adapted and changed – pre-existing folk tales. (Prominent others of this kind include the German

Dutch War of Independence
.

De Coster incorporated in his book many of the original amusing Ulenspiegel tales, side by side with far from funny material - for example, graphic depictions of tortures by the

auto de fe. As depicted by De Coster, Ulenspiegel carries in a locket around his neck the ashes of his father, burned at the stake outside of the walls of the city on charges of heresy
– a feature never hinted at in any of the original folk tales. This experience begins Ulenspiegel's transformation from idle prankster to hero of the Dutch Revolt.

The novel was later illustrated with a series of linocuts by Frans Masereel, the foremost Belgian modernist painter and engraver.

Plot

De Coster gives Thyl a girlfriend, Nele, and a best friend, Lamme Goedzak, who functions as a comedic sidekick - both of whom are not attested in the original folktales. The novel follows many historic events in the Eighty Years' War.

Thyl Uilenspiegel is born in Damme, Flanders as son of the charcoal burner Claes and his wife Soetkin. He is brought into this world on the same birthday as Philip II of Spain. As a child Thyl already exhibits the naughty behaviour he will become infamous for as an adult. As a youth, he is several times apprenticed to various craftsmen, but never remains long with any of them - especially due to his habit of taking commands literally, with hilarious and sometimes disastrous results. In all, he does not take up any regular profession, but rather spends his time playing tricks and practical jokes, particularly on especially corrupt Catholic priests.

Meanwhile, Uilenspiegel's Flanders suffers increasing oppression as

confidence tricks, for example getting Jewish and Gentile merchants in Hamburg
to pay him considerable sums for supposed magical amulets which are in fact made of animal excrement. Uilenspiegel's love for his sweetheart Nele, whom he left behind, does not prevent him from dallying with every attractive woman he meets. One of his fleeting sexual encounters is mentioned as resulting in the birth of a German bastard, who would be named Ulenspiegel and whose own tricks would in later times be confused with those of his sire. In many places along the way, Uilenspiegel manages to gain free board and lodging by the simple expedient of shamelessly flattering the beauty of female innkeepers. Eventually, he gets to Rome and obtains the required Papal pardon, through a combination of an Uilenspiegel trick played on the Pope in person and a bribe paid into the Catholic Church's coffers.

Thereupon, Uilenspiegel returns from exile - to find a grim and tragic situation at home. His father Claes had been arrested for his

burned at the stake
. Afterwards, Uilenspiegel himself and his mother, Soetkin, are arrested and tortured horribly in each other's presence, to make them reveal the location of Claes' hoard of coins - which is now legally the Emperor's property. They stand the torture, being determined to deny the fishmonger his "share" of the money - but soon afterwards the heartbroken Soetkin dies. Thyl collects his father's ashes and puts them in a bag he wears on his chest. From that moment on he is destined to fight back against the Spanish oppression.

Uilenspiegel does not entirely change his way of life. He still wanders the

Duke of Alva
.

With the revolt having been blocked on land, Uilenspiegel and his companions turn to the sea and join the rebel fleet of the

summary execution of nineteen captured Catholic clergy
and makes a great effort to save them - which nearly results in his being hanged himself by an irritable rebel commander. Uilenspiegel is saved by the loyal Nele, whose willingness to marry him there and then under the gallows secures his pardon under an ancient law. Thereafter, Thyl and Nele sail together in the rebel fleet, and he seems to be completely faithful to her.

Eventually, the

Eighty Years War
would drag on long past Uilenspiegel's lifetime. Moreover, Uilenspiegel's own beloved Flanders is doomed to remain under Spanish rule and Catholic Church dominance for centuries to come. Uilenspiegel rails against the half-hearted - or altogether traitorous - Flemish aristocrats, who in his view brought about this sad result. No longer young, Thyl and Nele are assigned a guard tower on what has become the border with the Spanish-occupied land, from there to sound an alarm should they see enemy troops approaching.

At the book's conclusion, Thyl and Nele experience at night a magical vision, with mythical beings uttering to them a prophecy about a future time of reconciliation between North and South (i.e. what would become

The Netherlands and Belgium
). In the aftermath, Uilenspiegel lies cold and unmoving, as if dead. The grieving Nele gets him buried, and a Catholic priest gloats "Uilenspiegel, the Great Geuze, is dead!" when suddenly the sandy grave is heaving, and Uilenspiegel emerges alive and hale. The priest flees in panic, while Thyl and Nele depart singing to yet further adventures.

Fantasy elements

While most of the book is laid against the concrete historical background of 16th Century society - often depicted in its most earthy and ribald aspects - the plot includes some aspects of

Astral journeys far and wide. Nelle is able to magically eavesdrop on a very private conversation between Emperor Charles V and his son and heir Philip II; she is able to go up to Heaven
and see judgement passed on the souls of Thyl's father Claes, burned by the Inquisition, and of the same Emperor Charles who on the same day died of overeating; and later Nelle gets Thyl to accompany her on voyages to magical realms where they see various fantastic beings and have allegorical visions (which actually convey De Coster's political ideas).

It is noteworthy that in the Heaven depicted in the book, the

Virgin Mary has a major role - seated at the side of her son Jesus
as he passes judgement on the souls of recently deceased people, and trying to temper his severity with her pity and compassion. That accords with the role given to Mary in Catholic theology, while Protestants have tended to greatly diminish her importance. Yet, ironically, in this "Catholic" Heaven the Protestant heretic Claes is welcomed and goes to Paradise, while the staunchly Catholic Emperor is condemned to Hell - his punishment being that whenever a victim is tortured by the Inquisition, the Emperor in his afterlife will feel the pain.

The Werewolf Murders

Embedded in the book are several chapters constituting, in effect, a

Murder Mystery - a literary form not yet recognized as a distinct genre at the time of writing. Damme, Thyl Ulenspiegel's hometown, is terrorized by what seems a rampaging werewolf
. People going abroad in the night - especially young women, but also others of all ages and genders - are discovered in the morning with their necks broken, bearing the clear mark of the bite of wolf's fangs. Even in their homes, people are not completely safe.

Hearing the news, Ulenspiegel takes a break from his struggle against the Spanish occupiers, determined to rid Damme of this dire peril. With little of his normal joking manner, he goes about, deadly serious, visiting crime scenes and gathering evidence. In fact anticipating some of the methods which would be used by Sherlock Holmes some decades later, Ulenspiegel quickly solves the mystery. While in other parts of the book supernatural beings are real and manifest, here the werewolf story turns out to be simply a red herring planted by a completely mundane perpetrator - a respectable baker by day who becomes a deranged serial killer by night. He had managed to transform an ordinary biscuit-making instrument into a vicious murder weapon by inserting two rows of vicious metal teeth, to emulate wolf's fangs.

The solution of this dark affair precipitates a delving into older unsolved mysteries - among them, that surrounding the birth of Nelle, Ulenspiegel's beloved. Since her mother never disclosed the identity of the father, and since the mother was widely reputed to be witch, malicious gossips often believed the poor Nelle to have been fathered by a demon. Here, too, the true story turns out to be completely mundane - and rather sordid.

Adaptations

27th SS Volunteer Division Langemarck: "The ashes of Claes beat on my chest ... Ulenspiegel also calls you to the Waffen-SS
!"

Comic book adaptations

In the 1940s

George van Raemdonck adapted the novel into a comic strip in 1964.[3]

Film adaptations

A film based on the novel was filmed in 1956 with Gerard Philipe, directed by Joris Ivens and Gerard Philipe Les Aventures de Till L'Espiègle (English title: "Bold Adventure"). The film was a French-East German co-production.[4]

A film based on the novel was filmed in the

USSR by Aleksandr Alov and Vladimir Naumov, The Legend of Till Ullenspiegel (1976).[5]

Literary adaptations

Ulenspiegel was mentioned in Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita as a possible prototype for the black cat character Behemoth.

Musical adaptations

The German composer Walter Braunfels adapted De Coster's novel in 1910 for his second opera, the full-length Wagnerian epic Ulenspiegel, first performed at Stuttgart on 4 November 1913, revived in 2011 (Gera, Thuringia) and 2014 (EntArteOpera, Zürich - a production released on DVD in 2017 by the Capriccio record company).

Wladimir Vogel was a Russian composer who wrote a drama-oratorio Thyl Claes in the late 30s or early 40s, derived from De Coster's book.

The Soviet

Till Eulenspiegel
(1983), which had to be recorded piece-by-piece in secret and received its premiere (1993) only after the Soviet Union collapsed.

Il Prigioniero
.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Ray Goossens". lambiek.net. Retrieved May 24, 2020.
  2. ^ "Willy Vandersteen". lambiek.net. Retrieved May 24, 2020.
  3. ^ "George van Raemdonck". lambiek.net. Retrieved May 24, 2020.
  4. IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
  5. IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
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