Medieval German Tales

This anthology of twenty medieval tales contains a representative selection of the various kinds of short narrative in verse that were transmitted together in German manuscript collections from the later thirteenth century onwards. They include religious miracle-tales, comic tales, moral-didactic tales, and courtly tales. Considered together, they offer an insight into how medieval poets tried to entertain as well as instruct their audiences in matters of faith and everyday conduct, and just what it was that made medieval listeners (and readers) laugh. The translations have been taken from DVN vol. 5 (Deutsche Versnovellistik des 13. bis 15. Jahrhunderts, ed. by Klaus Ridder and Hans-Joachim Ziegeler) and revised for the general reader; they are presented here for the first time with a commentary and notes.

Sebastian Coxon is Professor of Medieval German Literature at University College London. He has published on medieval comedy and laughter, short narrative literature, and the beard as literary and iconographic motif.