The Legend of Eulenspiegel

Charles de Coster was one of the many writers of the XIX century, who used the folk legends, adapting them accordingly to their plans. He first turned to the image of Eulenspiegel in 1856, when, together with the artist Félicien Rops, founded the weekly Uylenspiegel , initially a purely entertaining publication that had become the mouthpiece of left-wing liberals since the early 1860s. In Uylenspiegel, de Coster spoke out against the Catholic reaction, colonialism (including that conducted by Napoleon III of France), in defense of the rights of the Flemish to self-government and the striking workers ^[1] .

In 1858, De Koster’s book The Flemish Legends was published, thematically anticipating The Legend of Eulenspiegel. The influence of French and German romanticism, interest in national folklore, and love of mysticism, combined with the ability to present a supernatural theme in a comically reduced manner, are already noticeable in this collection ^[2] . Released in 1861, the collection “Brabant Stories” also combines elements of realistic satire, sentimentalism, and mystical symbolism, which later appeared in The Legend of Eulenspiegel ^[1] . The financial difficulties that made De Koster enter the archive service, thereby opening up access to ancient chronicles and numerous historical documents, allowing the Legend to reliably recreate the image of the era of the Netherlands revolution ^[3] .

The book traces the life of Thiel nicknamed Eulenspiegel against the background of historical events in the Habsburg Netherlands . The main character was born in the city of Damme in Flanders in the family of the coal miner Klaas in one day with the future Spanish king Philip II . However, if Infante Philip grows up cruel and cowardly, then Till is a brave and sharp tongue, but a good-hearted prankster. Because of his free-thinking, Til is accused of heresy and expelled from Flanders for three years, dominated by Spanish feudal lords and the Catholic Church. The churchmen accuse his girlfriend Nele's mother, Katlina, of witchcraft and torture her, which makes her crazy.

Til during wandering from the mischievous turned into a rogue, but managed to get absolution to return home. However, on the eve of his return on the denunciation of his neighbor, the fishman Jost Grapestyuvera, his father Klaas, who is burned at the stake, was arrested and accused of heresy. Sootkin (his wife and Tilya’s mother) goes crazy and then dies of grief. Collected after the execution of his father, Ulenshpigel holds the ashes in a pouch on his chest. He turns to Katlina, who communicates with spirits, for advice on how to save Flanders. Katlina sends him and Nele on the spring feast of the spirits of the earth, and they tell them that those should "look for the Seven."

In search of the Seven Til embarks on a journey. His company is Nele and the good-natured fat man Lamme Goodzak, who is looking for his wife who left him. Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, the uprising of the Göz begins against the Spanish rule, joined by Eulenspiegel, with the troops of Wilhelm the Silent, participating in battles with the Spanish punishers. Returning to his hometown, he exposes the " werewolf ", hunting for people - the werewolf turns out to be Rybnik Yost, who once killed Klaas. Now Rybnik himself is sentenced to death.

In battles on the sea, Eulenspiegel becomes a skilled warrior without losing decency. In one of the episodes, he almost sacrifices his life, interceding for the captured monks, although he does not feel love for the Catholic Church. He is saved by Nele, who takes him to be her husband. Thiel and Nele leave the fleet after the assassin kills William of Orange. Thanks to the magic ointment, they manage to see the Seven and understand that these are mortal sins , each of which can turn into a virtue. After a magical dream, Till does not come to his senses, and his enemies, having been convinced that “the great Geut has died,” are buried. But when the priest is already reading the requiem prayer, Eulenspiegel rises from the grave alive. He declares that the spirit of Flanders cannot be buried by anyone, and leaves with Nele.

In the novel De Koster, Uhlenspiegel becomes a Protestant hero in the times of the Netherlands Revolution, in which the inhabitants of the native author of Flanders played an important role, although she herself remained under Spanish rule. According to Romain Rolland , Ulenshpiegel is “the liberator, who avenges his people with laughter, avenges his revenge for him” ^[3] . Uhlenspiegel wears an amulet on his chest with the ashes of his father, burned for heresy at the stake. The phrase “Klaas’ ashes knocks on my heart ” has become winged. I. N. Pozharova in the image of Til such features as an extraordinary mind, perseverance, enterprise, arrogance, characteristic of the character of folk books, as well as the lack of egoism and individualism ^[1] .

Commander Uhlenspiegel - Lamme Goodzak, fat and good-natured, - plays the role of a kind of Sancho Panza , and in the allegorical sense is the "salt of the Flemish land." In his literary sources, in contrast to the "spirit of Flanders" - Eulenspiegel - after de Coster himself is called the "belly of Flanders" ^{[1] [4]} . B. Purishev writes that the huge body of Lamme and the scenes of his gluttony give the whole novel “a peculiar monumentality” ^[4] .

Other goodies, also people of the labor class - the father of Til, hardworking, kind and honest coal miner Klaas; his mother, meek and courageous Sootkin; his beloved Nele, tender and loving ^[2] ; her mother is the “witch” Kathleen ^{[4] who was} tortured to the point of insanity.

The negative characters of the novel are the Spanish nobility, led by King Charles V and the Infant, and later by King Philip II (whom the author calls "the crowned spider with a gaping maw" ^[4] ) and the Catholic clergy. In the negative characters of the Legend, in contrast to the positive heroes, there are few individual traits, they are derived in him as faceless carriers of evil, united by several common characteristics. Among these common features are indifference to the sufferings of the victims, which can turn into sadistic pleasure from mockery of them, and greediness, which emperors and the old rybnik equally distinguished for Father Thiel for seven hundred silver coins ^[2] .

The first edition of The Legends was released on December 31, 1867 ^[2] . The early editions came out with illustrations of the author's friends — artists Félicien Rops and A. A. Dillens ^[5] . Later, the book came out with illustrations of linux prints by the famous Belgian modernist artist and engraver Frans Maserel .

The Legend has been actively translated from French into other languages, especially since 1914, when Belgium became one of the first countries where Kaiser troops invaded , which caused sympathy in the world for the national struggle of its inhabitants ^[3] . Translations into Russian, in particular, were performed by Maria Veselovskaya , Arkady Gornfeld , Vasily Karyakin , Osip Mandelstam (literary processing based on the previous two ^[6] ), M.I. Zotina ^[5] , Nikolay Zabolotsky , Nikolai Lyubimov , Leonid Yakhnin , in Ukrainian - Sidor Sakidon ^[7] .

Although the Legend of Eulenspiegel is often called a novel, which is applicable in modern literary criticism to any large-scale work, it lacks the hallmarks of this genre — the event center and the slender plot. At the same time in the work there are some features of the plutonic and historical novel , as well as the epic . The protagonist of the "Legend" is immortal, as a folk character who served as its prototype, and does not directly affect the course of historical events that make up the background of the book ^[5] . Speaking of the “Legends of Ulenshpiegel” genre, the “ Brief Literary Encyclopedia ” defines it as an “epic book, a poem book”. Talking about dozens of destinies, the book is by definition heterogeneous in style, it combines realism and romantic symbolism ^[1] . Like “ Gargantua and Pantagruel ” Rabelais , the “Legend” alternates comic novels - fablio, journalism, drama and even tragic episodes ^[4] .

In his book, De Coster makes extensive use of folklore elements - both truly folk proverbs, sayings and parables, and methods borrowed from folk literature: comparisons, repetitions, riddles, rhythmic prose. The book feels the influence of classical Dutch painting , depicting the simple joys of life and folk life ^[1] . B.I. Purishev especially notes the juxtaposition of images associated with Lamme Goodzak and pictures of old Dutch masters:

The mystical episodes of the book, largely tied to the image of Katlina, also cause, according to Purishev, associations with Dutch masters, but of a different sense - the gloomy and phantasmagoric Bosch and Breugel ^[4] .

The “Legend of Eulenspiegel” almost immediately gained popularity outside of Belgium ^[1] , but remained unrecognized for a long time in its homeland. B. I. Purishev in an article in the Literary Encyclopedia devoted to the novel, notes that in his epoch it turned out to be inconvenient for the main political forces of Belgium. The clerical Catholic Party, which came to power in 1870 in the wake of the rise of Flemish nationalism, rejected the anti-clerical sentiment, which was one of the main ideological lines of “The Legend of Eulenspiegel”. At the same time, for the Belgian industrial bourgeoisie defeated in 1870, the Flemish nationalism was inconvenient in the novel, while it was the property of the reactionary circles associated with the church. Both forces were not satisfied with the idea of ​​reunification of the Dutch provinces pursued by the author, which from a political point of view would mean the loss of Belgian sovereignty as a result of joining the Netherlands. Ideas of social justice, consonant with the ideology of the advanced petty-bourgeois circles, hid from them the unusual structure of "Legends", knocked out of the framework of the naturalistic art of Koster's contemporaries ^[4] . As a result, the first editions of the Legend came out in small print runs, were expensive and were not bought up, and in the homeland fame came to its author only after death, thanks to the influence of the literary movement Young Belgium ^[5] .

In 1916, The Legend of Eulenspiegel was translated into Russian by Vasily Karyakin.

The novel was translated into Russian by Arkady Gornfeld in the 1920s (editor - Osip Mandelstam ).

• " The Adventures of Til Eulenspiegel " (France, 1956, directed by Gerard Philip , Joris Ivens ).
• " The Legend of Til " (USSR, 1976, directed by Alexander Alov , Vladimir Naumov ).

• Gabaru A. Charles De Koster and Legend of Ulenshpigel // Life and the Revolution. - K. , 1927. - № 5 . - S. 230-232 .
• Peter Barenboim. The city of Damme is the birthplace of the Flemish “sweet freedom” and Til Ulenshpiegel. Edward Bagritsky - Ulenshpigel Russian literature // Mystic of Flanders and Utopia Brugge . - M .: LUM, 2017. - P. 58-71. - ISBN 978-5-906072-23-8 .